PREP Research Associate
This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest, thus requires that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas. Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.
Research title:
Technical methods for content provenance tracking
The work will entail:
Leading NIST efforts to assess, advance, and potentially standardize methods for tracking content provenance (e.g., watermarking and metadata recording).
Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:
- Surveying existing content provenance tracking methods.
- Designing or contributing to methods and projects that assess the extent to which provenance tracking methods meet various potential objectives.
- Identifying technical or usability flaws in existing methods and proposing solutions.
- Contributing to existing standardization projects on content provenance tracking and/or identifying opportunities for new projects.
Qualifications
- Familiarity with the workings of modern generative AI systems.
- Detailed knowledge of one or more technical methods for adding watermarks to or associating metadata with content to record the provenance of the content (e.g., SynthID, C2PA, or similar).
- Ability to quickly identify and review relevant computer science research papers and extract relevant conclusions.
- Strong written communication skills.
The university is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer that does not unlawfully discriminate in any of its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or on any other basis prohibited by applicable law.