The Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (MGGG) is running a six-week summer data intensive, June 4-July 13, 2018. This program, called the Voting Rights Data Institute (VRDI), is supervised by Moon Duchin (Tufts Mathematics) and Justin Solomon (MIT EECS). The projected size of the program is 40 students: roughly 35 undergraduate and 5 graduate students. The principal goal of the program is to engage students directly with the geographical, demographic, and political data needed to assess and redress gerrymandering.

Work will take place in a group setting, with undergraduates working independently and in teams, supervised by graduate students and faculty. Groups will rotate through collaborative workspaces at Tufts, MIT, and Harvard, with housing available on the Tufts campus. For more information about the program and the necessary qualifications to apply, visit gerrydata.org.

Note: The MathJobs service is primarily used by people who hold PhDs, so you should just leave blank any fields that are not applicable, such as PhD advisor.

• CV or resume including list of relevant research or coding projects, with links to repositories or web sites if applicable
• Two letters of recommendation from professors or other mentors/supervisors
• Cover letter specifically describing your interest in this program. Be sure to directly address any significant experience in any of the following background areas:
  1. Mathematics, especially discrete math or geometry
  2. Social science research, including demography, political science, law, racial polarization
  3. GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
  4. Programming, especially in Python; algorithm design and analysis
  5. Software development
  6. Data science; statistical analysis of datasets; network science
  7. MCMC (Markov chain Monte Carlo) or other probabilistic sampling methods

Please also describe your interest in elections, democracy, and civil rights. We are committed to training a diverse cohort of data scientists and we DO NOT assume that successful applicants already have all or most of the skills described above.