Assistant Specialist - Dept of EECS - University of California, Berkeley

The position is based in Prof. Sanjit Seshia's lab in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) department at UC Berkeley. The Seshia lab aims to develop techniques to ensure that computational systems are provably safe, secure, and trustworthy. The Seshia group addresses this topic by developing theory and tools of formal methods, which are mathematical techniques to model, design, and verify systems using computational proof engines. The lab's work has been applied to improving the safety, security, and dependability of software, hardware, distributed systems, AI/ML, robotics, cyber-physical systems, and biological systems, impacting societal-scale applications in several domains including cloud computing, transportation, healthcare, and education.

A particular focus area for this position is the formal modeling and generation of operating environments of autonomous and semi-autonomous systems. His group developed a probabilistic programming language called Scenic whose syntax and semantics are designed to model and generate physical scenarios involving stochastic, multi-agent, reactive behaviors of the real world. This language has been used to train and evaluate certain properties of autonomous and semi-autonomous cyber-physical systems in simulation.

The position is a part of a fast-paced project for supporting the Scenic open-source project and for using the Scenic language in extended reality (XR), spanning virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, to train both humans and robots to collaborate. We are looking for someone with strong background in XR development and in programming frameworks such as Scenic in multi-player settings to prototype virtual environments where humans and robots can virtually interact with each other. The position will also involve supporting the Scenic project in various ways including the website, supporting the Scenic open-source community, etc.

The job responsibilities will be as follows:

1. Assist with developing an XR-based system consisting of a XR app and XR headset, which synthesizes Scenic programs from a user's description and demonstration of collaborative physical activities.
   The system needs to provide interfaces for the user to inspect and correct the system's learning of the user's behaviors.
2. Help build a supporting tool to train and evaluate humans and robots to collaborate using the synthesized Scenic programs.
3. Conduct user studies to validate the effectiveness of the system, and iteratively improve it based on the evaluation.
4. Support the Scenic open-source project in various roles including maintaining the web site and other infrastructure for the Scenic project.

Labor Contract: https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/resources/employment-policies-contracts/bargaining-units/academic-researchers/contract/

Bachelor's degree or equivalent international degree at the time of application.

• Masters degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering or related field.
• Extensive experience programming in the Python programming language.
• Experience with extended reality (virtual, augmented, mixed reality) systems.
• Experience with the Scenic probabilistic programming language and web development is highly recommended.

• 3 required (contact information only)

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