Predoctoral Research Associate, Human Services Policy Center, Evans School of Public Affairs

The Human Services Policy Center (HSPC) is a research center at the Evans School of Public Affairs. The Center pairs applied analytic research with the promotion of policies that improve the lives of children, families, and communities. The Center addresses issues that matter to families, with special attention to the needs of those who are disadvantaged and focuses on policies affecting health, education, safety and economic well-being. HSPC is located off-campus in the University District at NE 45th and 11th NE.

HSPC is seeking a 20-hour-a-week graduate Research Assistant for Fall Quarter 2007 to work on a project examining associations between child care participation and children's obesity using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study---Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a public-use data set sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics. The project is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The graduate Research Assistant will assist the Principal Investigator with all aspects of this work, focusing specifically on the quantitative analysis. The Research Assistant will work under the supervision of the Principal Investigator.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Assist in coding, cleaning, and analyzing survey data.
• Provide documentation of all data and analysis decisions.
• Assist in interpreting and presenting results.
• Conduct literature reviews and research summaries.
• Assist in maintaining bibliographic library database using Endnote.
• Assist in planning and implementing a project forum to share research results.

Perform other duties and research support tasks as requested, which may include writing and editing manuscripts for publication.

Salary:

• Salary and benefits are competitive. Salary is commensurate with academic standing, qualifications, and experience. Compensation includes a tuition waiver and medical benefits for fall quarter.

How to Apply:

• Please email or send by postal mail resume and cover letter to:

  Louise Carter
  
  Human Services Policy Center
  
  1107 NE 45th St.
  Seattle, WA 98105
  
  slcarter@u.washington.edu
  
  (206) 685-2780
  
  Fax: (206) 616-1553
  
  Application inquiries may be made with:
  Louise Carter, slcarter@u.washington.edu, 206.685.2780
  
  Application Deadline: August 14, 2007
  
  Notification Deadline: August 28, 2007
  
  Date Available: September 16, 2007
  

Requirements:

• Must be currently enrolled in a degree program with the UW Graduate School.

Additional Requirements:

• Advanced graduate student with strong knowledge of social science statistics.
• Experience working on research projects, cleaning and managing large secondary data sets, and conducting multivariate analyses (including logistic regression).
• Proficiency with Stata for managing data and conducting quantitative analysis.
• Ability to conduct statistical analysis with minimum supervision.
• Good writing, communication, and organizational skills.

Condition of Employment:

• Must be a Graduate Student at the University of Washington.

Microsoft Research (Microsoft)
Microsoft Research offers several opportunities for graduate students in Statistics. The Decision Theory and Adaptive Systems group and the Data Mining group primarily work on statistical problems. These problems include Bayesian networks, collaborative filtering, analysis of massive datasets, and clustering. Other opportunities exist in speech recognition, handwriting recognition, and human computer interaction. Positions are often available during the summers with some opportunities arising through the year. [To date, the department has had two students funded by Microsoft Research.]