ISI Student Positions

The Information Sciences Institute (ISI) in Marina Dey Rey is looking for Computer Science masters and doctoral students with programming experience to work on specific projects. ISI is a world leader in research and development of advanced information processing, computer and communications technologies.

A unit of the University of Southern California’s highly ranked Viterbi School of Engineering, ISI is one of the nation’s largest, most successful university-affiliated computer research institutes. The Institute attracts nearly $60 million annually for basic and applied research from federal agencies and the private sector.

Our work ranges from theoretical basic research, such as core engineering and computer science discovery, to applied research and development, such as design and modeling of innovative prototypes and devices. Please see below for any active areas that are currently seeking student positions.

Salary and workload information

• Wage starts at $20/hour and 20 hours per week

Transportation Options

• Convenient free USC buses to and from Marina Del Rey (ISI and ICT)

Areas seeking student positions:

Quantum Optimal Receivers for Communications and Sensing
This project aims to determine the quantum-limited information theoretic bounds for the detection of weak optical states generated by a laser or natural source.  The team will use quantum theory to calculate sensitivity bounds for sensing and communications receivers.  Subsequently, the team will design and implement these optical receivers using linear and/or nonlinear optical elements, and demonstrate the capability of the receivers to outperform “standard” receivers such as coherent or direct detection.

Active Communications and Sensing in the Mid-wave and Long-wave Infrared
This project aims to design and demonstrate new architectures for communications and sensing systems operating in the 3 – 10 micron wavelength range.  New electro-optic materials and components operating in this wavelength range enable brand new modalities for systems operating in this wavelength band.  Our team will design and build systems using these new materials and components and demonstrate these new modalities.

1. Collect and curate datasets that are related to geopolitical events. This student's duties will include writing crawlers that crawl datasets and data management. Desired Qualifications: Python; Web Crawling; Databases.
2. Develop predictive models for geopolitical events. The student's duties will include model development as well as integration with the SAGE platform. Desired Qualifications: Machine Learning; Python.
3. Integrate tools into its web platforms. The student's duties will be to create web based tools based on the needs of the project. Desired Qualifications: Web Development Experience; React; Javascript.

Knowledge Graphs
The information integration group has several projects that seek to enable ordinary users to build accurate knowledge graphs from web corpora (web pages, images, PDF, databases, APIs, etc.) The group develops advanced algorithms to crawl, extract and understand these web data, data mining to derive new insights, visualization and user interfaces to understand and query the resulting knowledge graphs, and applications in many exciting domains. We welcome smart, hard-working students with a variety of backgrounds (algorithms, machine learning, information extraction, natural language processing, user interfaces and visualizations)to participate in our projects.