EWADA Summer Student Internship

EWADA Research Internship

EWADA (Ethical Web and Data Infrastructure in the Age of AI)[1] is an ambitious 3-year programme that aims to reform the concentration of power on the Web by developing and deploying new forms of technical and legal infrastructure. Commencing in June 2021, the project is led by Prof. Sir. Nigel Shadbolt and Prof. Sir. Tim Berner-Lee and aims to investigate novel re-decentralisation architectures and develop critical privacy-preserving AI methods to re-establish citizen’s self-autonomy on the Web.

We are offering three internship positions this summer to work with Oxford Human Centred Computing (HCC) researchers [2] to develop prototype EWADA web applications, built upon the Solid (Social Linked Data) architecture from MIT[3]. Solid is a standards-based approach that provides practical solutions to web decentralisation and empowers people to take back control of their data and regain their self-autonomy. The candidates are expected to familiarise themselves with the current Solid architectural design and implementations and develop new decentralised web applications on top of Solid, including: enabling logging of our everyday digital health; enabling researchers to share their everyday research data and related artefacts; or enabling users to control data used by online platforms (such as YouTube) and their personalised digital experiences accordingly.

To effectively do this, candidates are expected to have experience with full stack web development and be interested and willing to learn about EWADA research and Solid ecosystems (in Javascript or Python).  Moreover, the candidate will need to be able to work well with others, as these roles will be highly collaborative, requiring engaging with research scientists, project administrators, and co-investigators.

The post is expected to be full-time (36.5 hours) for 12 weeks, starting late August/ early autumn 2021 and ending in October 2021, £12.52 - 14.08 (Grade 3.8 - 4.7) per hour, depending on experience. The post does not have to be based in Oxford but will be subject to right to work in the UK.

Applications should be submitted to Dr Jun Zhao (jun.zhao@cs.ox.ac.uk ), including a 2-page resume, and a short paragraph of background and interests.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Friday, 6 August 2021.  Candidates will be shortlisted and invited for an interview by Mid-August.

Selection criteria

Essential

• The ability to communicate information clearly, including technical content
• The ability and desire to learn about Solid-related research, to quickly acquire domain expertise needed for effectively developing new web applications
• The ability and desire to work with research staff to elicit information about how information should be organised
• Substantial experience developing web-based applications
• The ability to effectively manage time, to complete projects efficiently
• The ability to work independently and think creatively

Desirable

• Expertise with base Web platform languages & technologies including HTML, CSS and Javascript
• Expertise with Python and Linux-based Operating Systems
• Graphic and interaction design experience and expertise

[1] https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/ethical-web-and-data-architectures/

[2] https://hcc.cs.ox.ac.uk

[3] https://solidproject.org