Are you passionate about programming and anything related to digital technology? Or more specifically in machine learning, natural language processing and network analysis? Would you like to help teach students the foundations and advanced applications of these digital skills? We are looking for new additions to our teams of Teaching Assistants and you may just be one of them!

In September 2022, a brand new Bachelor's programme at the UvA welcomed its first students: Computational Social Science. This interdisciplinary programme is a collaboration between the faculties of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG), Science (FNWI) and Humanities (FGw).

Students will learn how to analyse 'real world' data on complex societal issues such as climate change, global health and digital surveillance to identify opportunities for (behavioural) change and to design evidence-based intervention strategies. They will programme hands-on tools that support sustainable digital innovation and contribute to making the world a better place!

Computational Social Science is an English-taught programme with a unique curriculum that is solely made up of project driven, semester-long courses of 30 EC. More information can be found here.

What are you going to do?
Digital Expertise (DE) plays an essential role in all teaching and learning within Computational Social Science. There will be guest lectures, practical sessions, and components of student group projects devoted to DE content. As a Teaching Assistant for first year students and or second year students, you will mostly be:

• supervising practical sessions;
• answering digital expertise-related questions from students;
• grading weekly individual DE assignments.
  

Within our programme, each semester-long course has a fixed weekly schedule for all lectures, workshops, practical sessions and deadlines.

• Practical sessions in DE for first year students in (Python) programming are mostly scheduled on Monday (afternoons), Wednesday and Friday (mornings);
• Practical sessions in DE for second year students in ML, NLP and network analysis will mostly take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

You will be assigned to a group of students for the duration of 20 weeks (i.e. one semester). Each group will consist of approximately 20 students.

• It would be a huge asset if you have (some) experience as a Teaching Assistant or in some form of individual or group supervision;
• You have an excellent command of the English language (verbal & written);
• Your schedule allows for quite some flexibility in working hours;
• Furthermore:

For Year 1:

• You are a senior year Bachelor's student or a Master's student;
• You have successfully completed the courses Scientific Programming 1 and/or Scientific Programming 2 OR
• You have successfully completed courses that included (for a minimum of 12EC):
  1. "pandas" and data visualisation

1. programming, preferably in Python*.

• If you are not familiar with Python but are experienced in other programming languages, it will not be a deal breaker. You should be willing to study Python before the start of the next academic year. To this end, you could study materials from the courses Scientific Programming 1 and 2 in your own time.

For Year 2:

• You are a senior year Bachelor's student or a Master's student, preferably enrolled in the University of Amsterdam;
• You have successfully completed courses that included (for a minimum of 12EC):

1. Machine learning (supervised and unsupervised methods in Scikit-learn and Statsmodels);
2. Natural language processing (Gensim, nltk, spacy);
3. Network analysis (networkx);
4. Programming, preferably in Python;
5. Scraping of static and dynamic websites (selenium, scrapy, Beautiful Soup);
6. API access and usage;

• Applicants should possess demonstrated expertise in a subset of the advertised skill areas and exhibit a strong willingness to learn and expand their knowledge in the remaining areas.

The position is temporary for a period from 28 August 2023 until 5 February 2024. Depending on the year of study, the salary range is €2402,- to €2611,- gross per month (Student Assistant salary grade, pursuant to the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities) based on a full-time workweek.

For TAs in Year 1, the number of working hours per week is 10. For TAs in Year 2, the number of working hours per week for which you will be hired will be aligned with your availability.

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

The University of Amsterdam is the largest university in the Netherlands, with the broadest spectrum of degree programmes. It is an intellectual hub with 39,000 students, 6,000 employees and 3,000 doctoral students who are all committed to a culture of inquiring minds.

A challenging work environment with a variety of duties and ample scope for individual initiative and development within an inspiring organization. The social and behavioral sciences play a leading role in addressing the major societal challenges faced by the world, the Netherlands and Amsterdam, now and in the future.

Want to know more about our organisation? Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.