Research Associate in Policy System Methods

University of Doha for Science and Technology (UDST) is the first national applied University in the State of Qatar, offering applied bachelor's and master's degrees in addition to certificates and diplomas in various fields. UDST has over 50 programs in the fields of Engineering Technology and Industrial Trades, Business Management, Computing and Information Technology, Health Sciences, Continuing and Professional Education and more.

With more than 700 staff and over 8,000 students, UDST is the destination for top-notch applied and experiential learning. The University is recognized for its student-centered learning and state-of-the-art facilities. Our faculty are committed to delivering pedagogically-sound learning experiences with the incorporation of innovative technological interventions, to further enhance students' skills and help develop talented graduates that can effectively contribute to a knowledge-based economy and make Qatar's National Vision 2030 a reality.

The Applied Research, Innovation and Economic Development Directorate invites applications for the position of Post Doctoral Researcher to work on of the UDST Development of Materials for EM Wave Absorption Project.

UDST is undertaking a fixed-term research project with the University of Cambridge to model interacting networks of a global value chain and institutional food policy systems.

The model will be implemented by the development of a large database on international and interregional production and trade linkages, as well as incomes for workers (characterized by their occupation, educational level and location of work) and capital for 4 developing countries.

This role involves substantial 'data wrangling' and an ability to think logically and consistently when working with messy, textual as well as numeric data variables. These strategies include utilizing experimental design, implementation, sampling strategies, real-time interactive experiments, collection and analysis of social media content, and statistical analysis methods along with open-source data. The major component of the project will be to identify internet-based data collection strategies to overcome gaps in the political, economic, social and infrastructural dataset.

One idea is to evaluate Google Consumer Survey as a tool for online experiments, along with other platforms such as crowd sourced subjects, opt-in online panels, and the online panel developed by CESS or YouGov and devise applications for data collection. The research aims to prototype computational tools that will provide policymakers with an open-source platform for real-world socio-economic systems analysis.

Essential Duties:

The primary duties entail: 1) the development of analytical and computational models of coupled infrastructure systems; 2) working with other team members to integrate information from empirical cases from physical infrastructure networks and governance protocols into the modelling project; and 3) implementing a stylized model of coupled infrastructure systems to analyze resilience for various types of scenarios for a country.

Minimum Qualifications: At the time of appointment, the successful candidate must have earned doctorate in an interdisciplinary human-environment program, or in a field in the natural sciences, computer science, engineering or statistics that focuses on systems analysis at the time of appointment. He/she must demonstrate experience in analytical and computational modelling, experimental design, network analysis, text analysis and/or systems analysis.

Programming skills in the following systems are essential:

• Statistical Programming: R
• Scripting Languages: Python (or other languages, PHP, Javascript, Perl)
• Database Management: MySQL
• Geographical package: QGIS, GRASS GIS

Skills or experience in using the following systems would be an advantage:

• Crowd-computing (e.g. AWS)
• Big-data analysis
• Natural language processing
• Compiled language programming (e.g. Java, C++, C#)

The post is a full-time appointment for a fixed term of one year, with the possibility of renewal.