Positions and Research Opportunities
Spring 2024 in-place/virtual internships available and 2024/2025 research projects
Please see the descriptions right below and send a message of interest to the address in the job description.
New positions are being added to this page, often, so be sure to check back if you don't find the project you're looking for.
Full Time Positions
- Executive Director for NetLogo (Filled)
- Flyer with Additional Information
- The NetLogo project seeks a founding executive director (Sr. Project Administrator) to help develop an organizational structure to cultivate the ecosystem of NetLogo users and contributors. The organization exists to maintain and develop the NetLogo software and grow its community of computational modelers.
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- The NetLogo project was founded by Professor Uri Wilensky in the mid 1990s and has two core missions: 1) to democratize computational thinking and computational modeling education, and 2) to enable natural and social scientists to use agent-based modeling in their work. Our core product, NetLogo, is a groundbreaking platform that enables learners of all ages to explore complex systems, experiment with simulations, and develop critical problem-solving skills. NetLogo is also the leading platform used by scientists to construct agent-based models. A large number of scientific articles have been based on research using NetLogo (more than 20,000), and the number of such articles published per year continues to grow. The NetLogo project also supports a number of related software products built around NetLogo to facilitate educational and scientific goals. NetLogo and related software are free and opensource.
- To date, the development of the NetLogo family of products has been funded primarily by academic research grants (NSF, NIH, etc.) to the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling (CCL) at Northwestern University. The CCL is led by Professor Wilensky and includes other affiliated professors, two full-time software developers, one half-time software developer, PhD students and post-doctoral researchers who contribute to the development of NetLogo in various ways. The development of NetLogo in this academic environment has been highly successful for over 20 years, but a revised organizational structure will help ensure NetLogo’s future sustainability.
- Recently the NetLogo Project received an NSF grant from the new POSE program (Pathways to Open-Source Ecosystems) aimed at creating a sustainable organizational structure and ecosystem to ensure the longevity of NetLogo. The founding executive director of the new organization will work closely with the core NetLogo team at the CCL and with partners around the world towards these goals:
- Create the new organizational structure and provide strategic leadership and vision during the shift in governance and beyond.
- Drive growth and sustainability through fundraising, partnerships, grants, and other revenue sources. Fundraising will be a major part of the executive director’s role, at least until other revenue sources are well developed. The POSE grant provides funding for 2 years of the executive director’s salary. In the second year of the job, the organization needs to be bringing in enough revenue to pay half of this salary, and in the third year, to fully pay the executive director’s salary as well as portions of the salaries of other team members. Over the next few years, the goal is for the NetLogo project to no longer rely primarily on academic research grants for the salaries of any core team members.
- Cultivate an open-source ecosystem of users making contributions to the NetLogo project including code, agent-based models, educational materials, and associated computational tools.
- Cultivate relationships with educators, researchers, and policymakers to promote the adoption of agent-based modeling in science and in education.
- Passion for computational science and education, and a commitment to the mission of NetLogo.
- Leadership experience, ideally in nonprofit management, educational technology, or related fields.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to inspire and mobilize diverse stakeholders.
- Demonstrated success in strategic planning and program development.
- 5 years program/project administration or other relevant experience.
- Demonstrated success in fundraising.
- Experience with computational modeling, science and technology education, or related disciplines.
- Target hiring range for this position will be between $90,000-$120,000 per year. Offered salary will be determined by the applicant’s education, experience, knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.
- Start date is as soon as possible. To apply, please send a cover letter, resume, and any relevant materials to POSE-EXEC@ccl.northwestern.edu. Application review will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.
- Since the new organization is not yet founded, the executive director will initially be an employee of Northwestern University. Candidates who can work on site are preferred, but there may be options for the position to be remote or partially remote.
- Northwestern is located in an attractive lakefront community adjacent to Chicago. or more information about the McCormick School of Engineering and the School of Education and Social Policy, please visit https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/ and http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/.
- Benefits: At Northwestern, we are proud to provide meaningful, competitive, high-quality health care plans, retirement benefits, tuition discounts and more! Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/benefits/index.html to learn more.
- Work-Life and Wellness: Northwestern offers comprehensive programs and services to help you and your family navigate life’s challenges and opportunities and adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles. We support flexible work arrangements where possible and programs to help you locate and pay for quality, affordable childcare, and senior/adult care. Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/benefits/work-life/index.html to learn more.
