Principal Investigator, AI Hub

Administrative

Oshawa • ID: ADP24-01 • Temporary

About Durham College

Durham College (DC) is leading the way as a post-secondary institution, offering an innovative and transformative student experience and hands-on learning opportunities. With this focus top of mind for our students and our employees, DC is proud to be one of the fastest-growing colleges in the province and annually ranked as one of the GTA’s Top 100 employers.

The college offers a wide range of market-driven programs across multiple disciplines, including culinary management, farming and horticulture, business, IT, construction and trades, science and technology, health care, engineering, social and community services, justice, media, art and design. With a focus on experiential learning, DC graduates are known for having the skills and knowledge employers need. More than 104,000 alumni represent the college, both locally and around the world.

Serving the Durham Region and Northumberland County communities for over 50 years, with campuses in Oshawa and Whitby, the college offers over 12,500 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 145 full-time post-secondary programs – including four honours bachelor degrees and nine apprenticeship programs. Led by over 1,860 full- and part-time staff, DC has an estimated annual economic impact of more than $913 million on Durham Region.

Durham College is seeking experienced and motivated professionals who share our commitment to quality and student success. The Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship is currently seeking applications from qualified individuals who are interested in joining the AI Hub, on a part-time, project-based contract to oversee the development of real-world solutions for industry partners through applied research and knowledge transfer projects.

Teams of expert faculty, students and recent graduates collaborate with industry partners and their staff to deliver innovative AI-based solutions to pressing business problems and opportunities. Projects can include producing and testing prototypes, evaluating new technologies, and developing new or improved products or processes for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). All projects are funded by provincial or federal government grants.

The AI Hub is located at the Oshawa Campus and provides SMEs access to facilities, equipment, technical expertise, and project services to assist them in product development, technology adoption, expansion into new markets and commercialization of new products, services and processes.

The responsibilities of Durham College researchers include, but are not limited to:

·Conducting applied research projects in collaboration with college staff and industry partners.

·Developing work plans in collaboration with industry partners, including specific resource requirements, milestones and deliverables.

·Attending meetings and presenting project scopes, deliverables and metrics.

·Identifying human resource needs and interviewing / hiring student research assistants.

·Supervising student research assistants.

·Providing technical expertise and leadership for applied research projects.

·Preparing and implementing dissemination activities, including assisting Research Assistants in the preparation of final materials/reports.

·Assisting college staff and students with development and completion of final reports and collection of metrics.

·Assisting with follow-up activities with industry clients or funders.

·Presenting findings at internal and external events, including conferences and seminars, as required - assisting with development of case studies

·Some travel to industry partner premises.

The ideal candidate will meet or exceed the following qualifications:

·An undergraduate degree in Computing Science, Information Technology, Business or a related field, preferably a masters degree.

·Three to five years of relevant industry experience and demonstrated ability in fields and technologies relevant to project opportunities.

·Demonstrated research skills and project delivery abilities preferably with experience carrying out research projects.

·Excellent organizational and time management skills, with excellent attention to detail, and the ability to multi-task and prioritize projects.

·Strong written and verbal communication and analytical skills, with ability to work and communicate effectively in an office environment with frequent interruptions and dynamic deadlines.

·Proficient computer skills with recent working knowledge of Microsoft applications (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) in a Windows environment.

·Self-motivated and independent worker who also functions well in a collaborative team environment.

·Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to present and interact with a variety of stakeholders including students, other faculty members, support staff, administrators, other departments within the college and with external partners.

·Uncompromised commitment to confidentiality.

The ideal candidate will possess the following technical skills:

• Established track record of delivering commercial projects involving Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Recommendation Systems, Pattern Recognition, Large Scale Data Mining.
• Established track record of delivering commercial projects involving Generative AI, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Large Language Models, Computer Vision, Recommendation Systems, Pattern Recognition, Large Scale Data Mining.
• Knowledge of high performance computing clusters and working with traditional cloud environments within Azure, AWS and other private clouds
• Knowledge of database structures and functionalities
• Experience with deep learning applications in speech, vision, audio, NLP, semantic analysis, and/or multi-modal data.
• Experience using project management trackers.
• Experience in open source deep learning frameworks including TensorFlow, MXNet, Theano, and/or Caffe. Solid understanding of underlying algorithmic and architectural concepts.
• Hands-on coding experience with C/C++, Python, Scala, Lua, R, , and/or Java. GoLang would be an asset
• Strong experience with systems for large scale data analysis including Spark, Hadoop and Kafka.

Required Experience

Up to 24 hours per week, Monday to Friday

Occasional weekend and evening hours may be required