Research Assistant Opportunity

January 20, 2021
Project: Urban Air Mobility and Mobility-as-a-Service The Intelligent Transportation Systems Lab is searching for a Research Assistant (RA) to work on two projects that utilize agent-based simulation to design, evaluate and assess innovative emerging modes and services such as urban air mobility and mobility-as-a-service. The research team is developing a simulation-based laboratory that will support the design and evaluation of these services and aims to simulate travel-related decisions of all agents in a transportation network, including operational decisions of supply agents (transit providers, on-demand services such as Uber and Zipcar, and traffic control systems) and individual travel choices (of drivers, transit riders, on-demand service users and others). Interested candidates will join a dynamic team of researchers and software developers based both in Cambridge and in Singapore. Responsibilities We are looking for a highly motivated and proactive MEng student who will be responsible for development of the open-source C++ simulation-based tool, including: new software functionalities, such as the coding of behavioral models and algorithms in production by researchers on the modelling team; scalability and performance testing for improved computing performance; release management; develop a massively parallel Simulator framework to simulate large networks with a large number of agents; regular meetings with the research team. Requirements Background in computer science/software engineering Knowledge of Linux and C++ (or C) Familiarity with Git is preferred but not required Experience with relational databases (Postgres, mysql) is preferred but not required Multi-threaded, parallel/distributing system programming experience is desired Pytho/Julia/Matlab skills are preferred but not required Independent and self-motivated, yet able to work as part of a multidisciplinary team If interested, please contact Moshe Ben-Akiva (ben-akiva@mit.edu) with subject line "RAITSLAB" and a copy of your CV.