COSMOS - Postdoctoral Fellow I

University of Arkansas System • Little Rock, AR

9d • Onsite

About The Position

The Postdoctoral Fellow position is a full-time, provisional position with the COSMOS Research Center (cosmos.ualr.edu) at the University of Arkansas and is funded through a grant or contract. The position renewal is contingent upon continued grant funding and satisfactory job performance. The Postdoctoral Fellow will develop socio-computational models to advance our understanding of cyber campaigns on social media, grounded in the dynamics of social and communication processes such as group formation, activation, decentralized decision-making, and collective action. The Postdoctoral Fellow will help extract relevant open-source information in a guided snowball data collection manner by leveraging cyber forensics and deep web search-based methodologies. Postdoctoral Fellow will work with the research team in developing predictive models of various socio-technical behaviors on different social media platforms (including multimedia-rich platforms), and usable tools/software to identify key actors and key groups responsible for coordinating cyber campaigns and disseminating propaganda. This is an on-campus position. This position is governed by state and federal laws, and agency/institution policy.
The position reports to Prof. Nitin Agarwal ([email protected]), Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair & Donaghey Distinguished Professor, and Director, COSMOS Research Center at UA-Little Rock.

Requirements

• Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Information Science, or a related discipline
• At least 1+ years of research experience in social media mining, computational modeling of social science theories, working with social network analysis tools, and examining cyber campaigns conducted on social media
• Research experience must be demonstrated through published research articles in leading journals and conferences relevant to the topics mentioned above
• Proficient in data analysis, modeling, machine learning, and AI, using Python and SQL, with extensive experience in libraries and frameworks such as Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, Gensim, BERTopic, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and LLMs
• Skilled in data visualization using Matplotlib, Seaborn, and ggplot2, and experienced in managing research projects with tools like Git/GitHub, ClickUp, and Jupyter Notebooks
• Specialized in NLP, text mining, and graph analytics, including the use of NLTK, spaCy, TextBlob, VADER, and transformer-based models (e.g., BERT, GPT)
• Familiar with social network analysis (SNA) using NetworkX, igraph, and Gephi for complex network and graph-based data exploration
• Foundational understanding of computational social science and social network analysis
• Expertise in social media mining and analysis
• Research experience examining cyber campaigns conducted via social media platforms
• Familiarity with analyzing multimedia-rich content in online environments
• Experience in transitioning research concepts into practical tools
• Proficiency in computer programming and data management
• Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving capabilities
• Ability to collaborate with individuals from diverse disciplinary backgrounds
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for disseminating research findings and engaging with stakeholders
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively within a research team

Nice To Haves

• Strong experience in computer programming and data management

Responsibilities

• Support research projects through ideation, social media analysis, hypothesis generation, and evaluation to understand cyber behaviors
• Assist with data collection, cleaning, preprocessing, analysis, and interpretation of findings
• Contribute to writing research findings and presenting at conferences, program reviews, and other academic or professional venues
• Develop software modules to support the transition of research into functional tools
• Assist in analyzing multimedia-rich content from online information environments
• Provide training and support to stakeholders on research findings and tool usage
• Mentor and oversee graduate students involved in the research, providing valuable experience for future academic careers
• Contribute to the preparation of research reports and publications
• Support grant writing and proposal development
• Coordinate team meetings and lead research-related discussions
• Record and maintain accurate minutes of meetings
• Perform other duties and provide additional support as assigned

Benefits

• Grant or contract funding

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree