Data Science Fellow (AI, ML, NLP) Full-Time

Contract

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Background

CORPORATE BACKGROUND:

UNDP works in about 170 countries and territories, helping to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and exclusion, and build resilience so countries can sustain progress. As the UN’s development agency, UNDP plays a critical role in helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (ICPSD) is the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) global organization mandated to leverage the role of the private sector in development. The IICPSD was established in Istanbul, Turkey based on the Partnership Framework Agreement signed between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the United Nations Development Program in March 2011. The center is one of the six global thematic policy centers of UNDP, supports the private sector and foundations to become transformative partners in development through research, advocacy, facilitation of public-private dialogue and brokering partnerships. ICPSD leads UNDP’s global work on private sector and foundations and supports UNDP’s offices all around the world.

FELLOWSHIP OFFICE BACKGROUND:

The SDG AI Lab is a joint initiative of UNDP BPPS team, and it is hosted under UNDP ICPSD. The SDG AI Lab provides research, development and advisory support through cutting-edge digital solutions in harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for sustainable development. The Lab aims to strengthen the UNDP’s internal and its partners’ capacities for the increasing demand for digital transformation.

ICPSD SDG AI Lab and Samsung are joining forces to implement the Innovation Campus Project in Turkiye.

The Innovation Campus Project aims to enable the next-generation labour force to work with future-shaping technologies, provide young people with the technical skills they need to thrive in and lead the 4th Industrial Revolution, and accelerate Türkiye’s digital transformation by addressing the skills gap. On 6 February 2023, two devastating earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude on the Richter Scale, struck Kahramanmaras, Türkiye. Impacts have been felt across ten provinces in Türkiye and have caused catastrophic devastation, with at least 14 million people directly impacted in Türkiye. The programme will contribute to the training of disadvantaged young people with a priority given to the youth displaced by the earthquake, on advanced technologies (such as AI, IoT and Big Data). UNDP IICPSD’s SDG AI Lab will complement Samsung’s AI Training curriculum through bridging these technologies with SDGs. The Lab will achieve this via conducting awareness raising and training sessions on the use of AI for SDGs, providing domain expertise and mentorship and supporting graduation projects. To scale the programme SDG AI Lab will mobilize volunteers for trainings, mentorships and employability guidance. The young people, in this project are expected to gain critical technical and life skills which would contribute to employability of the participants as well as closing skills gap between disadvantaged participants and others.

SDG AI Lab’s Data Science Fellowship modality is based on UNDP’s Fellowship policy. The objective of the Data Science Fellowship is to provide the opportunity to work on how to deploy frontier technologies such as Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Deep Learning (DL), Natural Language Processing (NLP), GIS, and Blockchain on development issues. In particular, the Fellow will support SIC programme’s training and community activities.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Fellow will assist in the following duties and responsibilities:

No

Duties and responsibilities

% of time

1

Support Samsung Innovation Campus Training component

• Coordinate SDG AI Lab activities related to the programme
• Arrange learning sessions schedule and assist instructors
• Host office hours for learners’ questions and inquiries
• Conduct and grade assignment and exams
• Teaching and assistance to students individually or in small groups
• Facilitate communications and discussions among learners
• Monitor and report each learner’s progress
• Cultivate a positive, organized learning atmosphere

50 %

2

Support SIC C****ommunity component

• Organize community events
• Facilitate communications and discussions within the community

20 %

3

Development and implementation of digital solutions for SDGs with utilizing AI/ML/DL/NLP

• Develop ML and DL models applying supervised and unsupervised techniques on structured and unstructured Big Data
• Build and deploy AI/ML/DL models using the relevant techniques
• Design and implement data quality procedures to support data quality management activities for data pipelines
• Research and experiment with customized software using the relevant techniques for the data such as NLP and GIS

20 %

4

Other

• Provide as needed support to the Technical Specialist as required for, amongst others, participating in meetings, conferences, providing administrative support, drafting meeting minutes and performing other functions and duties.

10 %

Competencies

IT skills:

• Strong proficiency in Python
• Strong understanding of Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing
• Completion of AI/DL/ML certification from Coursera (Andrew Ng courses) is an asset
• Knowledge of open-source software library such as TensorFlow, Scikit-Learn, Pandas, and NLTK is an asset
• Familiarity with the Software Development tools including Git and GitHub

Language skills:

• Fluent in English with excellent reading and writing skills is required.
• Fluent in Turkish with excellent reading and writing skills is required.

Other competencies and attitude:

• Interest in innovative teaching, learning and assessment;
• Flexibility and capacity to teach (predominantly remotely) across a range of AI courses.
• Willingness and capacity to undertake continuous professional development in relation to the use of technology and to teach on these matters.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills including presentation skills, both face-to-face and online.
• Ability to engage and develop working relationships with programme participants and project stakeholders
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Responds positively to feedback and differing points of view
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Candidates must meet one of the following educational requirements:

• currently enrolled in a postgraduate programme (such as a Master’s programme or higher)
• have graduated no longer than 2 years ago from a university degree or equivalent studies.

Field of study: Computer Science, Statistics, Data Science, Mathematics or equivalent.