Junior Specialist - Cube Lab

The Cube Lab at UC Davis (PI: Dr. Xianglong Wang) is looking for a junior specialist to assist in qualitative or quantitative engineering educational research, depending on the candidate's qualifications.

The candidate will be working on either a qualitative study for the formation of engineering identity in first-year students or development and quantitative validation of a novel oral assessment for biomedical engineering skills. Most engineering educational projects in the lab are classified as human subject research and are subject to IRB rules. The candidate will assist in recruiting subjects, collect research data (including scheduling interviews for qualitative research), manage data according to the lab's data management plan, issue gift cards to subjects, keep track of the gift card inventory, and perform quantitative or qualitative analysis. For certain projects, the candidate may need to assist in generating the protocol for IRB determination and serve as a point of contact for IRB.

The candidate's significant and meaningful contributions described above will lead to authorship or acknowledgement of published work, according to the criteria set in the lab handbook.

MAJOR RESEARCH RESPONSIBILITIES (85% EFFORT)

* The candidate will assist the PI and other lab personnel in performing the research task best suited for the candidate's qualifications.

* The candidate will be responsible for reading and reviewing literature pertinent to the studies.

* For the qualitative project, we expect around 30-60 interviews lasting 45 minutes each over the next year. The candidate is expected to split these interviews with other undergraduate researchers in the lab and thematically code these interviews in NVIVO (license provided). For the quantitative project, you will assist in assessment development, coordination of expert-review panels, and conduct early pilot rounds to facilitate a small-scale statistical validation in R or SPSS.

* In addition to successfully collaborating with other research personnel in the lab and communicating scientific information, the candidate will be responsible for presenting research results during lab meetings. The candidate will demonstrate strong interpersonal communication skills and the ability to effectively engage others in the planning and conduct of research activities.

* The candidate will be responsible for assisting the PI and other lab personnel in writing and disseminating the results in journals and conferences. The candidate will be an integral part of the peer-review process during these submissions.

* The candidate will have a clear commitment to safety of human subjects in human subject research, a clear commitment to experimental rigor, and a strong motivation in improving education at UC Davis College of Engineering, especially the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AND ACTIVITY (10% EFFORT)

* The candidate will participate in appropriate professional/technical societies or groups and other educational and research organizations.

* In consultation with the PI, the candidate will have the potential to attend local and/or national scholarly conferences. The candidate will collaborate with researchers in the lab and will help to produce data presented at conferences.

UNIVERSITY AND PUBLIC SERVICE (5% EFFORT)

* The candidate may maintain liaison and respond to the needs of various industry organizations, state and federal agencies, and other external groups on issues related to area of expertise.

* The candidate may participate in activities of committees within the department, college, campus and other University entities, as deemed appropriate by the PI.

Bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering, engineering, psychology, education, or related field, or related discipline.

Applicants must possess a bachelor's degree to be eligible for appointment.

• Candidates seeking to work on the quantitative project should have experience working or volunteering in a clinical environment. A bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering or bioengineering is strongly preferred. An ability to perform assessment development and validation in R is strongly recommended.

• Candidates seeking to work on the qualitative project be able to perform qualitative interviews and thematic analysis with QDA software such as NVIVO (preferred), Dedoose, or Atlas.ti. Educational research experience with Grade 11, 12, and first-year college students will be beneficial. Thematic analysis experience in multi-coder settings preferred.

As a condition of employment, the finalist will be required to disclose if they are subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct, are currently being investigated for misconduct, left a position during an investigation for alleged misconduct, or have filed an appeal with a previous employer.

• "Misconduct" means any violation of the policies or laws governing conduct at the applicant's previous place of employment, including, but not limited to, violations of policies or laws prohibiting sexual harassment, sexual assault, or other forms of harassment, discrimination, dishonesty, or unethical conduct, as defined by the employer.
• UC Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Policy
• UC Anti-Discrimination Policy for Employees, Students and Third Parties
• APM - 035: Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination in Employment

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