Undergraduate Summer Research Opportunity in Privacy Preservation and Open Data

Below is a call for undergraduate summer research positions for a

large interdisciplinary project on privacy and open research data here at Harvard.
Although based here for the summer, this is funded by NSF as outreach, so we are primarily looking for non-Harvard students. Please note the deadline is Feb 15, but the application is very brief.  A stipend and housing is provided. Questions can be sent to the project coordinator at privacytools-info@seas.harvard.edu.

*In the Privacy Tools for Sharing Research Data Project*
The Privacy Tools Project seeks students, interns, postdocs, and visiting researchers in *Computer Science, Statistics, Government, **Mathematics, **Law, *and *Social Sciences with Quantitative Experience*, particularly those with an interest in learning about or working on* Data Privacy. *Available positions are listed below, with instructions on how to apply. For general information, email privacytools-info@seas.harvard.edu or one of the PIs <http://privacytools.seas.harvard.edu/people>.


The Privacy Tools Project develops ways for scientists to share research data for producing open, replicable science without compromising the privacy of the individual research subjects whose data is used. Past students have written and contributed to publishable research papers in this fast-moving field, and we expect the same in future years. Work across the different projects includes:
   -          *Theory:* prove mathematical theorems about what is achievable in the framework of differential privacy.
   -          *Experimental algorithms:* implement, optimize, and test algorithms that perform useful data analysis tasks and satisfy differential privacy and other privacy metrics.
   -          *Empirical research:* survey social science datasets and analysis methods to determine the fit with different privacy technologies.
   -          *Software development:* develop software for statistics, user interfaces, and data visualization.
   -          *Programming languages and computer security:* design and implement programming language tools to ensure differential privacy and combine it with other computer security models.
   -          *Law:* develop legal instruments and policy recommendations that complement new privacy-preserving technologies.
   -          *Interdisciplinary interaction:* collaborate with computer scientists, social scientists, lawyers, and statisticians.


Useful background includes any of the following:
   -          Theoretical computer science, especially algorithms
   -          Data science, e.g. statistics and/or machine learning
   -          Programming (in R, Java, Scala, Python, Javascript, or D3)
   -          Quantitative analysis of social science data, especially regression ("least squares", or OLS) and causal analysis methods
   -          User interfaces and user experience testing
   -          Programming language design and implementation
   -          Law, especially privacy law


Undergraduate students outside of Harvard who wish to join the project as a summer intern should apply to the SEAS REU site.
<http://www.seas.harvard.edu/k-12-community-programs/reu>
http://www.seas.harvard.edu/k-12-community-programs/reu
Any Harvard undergraduates should follow follow separate application instructions at
http://privacytools.seas.harvard.edu/participate/positions
Additional information about the Privacy Tools project can be found at the project site:
http://privacytools.seas.harvard.edu
Application Deadline is FEBRUARY 15, 2017


This call for applicants can be found here:
http://privacytools.seas.harvard.edu/participate/positions

Open Positions