Computational Specialist

Details Title Computational Specialist School Harvard Medical School Department/Area Neurobiology Position Description Harvard Medical School’s Department of Neurobiology is seeking a Computational Specialist to be a cornerstone of our ever-evolving research landscape. This is an exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of neuroscience research, supporting various experimental and computational laboratories in their machine learning endeavors. As the neuroscience community grows increasingly interested in using such expertise, having in-house resources for trainees to generate new models to test new ideas will be essential to the success of research projects. The Computational Specialist will work closely with faculty, students, and postdoctoral fellows to consult on machine learning approaches that would most effectively assist with their experimental needs. The Computational Specialist will also create and train the models on datasets provided by investigators or published in the literature. Importantly, these newly derived models will be curated so that they can be implemented in other cases or for other research experiments. To further enrich the neuroscience community, the Computational Specialist will also create training modules that educate on fundamental principles of machine learning approaches in neuroscience.The Computational Specialist will:

Provide expert advice and guidance to researchers on the development and execution of their machine learning projects, including helping investigator write code for new modules.

Assist in the implementation and optimization of code from diverse sources, including GitHub repositories.

Offer recommendations and resources for programming courses to augment the skill set of our research community.

Advise on best practices for data management, data preprocessing pipelines, and lab notebook organization.

Debug experimental code scripts, ensuring smooth and efficient data processing and analysis.

Facilitate software installations, addressing specific challenges such as CUDA compatibility.

Aid in the creation and debugging of bash scripts to optimize computational processes.

Provide hands-on training and guidance on neural network model training, including but not limited to model architecture, parameter tuning, and optimization.

Basic Qualifications

Basic Qualifications: Advanced Degree (MS, PhD) in computer science, computational neuroscience, or a related field. Proficiency in machine learning frameworks and tools. Strong problem-solving skills, with an ability to debug and optimize code. Familiarity with CUDA and associated hardware-software compatibility challenges. Excellent communication skills, with a passion for collaboration and knowledge sharing. Prior experience in a research or academic setting is a plus. Knowledge of Python and/or Matlab.

Additional Qualifications

Additional Qualifications: Strong commitment to teaching, with demonstrated track record of courses/workshops in biology, or computer science.

Special Instructions

Contact Information

Soha AshrafiExecutive Director220 Longwood AvenueBoston, MA 02115Contact Email sohaashrafi@hms.harvard.edu Equal Opportunity Employer We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions or any other characteristic protected by law.Minimum Number of References Required 2 Maximum Number of References Allowed 5 Keywords Supplemental Questions