Description

Salary: $5200-6500

Status: Part Time

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest, thus requires that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas. Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.

Research Title:

Benchmarking Privacy-Enhancing Technologies

Project Description: 

This project focuses on benchmarking privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) to assess their effectiveness in protecting sensitive information. The candidate will work as part of a team to conduct experiments and write research reports that focus on work from the NIST PETs Testbed, including the Collaborative Research Cycle, which benchmarks synthetic data generators, and the Privacy Red Teaming Exercise for Genomic Federated Learning. The student will have the opportunity to explore various research topics, such as conducting or analyzing privacy attacks, investigating the statistical properties of input and output data, and implementing and tuning PETs. Projects will be matched with the student's interests and background.

Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

-         Conducting original research under the guidance of senior scientists

-         Collaborating with team members to design and execute experiments

-         Analyzing results and contributing to the writing of research reports

-         Implementing and tuning PETs to assess their effectiveness

Position is Remote 

Requirements

To be considered for this project, candidates should have:

-         seeking a graduate degree

-         Strong sense of curiosity and

-         Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

-         Experience with Python programming is preferred

-         An interest in privacy and data protection is preferred

-         Familiarity with scientific reading and technical writing

Application Instructions

Please upload the following with your application:

-       CV/Resume

*Please limit C.V to 3 pages only and ONLY include a valid email address for your contact info. Your resume will not be considered if the following information is included on your CV/resume.

-       Self portraits

-       Phone number

-       Home address/Country

-       Languages spoken

Privacy Act Statement

Authority:  15 U.S.C. § 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. § 272(b) and (c)

Purpose:  The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the  Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) which is designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, post-bachelor's degree holders, graduate students, master's degree holders, postdocs, and faculty.  

PREP is a 5-year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in the following disciplines including (but may not be limited to) biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics. This collection of information is needed to facilitate administrative functions of the PREP Program.

Routine Uses:  NIST will use the information collected to perform the requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notices:  NIST-1: NIST Associates. 

Disclosure:  Furnishing this information is voluntary. When you submit the form, you are indicating your voluntary consent for NIST to use of the information you submit for the purpose stated.