Assistantships
Teaching Assistants
Teaching assistantships are awarded to graduate students on a competitive basis. They include tuition support for a maximum of 10 credit hours per semester and a monthly stipend. Teaching Assistants (TAs) are generally assigned duties that support faculty in their teaching responsibilities. Typical duties of TAs include (but are not limited to) grading of undergraduate and graduate student course paperwork, supervision of undergraduate science and engineering laboratory course sections, as well as individual and small-group conference sections associated with faculty lecture courses. TAs are required to be on campus and available for their assignments 10 days before undergraduate classes begin in the fall, and every day the university is open during the academic year, until the spring graduation (see the Academic Calendar). TAs are expected to work 20 hours per week on their assigned duties. Some departments have more stringent requirements. TA assignments are made by the academic department and, with rare exception, are awarded starting with the fall semester. Consult the graduate coordinator in the academic department for specific information.
Research Assistants
Research assistants (RAs) are selected by the faculty to participate in sponsored research projects in connection with their academic programs. Typical duties of RAs include (but are not limited to) conducting laboratory experiments and assisting in the development of theoretical advances related to faculty research projects. Research projects are typically supported by grants and contracts awarded to the university by government agencies, industrial firms or other private organizations.
RAs who perform research directly connected to their thesis/dissertation must recognize that research is a full-time professional commitment.
The financial support provided to graduate students who have been selected for an assistantship varies depending on the specific nature of the coursework, project and student's status.
Opportunities
Assistantship Available In Ultrasound And Image Enhancement
The goal is to provide portable ultrasound with the capability for readily displaying major life-threatening injuries found in emergency conditions. Thus, the work is in image enhancement algorithms, based on either 2D or 3D ultrasound image information, either direct from the scanner or after processing. There will also be significant ultrasound tissue phantom development work, where we want to be able to emulate injuries and to be able to reverse them again. Specific areas include:
- Use redundancy in image acquisition, such as in closely spaced adjacent scan planes
- Use a library of pre-stored information, such as anatomical atlases and ultrasound scan
- Use signal processing such as phase aberration correction and image enhancement
- Use of built-in AI and databases to interpret ultrasound image(s)
For further information, contact Peder C. Pedersen, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering. His email address is pedersen@ece.wpi.edu. The Ultrasound Lab also has its own Web site.
Graduate Research Assistantship - WPI Database Systems Research Group
The WPI Database Systems Research Group (DSRG) is engaged in a number of cutting edge research projects in the area of very large databases and information management systems. Ongoing projects include management and real-time processing of streaming data, XML data management, distributed query processing, mobile data management, data warehousing over distributed heterogeneous information sources, large-scale information discovery and visualization. Our general methodology is to develop the fundamental theory underlying each technology, but also to build actual software systems to evaluate the feasibility and usefulness of our ideas on real application domains. DSRG projects are being funded by government agencies including numerous grants from NSF and industries like IBM, Verizon Labs, GTE, NEC, and others. For further details, please contact Professor Rundensteiner or Professor Mani. More information is also available at The Database Systems Research Group web site.
Graduate Research Assistantship - Intelligent Tutoring Systems is a hot research area that is attracting funding at WPI. The goal of intelligent tutoring systems is to build educational software to dramatically more effective then current educational software. One project is building tutors for 8th grade mathematics. Graduate applicants to CS who are interested and have experience in this area, may contact professor Heffernan for information regarding Research Assistantships. He can be reached at nth@wpi.edu. Graduate applicants to CS who are interested and have experience in this area, may contact professor Heffernan for information regarding Research Assistantships.
Graduate Research Assistantships are available for suitable candidates. Interested applicants should email the Physics Department at WPI and contact either Professor G. Iannacchione (gsiannac@wpi.edu), the head of the Graduate Committee, or Professor Ram-Mohan (lrram@wpi.edu).
Analog Devices Corporate Fellow
A three-year position is available in which a Ph.D. student will study the reliability of microsensor contacts using, primarily, atomic force microscopy (AFM). This Fellowship is supported by Analog Devices and test samples will come from their Micromachined Products Division.
The Fellowship pays for tuition at a rate of 18 credit hours per year. A student who has passed the qualifying exams and coursework will initially be compensated $24,000 per year, plus support for one annual conference and one annual professional society membership. A student with coursework remaining or who has not yet passed the exams will be paid at the current TA level. The ideal candidate will have passed the Physics Ph.D. Qualifying Exams and have demonstrated experience with atomic force microscopy. The position runs May 2006 to May 2009.
For more information visit the AFM Laboratory Web site.
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: May 01, 2009 09:33:21