Research Assistant (Undergraduate)

Position Details

Position Information

Job Title Research Assistant (Undergraduate) Position Type Student Division Academic Affairs Department Biology Essential Duties

We are seeking a motivated undergraduate student with Python experience to join Dr. Maya-Lastra's research lab on a project in automated lexicon enrichment for botanical data. The successful candidate will help develop a bootstrap pipeline that expands an existing botanical lexicon by combining Dr. Maya-Lastra's parser software, which integrates NLP and heuristic methods, with locally run large language models. The student will also lead an independent project enriching a second lexicon focused on a different plant group and comparing both lexicons to evaluate whether a single master lexicon or separate specialized lexicons better support botanical text processing.

Essential Duties

• Pipeline development: Build and maintain a bootstrap pipeline in Python that integrates the existing parser with locally run LLMs to identify and add new lemmas.
• Evaluation: Design and apply metrics to quantify lexicon improvement, such as coverage, precision of new entries, and parser performance before and after enrichment.
• Human verification: Coordinate the review of newly added lemmas, including preparing verification sets, tracking reviewer decisions, and incorporating corrections.
• Testing: Run and maintain tests to ensure the reliability and reproducibility of the pipeline.
• Independent project: Lead the enrichment of a second lexicon centered on a different plant group, and compare both lexicons to assess overlap, divergence, and performance.
• Documentation & Reporting: Document code, methods, and results, and prepare regular progress summaries for Dr. Maya-Lastra.

Benefits

• Gain hands-on research experience in applied NLP, LLM integration, and botanical data.
• Lead an independent research question from design to analysis.
• Opportunity to co-author reports, presentations, and publications.
• Possibility to present research at regional and national conferences.
• Mentorship and collaboration within an active research group.

Required Qualifications

• Enrollment in an undergraduate program
• Experience in Python
• Basic familiarity with handling text data and structured formats such as JSON or CSV
• Ability to work independently without supervision based on objectives

Preferred Qualifications

• Coursework or experience in natural language processing, computational linguistics, or botany.

Physical Demands

• Be able to sit in front of a computer for extended periods of time

Salary $14.50/hr EEO Statement

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or status as a protected veteran.

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Angelo State University is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to ensure equal access to employment opportunities for qualified individuals with disabilities. We are committed to ensuring that a qualified individual with a disability has the same rights and privileges in employment as non-disabled employees. If an accommodation is requested for the job application process, please contact our office at (325) 942-2168 or email us at hr@angelo.edu.

Posting Detail Information

Posting Number Number of Vacancies 1 Open Date 10/06/2026 Close Date Open Until Filled Special Instructions to Applicant

Supplemental Questions

Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Documents Needed To Apply

Required Documents

• Transcripts (Unofficial)

Optional Documents

• Resume
• Cover Letter
• Other