positions > grsa and fellowships outside UM

GRSA and other Graduate Student Fellowships outside UM

GRSA Openings

Fellowships

Graduate Student Research Assistant Openings

Inviting applications for the PhD in Computational Social Science, George Mason University

Current students in the CSS PhD program have the opportunity to participate in a variety of research activities lead by program faculty (many as graduate research assistants), including:
-Multi-agent system models to explore effects of HIV/AIDs on agricultural production in Uganda;
-Agent-based models of land markets in agriculture and at the urban- rural fringe;
-Modeling off-site impacts of land-owner behavior and land-use change on water quality and subsequent effects on rare aquatic resources in the Potomac Gorge;
-Linking timber harvest and carbon sequestration in Eastern deciduous forests;
-Using agent-based modeling to understand the rise and fall of polities in Inner Asia over the past several millennia;
-Applying computational models to analyze high-frequency conflict event interactions and their dynamic and geospatial properties;
-Developing new cartographic methods for understanding complex regional and global issues, such as proliferation, terrorism, or humanitarian crises;
-Macroeconomics from the bottom up using very large-scale multi-agent systems;
-Participatory modeling of water demand in the middle and upper Rio Grande: Integrating hydrologic and agent-based models;
-Putting terror into bioterror models: Rumor propagation in mobs, madness of crowds, herding within and among groups, panic among the vulnerable, and terror in the streets--A study using a single agent- based framework;
-Hyperbolic discounting: Modeling individual behavior as emergent from multiple selves;
-City and firm size distributions: Joint determination of distinct Zipf laws via a microeconomic model;
-Many-agent theories of the firm;
-Team pollution: Command-and-control regulations can out-perform market-based mechanisms when intra-firm behavior is strategic;
-Evolving novel solutions to 'tragedy of the commons'- type social dil
emmas via agent-based computing;
-Firm growth dynamics studied using micro-data, agent-based simulations, and generalizations of the central limit theorem;
-Network structures in International Relations - network-based imperialism, structural properties of international agreements and alliances, economic interdependence networks, agent-based models of evolving relations;
- Evolution of social networks - dynamic network models, cascades and avalanche processes in networks;
- Terrorist and covert networks - evolution, resilience, counter- terrorist measures, modeling of socio-political surroundings of an insurgency;
- Semantic social networks and link analysis - networks in scientific research and intelligence analysis, machine interpretation of social network data;
- Wisdom of Crowds - harnessing knowledge embedded in social networks.

Full application instructions are available at:
http://socialcomplexity.gmu.edu/phd.php

Application materials must include the following:
1. Completed application form and $60.00 fee (if applying on- line) or $75 fee (if applying with a paper application);
2. An updated curriculum vitae or resume;
3. A statement of purpose (maximum 2000 words) consistent with the research interests of at least one faculty member in the program;
4. The names of two Mason faculty members that may be suitable as Advisors;
5. Three letters of recommendations by faculty members or individuals with direct knowledge of the student's academic or professional capabilities;
6. Official transcripts for all undergraduate (minimum overall 3.25 GPA) and graduate courses. These must be mailed to GMU directly from the degree-granting institution. Admissions requirements minimally include one undergraduate course in calculus and knowledge of a computer programming language, preferably object-based;
7. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) taken within the past five years prior to the date of application submission, with exception of applicants who hold a master's degree from an accredited institution in the United States, who may request to waive the GRE requirement.
8. Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) as per GMU policies.
Items 1-4 must be submitted jointly, as a package. Applicants are encouraged to submit these on-line through the on-line application system, which allows applications to track the status of their application. https://patriotweb.gmu.edu/pls/prod/bwskalog.P_DispLoginNon

Additionally, but not as a requirement, an applicant may submit prior work in computational social science, such as a simulation model or publications. The letters of recommendation must arrive directly from the recommenders and may be submitted electronically as .pdf attachments (send to:mhayes5@gmu.edu) with copy to (cssgrad@gmu.edu). Items 6-8 are forwarded to the program at the applicant's request.
Each application is reviewed by the Program Director, who shares them with the faculty members listed by the applicant. The admissions decision is determined by an applicant's credentials and matching faculty interests. The program may recommend that an applicant delay another year, pending completion of additional coursework. An interview with an applicant may be necessary in some cases. No specific set of qualifications guarantees admission to the program. For further admission requirements and procedures please contact Melissa Hayes at mhayes5@gmu.ed or 703-993-3430.

All supporting documents for application packets should be mailed to:

For program and course content information please contact:

Two PhD Studentships: Dynamics of Norm Innovation

The project's aim is to understand how new conventions and norms emerge and spread in social systems. The project, as a whole, will involve historical, documentary and ethnographic studies of groups that have developed norms for non-commercial sharing of intellectual products (such as free/libre open source software or academic science) in parallel with the development of agent-based models that allow the specification of and experimentation with theories of norm emergence. The project will last for three years from 1 September 2006 and involves partners from five universities in Italy, Germany, UK and Hungary.

The period of study will involve the development of agent-based simulations of the social processes involved validated against different aspects of the evidence on the social phenomena concerned. It will require the attendance at project meetings throughout Europe, paid for with project funds.

The position requires a Masters-level degree in a relevant discipline, preferably with an element of science and technology studies. The candidate should thus have some programming and/or simulation experience. Some knowledge of sociology and/or software development would be an advantage. The candidate will need to be able to obtain a visa to study in the UK for the 3 years. So Non-EU successful candidates will need to apply for visa following their admission.

The CPM is one of the few research centres in the world that specialises on social simulation. It is currently involved in one UK EPSRC project and 4 EU ones (including this one). The CPM is a happy, informal, fairly chaotic but, we believe, very creative lab. For more information about the work of the Centre see its website at http://cfpm.org

For informal discussions about the post, contact Bruce Edmonds at bruce@edmonds.name. To apply send a CV with covering letter to Bruce Edmonds, Centre for Policy Modelling, MMUBS, Aytoun Building, Aytoun Street, M1 3GH, UK.

The closing date for applications is 15th August 2006.

The University is committed to an Equal Opportunities Policy

Fellowships

There are no fellowships positions posted at UM.

Updated Janurary 11, 2007