- Professional Growth & Development: Northwestern supports employee career development in all circumstances whether your workspace is on campus or at home. If you’re interested in developing your professional potential or continuing your formal education, we offer a variety of tools and resources. Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/learning/index.html to learn more.
- Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer of all protected classes, including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply.
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- Senior Software Developer
- Flyer with Additional Information
- The Center for Connected Learning & Computer-Based Modeling (CCL) is looking for a full-time Software Developer to work on NetLogo. If you are a system builder and can design and implement a whole application independently, this position is ideal for you! Start date as soon as possible. 95K/yr - $130K/yr Hybrid Full-time.
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- The Software Developer works in a small collaborative development team in a research group that also includes professors, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates, supporting the needs of multiple research projects. A major focus would be on development of NetLogo (in both Desktop and Web form), an open-source modeling environment for both education and scientific research. CCL grants also involve development work on HubNet, NetTango and other associated tools for NetLogo, including research and educational NSF grants involving building, delivering, and assessing NetLogo-based science curricula for secondary schools. NetLogo is the most widely used agent-based modeling software, and has hundreds of thousands of users worldwide using it for both research and education.
- Development:
- Develops and maintains software infrastructure, via patches, bundles, releases and maintenance packs.
- Codes software applications adhering to designs supporting internal business requirements or external users.
- Designs databases and data structures.
- Meets with stakeholders to determine requirements.
- Collaborates with and leads the NetLogo development team in designing features for NetLogo, NetLogo Web, NetTango, HubNet and web-based versions of these applications; writes code independently, and in the context of a team of experienced software engineers and principal investigator.
- Interacts with commercial and academic partners to help determine design and functional requirements for NetLogo, interacts with user community including responding to bug reports, questions, and suggestions, interacting with open-source contributors assessing and merging their contributions. Triages, prioritizes, fixes documents, and communicates on end-user issue reports.
- Researches and develops new algorithms and statistical techniques designed for analyzing data based on customer needs.
- Administration/Operations:
- Responds to customer inquiries via phone, online, in-person, etc.
- Creates and maintains code documentation.
- Evaluates feature/upgrade/change requests and recommends action.
- Identifies database and software performance issues, and makes adjustments.
- Performs data collection, organization, and summarization for projects; assists with coordination of team activities.
- Creates, updates and documents existing models using NetLogo, and web-based applications; creates new such models.
- Strategic Planning:
- Collaborates with end users to develop workflow and best practices.
- Partners with end users in designing features for technology.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
- Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree; OR appropriate combination of education and experience.
- 2 years of relevant work experience required.
- Demonstrated experience and enthusiasm for writing clean, modular, well-tested code.
- Experience with working effectively as part of a small software development team, including close collaboration, distributed version control, and automated testing.
- Experience with open-source software development and supporting the growth of an open-source community.
- Experience with Linux as well as experience with GitHub and GitHub Actions or other testing and deployment automation tools.
- Experience with GUI design; language design and compilers.
- Experience with building web-based applications, both server-side and client-side components, particularly with html5 and JavaScript.
- 4+ years of experience or the equivalent in projects built.
- Experience with at least one JVM language such as Java.
- Experience with Scala programming, or enthusiasm for learning it.
- Experience with Haskell, Lisp, or other functional languages.
- Interest in and experience with programming language implementation, functional programming, and metaprogramming.
- Experience with GUI design; language design and compilers.
- Interest in and experience with computer-based modeling and simulation, especially agent-based simulation.
- Interest in and experience with distributed, multiplayer, networked systems and/or participatory simulations.
- Experience with physical computing.
- Experience with cross-platform mobile development.
- Experience working on research projects in an academic environment.
- Interest in education and an understanding of secondary school math and science content.
- Target hiring range for this position will be between $95,000-$130,000 per year. Offered salary will be determined by the applicant’s education, experience, knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.
- Please send cover letter, resume and any other relevant materials to netlogo-devel-applicants@ccl.northwestern.edu The review will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Formal application process and approval through the Northwestern job board is also required.
- Benefits:At Northwestern, we are proud to provide meaningful, competitive, high-quality health care plans, retirement benefits, tuition discounts and more! Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/benefits/index.html to learn more.
- Work-Life And Wellness:Northwestern offers comprehensive programs and services to help you and your family navigate life’s
challenges and opportunities and adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles.
