Research Assistant

Competition 2281

This position is a part of the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA).

This position has a term length of 1 year plus 1 day and offers a comprehensive benefits package

Location - This role is hybrid with a mix of remote and in-person work at North Campus Edmonton.

Working at the University of Alberta

The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the histories, languages and cultures of First Nations, Métis, Inuit and all FirstPeoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.

The University of Alberta is a community of knowledge seekers, change makers and world shapers who lead with purpose each and every day. We are home to over 14,000 faculty and staff, more than 40,000 students and a growing community of 300,000 alumni worldwide.

Your work will have a meaningful influence on a fascinating cross-section of people — from our students and community members, to our renowned researchers and innovators, making discoveries and generating solutions that make the world healthier, safer, stronger and more just. Learn more.

Working for the Department of Medicine

The Department of Medicine is the largest department in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta with over 250 academic faculty members and over 400 trainees (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and residents).The Department of Medicine's core mission is to undertake outstanding education, research and high-quality clinical care to provide the best possible health outcomes for Albertans. We have 14 divisions that work collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary, multicultural and ethnically diverse collegial environment.

Position Summary

The Research Assistant provides assistance to research as led by Dr. Lam.

This position supports the development of novels approaches/tools to assessing beta cell function employing advanced statistical and machine learning models. These tools are meant for assessing patients living with type 1 diabetes in clinical practice and clinical trials.

Duties 

Research (5%):

• Conduct literature reviews on time-series forecasting and Machine Learning models.
• Analyze and compare statistical vs. Machine Learning models through research papers.

Data handling and analysis (75%):

• Pre-process, clean, and normalize time-series data for Machine learning and statistical modeling.
• Implement and optimize advanced statistical and Deep Learning models for predictive analytics and classification tasks.
• Perform hyperparameter tuning and model evaluation to compare statistical and ML-based forecasting approaches.
• Utilize High-Performance Computing (HPC) resources to accelerate Deep Learning model training.

Reporting (5%):

• Prepare technical reports, briefs, and visualizations of ML and statistical model comparisons.
• Summarize key findings and insights for research presentations and grant applications.

Project management (5%):

• Manage data pipeline workflows, including model deployment, tracking, and optimization.
• Organize research documentation, datasets, and experiment logs.

Communication (10%):

• Collaborate with researchers, data scientists, and clinicians to ensure models align with real-world applications.
• Write summaries of findings for peer-reviewed publications and conferences.
• Prepare materials for funding agencies and research ethics boards.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
• Proficient in programing languages like Python
• Knowledge of machine learning algorithms and libraries
• Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans
• Course on Research Ethics (TCPS 2: CORE) training

Preferred Qualifications 

• Familiarity with data manipulation techniques
• Good mathematical understanding (linear algebra, statistics)
• Excellent organizational, analytical and communication (written and verbal) skills, and high attention to detail, especially pertaining to efficient and accurate data entry and documentation.
• Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans
• Course on Research Ethics (TCPS 2: CORE) training
• Alberta Health Services HIA Awareness training
• Good Clinical Practice or Health Canada Division 5 training an asset