Assistant Research Scientist (PREP0004217)

PREP Research Associate This position is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience Program (PREP). NIST recognizes that its research staff may want to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest and, therefore, requires those institutions to be recipients of a PREP award. The PREP program involves staff from a wide range of backgrounds conducting scientific research across various fields. Individuals in this position will perform technical work supporting the collaboration's scientific research. Research Title: Measurement Science for AI Decision-Making in Automated Driving Systems The work will entail: The Measurement Science for Automated Vehicles project at NIST is seeking a candidate to support measurement science research for AI decision‑making in automated vehicles. This position contributes to NIST's development of a tiered measurement framework for evaluating AI decision‑making performance. The candidate will focus on two core areas: 1) building and curating a scenario database for decision‑making evaluation and 2) developing standardized state representations for the evaluation framework. U.S. Citizen Preferred Key Responsibilities Scenario Database Development Build and curate a database of behavioral planning test scenarios sourced from Safety Pool and other relevant datasets Develop scenario classification and tagging systems to support systematic evaluation of behavioral competencies (e.g., lane changes, merges, yielding, intersection navigation) Implement tools for scenario selection, parameterization, and configuration for use in simulation‑based testing Create methods for generating scenario variants to ensure comprehensive coverage of edge cases and challenging traffic situations Vehicle State Representation Design and implement a standardized format for representing vehicle state information exchanged between the simulation environment and the automated driving (AD) stack under test Define world state schemas that capture relevant traffic context, road geometry, and dynamic agent information needed for behavioral planning evaluation Develop message schemas and interface specifications for the Evaluation Gateway, including cryptographic hashing methods for data integrity verification Ensure compatibility of state representations with industry standards and common AD stack architectures (both end‑to‑end and modular) Qualifications MS or (BS + 2 years of experience) in Computer Science, Robotics, AI/Machine Learning, or related engineering fields Strong programming experience in Python and C++, with familiarity with AI/ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc.) Experience with autonomous vehicle simulation environments (CARLA, SUMO, or similar) Knowledge of autonomous vehicle systems architecture and behavioral planning concepts Experience with ROS 2 on Linux systems Experience with version control software and workflow (Git/GitHub/GitLab) Understanding of data modeling principles and validation methodologies Familiarity with database design and management for storing and querying structured scenario data Salary Range The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins University's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range. The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may vary and will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may include the successful candidate's geographic location, skills, work experience, internal equity, market conditions, education/training and other factors, as reasonably determined by the University. Total Rewards Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports our employees' health, life, career and retirement. More information can be found here: Equal Opportunity Employer The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity for its faculty, staff, and students. To that end, the university does not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status or other legally protected characteristics. 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PREP is a 5-year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in the following disciplines including (but may not be limited to) biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics. This collection of information is needed to facilitate administrative functions of the PREP Program. Routine Uses: NIST will use the information collected to perform the requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notices: NIST-1: NIST Associates. Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary. 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