Modeling & Simuluation, Artificial Intelligence, On Topics of Social Complexity (MAISC)

ICONS is a unit of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, College Park. ICONS creates simulations, wargames, and scenario-driven exercises to advance participants' understanding of complex problems and strengthen their ability to make decisions, navigate crises, think strategically, and negotiate collaboratively. ICONS’s web-based simulations for educators place college and high school students from around the globe in challenging online simulation and gaming exercises that allow them to role-play resolving contentious geo-political issues. ICONS also creates customized simulations to support think tanks, cabinet-level agencies, and the Department of Defense as they tackle complex national security challenges, as well as public and private sector organizations as they engage in crisis management training, forecasting, and policy planning. ICONS develops and manages the ICONSnet software platform for hosting role-play simulations, computational models, wargames, and scientific research on topics affecting democracy, security, and prosperity. Visit www.icons.umd.edu for additional background on ICONS’ work.

ICONS is seeking an upper-level undergraduate or graduate level intern for the Spring 2025 semester. The intern will:

• Work with the ICONS staff in researching, updating, and potentially contributing to the design of simulations;
• Learn the ICONS simulation methodology; and,
• Support ICONS client engagement and outreach.

Supervisor: Bob Lamb, rdlamb@umd.edu 
Deadline:  October 24, 2024, 11:59pm ET
U.S. Citizenship Required: Yes 
Team Meeting Times: Wednesdays at 10am ET

Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Contributing to simulation scenario research and updating current simulation content;
• Contributing to research and design of new simulation content;
• Supporting senior staff in research on topics related to democracy, security, or prosperity;
• Engaging in START's educational enrichment program and speakers' series; and,
• Supporting marketing and outreach initiatives.

Required/minimum qualifications:

• Graduate students or undergraduate seniors and juniors only;
• Strong English-language communication, research, and persuasive writing skills;
• Excellent attention to detail and organizational skills;
• Strong editing skills; and
• Must be in good academic standing.

Preferred/ideal qualifications:

• Able to support lit reviews for articles on modeling & simulation, artificial intelligence, on topics of social complexity (MAISC). Topics may range from national security applications to fundamental science (e.g. complex systems theory). The target level of these lit reviews is as sections within peer-reviewed articles, not stand-alone independent systemic lit reviews.
• Ability to quickly read and produce summaries of key points of peer reviewed articles, institutional reports, and other literature on MAISC topics *without* relying on ChatGPT or other LLM.
• Familiar with Agile, Kanban, Scaled Agile or other pull-based project management systems.
• Interested in exploring the outer boundaries of MAISC topics and not deeply tied to any one method as the 'right' one.
• Experience with any MAISC components is a plus. This could be familiarity with modeling & simulation (e.g. system dynamics, CLD systems thinking, agent based modeling), AI (e.g. deep learning, neural networks, machine classifiers, LLM), social complexity (e.g. social sciences.)