Posting Title

Graduate Intern (9 months) – Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Energy Systems

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Location

CO - Golden

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Position Type

Intern (Fixed Term)

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Hours Per Week

40

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Working at NREL

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Golden, Colorado is the nation's primary laboratory for research and development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

From day one at NREL, you’ll connect with coworkers driven by the same mission to save the planet. By joining an organization that values a supportive, inclusive, and flexible work environment, you’ll have the opportunity to engage through our ten employee resource groups, numerous employee-driven clubs, and learning and professional development classes.

NREL supports inclusive, diverse, and unbiased hiring practices that promote creativity and innovation. By collaborating with organizations that focus on diverse talent pools, reaching out to underrepresented demographics, and providing an inclusive application and interview process, our Talent Acquisition team aims to hear all voices equally. We strive to attract a highly diverse workforce and create a culture where every employee feels welcomed and respected and they can be their authentic selves.

Our planet needs us! Learn about NREL’s critical objectives, and see how NREL is focused on saving the planet.

We invite all interested candidates to apply for this opportunity. While we recognize that job seekers may hesitate if they don’t meet every requirement, we encourage dedicated individuals who meet all the basic and additional required qualifications of the role to submit an application. We value the opportunity to consider those who believe they have the necessary skills and ambition to succeed at NREL.

Job Description

The AI, Learning and Intelligent Systems Group (ALIS) in the NREL Computational Science Center leverages expertise in computational science, AI, and applied mathematics to drive advancements in energy efficiency and energy systems integration research. To learn more about this group, check out this link here:Artificial Intelligence Research | Computational Science | NREL.

The ALIS group has an opening for a graduate student researcher to work on developing a privacy-preserving zero-trust architecture in DER systems.  The researcher will assist in researching zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and other privacy-enhancing technologies for protecting user privacy in identity verification mechanisms.

We are looking for a dynamic, motivated researcher with an interest in the mission of NREL and a strong technical background in applied cryptography.

Responsibilities include:

• Collaborate with NREL domain scientists to develop zero-knowledge proofs for identity verification mechanisms in DER systems.
• Analyze privacy preservation through formal security proofs
• Conduct experiments to demonstrate the scalability of ZKP-based identity verification mechanisms
• Author, present and assist in the preparation of technical papers, reports and conference proceedings on topics related to zero-knowledge proofs and zero-trust architecture.

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Basic Qualifications

Minimum of a 3.0 cumulative grade point average.

Undergraduate: Must be enrolled as a full-time student in a bachelor’s degree program from an accredited institution.
Post Undergraduate: Earned a bachelor’s degree within the past 12 months. Eligible for an internship period of up to one year.

Graduate: Must be enrolled as a full-time student in a master’s degree program from an accredited institution.
Post Graduate: Earned a master’s degree within the past 12 months. Eligible for an internship period of up to one year.
Graduate + PhD: Completed master’s degree and enrolled as PhD student from an accr