We support flexible work arrangements where possible and programs to help you locate and pay for quality, affordable childcare and senior/adult care. Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/benefits/work-life/index.html to learn more. - Professional Growth and Development:Northwestern supports employee career development in all circumstances whether your workspace is on campus or at home. If you’re interested in developing your professional potential or continuing your formal education, we offer a variety of tools and resources. Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/learning/index.html to learn more.
- Additional Information:Northwestern strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters for people who can obtain them as a critical
tool for minimizing severe illness. More information can be found on the COVID-19 and Campus Updates webpage.
The Northwestern campus sits on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa as well as the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations. We acknowledge and honor the original people of the land upon which Northwestern University stands, and the Native people who remain on this land today.
Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer of all protected classes, including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply. - Hide details.
Software Development Interns
- Student Web Developer (paid, work study, or course credit)
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- We are looking for a talented web developer to help to work on NetLogo Web, a widely used modeling tool in science education and scientific research, or related web applications and websites. NetLogo is the most widely used agent-based modeling platform, used by hundreds of thousands of scientists, educators and students around the world.
- Requirements:This position requires web programming skills related to web development (HTML, CSS, JS).
- To apply: send email with resume to ccl-oas@ccl.northwestern.edu.
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- Student Scala/Java Programmer (paid, work study, or course credit)
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- We are seeking Scala/Java developers to build features for our parallel modeling language NetLogo, which is used by hundreds of thousands of researchers, educators, and students around the world. Opportunities to design/implement compiler, interpreter and runtime engine, graphics, GUI, networked features, and more.
- Requirements: experience with Scala or Java
- To apply: send email with resume to ccl-oas@ccl.northwestern.edu.
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- Developer Intern for Turtle Universe (paid, work study, or course credit)
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- We are seeking students to develop the next-generation interface of NetLogo, Turtle Universe (https://www.turtlesim.com/products/turtle-universe/). Building on the existing infrastructure of NetLogo ecosystem and implemented in Unity, it combines the power of the constructionist learning design, agent-based modeling, and the modern game engine. The app has recently been released but we are seeking to collaborate with students to increase its impact. This position will be during 2024-2025.
- Requirements: Background in Unity (Client-side), C# (Client/Server-side), Javascript (Client-side), HTML/CSS (Client-side), MongoDB (Server-side), and Redis (Server-side). Familiarity with at least two of our tech stacks is required.
- To apply: send email with resume to John Chen (civitas@u.northwestern.edu) and CC (ccl-oas@ccl.northwestern.edu).
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Learning Sciences Research Interns
- Educational Research Intern (course credit or work-study)
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- Join an international team of researchers and developers in a project to improve science education in secondary school (middle and high). The project studies how some cross cutting concepts appear in secondary curriculum and interviews scientists about the cross-cutting concepts, e;g. dynamic equilibrium.
- Requirements: Interest and background in natural sciences, interest in science education, good written communications skills.
- Desirable: Comfort with data science analyses, interested in analyses of qualitative data, experience with design of technologies and/or programming, web development experience.
- To apply: send email with resume to Sebahat Gok (sebahgok@northwestern.edu) and CC (ccl-oas@ccl.northwestern.edu).
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- Curriculum Developer/Learning Sciences Research Assistant (course credit or work-study)
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- This position provides an opportunity to join a dynamic team of programmers, researchers and educators at Northwestern's Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling. The project mission is to develop educational curricula to help students understand scientific phenomena from the perspective of emergence. The major responsibilities of this position will be to help develop activities and curricula using NetLogo and related software developed in our lab. There may also be opportunities to test the curricula/activities with learners and analyze their learning processes and outcomes.
- Requirements: a passion for learning/education, but no technical requirements.
- To apply: send email with resume to ccl-oas@ccl.northwestern.edu.
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- Researcher Interns for Turtle Universe and/or Physics Lab (paid, work study, or course credit)
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- We are seeking 2 students to work on research projects related to Turtle Universe and/or Physics Lab, two constructionist learning apps supported by CCL. Turtle Universe is the latest incarnation of NetLogo to promote agent-based computational literacy for younger audiences out of and in classroom settings. Physics Lab is a popular online learning app around the world with more than 3 million accumulated users. This position is mainly for studying the online learning community of both apps and will involve mixed methods approaches.
- Requirements: Strong interest and background in relevant fields (Learning Sciences, HCI, Education). Experiences with qualitative or quantitative research preferred. For Physics Lab studies, fluency in written Chinese is required.
- To apply: send email with resume to John Chen (civitas@u.northwestern.edu) and CC (ccl-oas@ccl.northwestern.edu).
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