Information about Undergraduate Research Assistant (UGRA) Positions in the VEMI Lab

We are currently looking to recruit two UGRAs to work in the VEMI Lab, directed by Dr. Nicholas Giudice in the Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering. The hours are flexible and the environment relaxed and supportive. Please read the following descriptions and indicate which position you are interested in when filling out the application.

Eligibility:

Students from all academic backgrounds are eligible, as long as they can perform all of the duties and technical requirements described below.

Position 1: Running behavioral experiments

The primary responsibility for this position is helping to recruit and run participants for ongoing research in the lab. Duties also include assisting with literature reviews, experimental design, and data analysis. Students who have made substantive contributions to a project may also be part of conference presentations or journal publications. This position is ideally suited for a motivated student who wants to gain experience with behavioral research and experimental design, and it represents a great opportunity for graduate school preparation or a career in behavioral research.

Position 2: Scripting and virtual reality development

The primary responsibility for this position involves writing code for experimental design and development of virtual environments (VEs) to support lab-related research. The heart of our virtual reality (VR) system is the Vizard 3D rendering application, which is based on the Python programming language. Most of what you will be doing involves writing Python scripts that use Vizard to coordinate sequences of user input/output behavior and capture and log data from the position and inertial trackers. As such, expertise with Python is necessary (significant knowledge of other languages, such as C++, will be useful if you do not currently have a strong Python background). Working in close collaboration with other students and our lab programmer will be instrumental in helping you learn the specialized hardware and software used in the lab. This position is well suited for somebody who wants to get programming experience, learn about behavioral research, is interested in graduate work using virtual environment technology, or wants to pursue a career in 3-D animation, game development, or multidimensional data visualization.

Other Requirements:
Candidates for both positions must be highly responsible, willing to take initiative, able to work independently, have excellent problem solving abilities, good organizational skills, and be extremely detail oriented. Strong oral and written communication is important and the ability to complete and deliver projects according to an agreed upon schedule is critical.

Commitment and Compensation:

Both UGRA positions can be structured as volunteer, educational credit, or paid employment. There are pros and cons of each structure which should be considered when filling out your application.

Volunteer:

Working in the lab as a volunteer represents an excellent way to gain research experience. This is a good option for people who don’t have a strong research background, are trying to determine whether research is part of their future, or do not need, or are unable to receive, research credit or pay. This option requires the least time commitment--only one semester--but preference is given to applicants who are able to extend their position for at least 2 semesters.

Educational Credit:

Working in the lab as part of a directed research project not only gives you research credits for your experience (e.g., PSY 492 or SIE 598), it also is looked on favorably by graduate application committees. In addition, while I embrace including all UGRAs who have made substantive contributions to a project on my publications, I generally believe that co-authors should be collaborators and not paid employees. Thus, volunteers and credit-based students are most likely to be part of conference and journal publications which come out of the lab as they will have the greatest opportunity to work at all levels of the research process.

Paid Employment:

The main advantage of a paid position is that…you receive money for your time and efforts (everybody has to pay the bills). The compensation will be contingent on your experience but will be at one of the three top pay levels for student employees (i.e., pay level IV, V, or VI). Students in a paid UGRA position will assist with different projects around the lab or may work on specific problems but are less likely to design and run their own research. Students applying for either the credit or pay based positions are expected to make a two semester commitment, contingent on a 2 month and 4 month review. Due to the technical nature of the equipment we use, and the complexity of our experimental designs, a one semester appointment is not sufficient to truly learn the ropes and get a realistic view of the lab experience.

Please click here for the application for our UGRA positions.

If you have additional questions, contact Dr. Nicholas Giudice

Please browse our website to learn more about us and our research.

The University of Maine is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.