The South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI) is a world renowned agricultural research institute conducting research for the sugar industry. SASRI is offering a one-year internship within the field of Computer Science and Programming. The internship is aimed at providing graduates an opportunity to develop and acquire the necessary skills within a working environment. Moreover, the internships provide onsite business mentoring and on the job training. This Computer Science role focusses on exploring machine learning techniques to impute missing ground-based climate data. The incumbent will be responsible for the analysis of climate data sets, development and testing customised software to improve the accuracy and efficiency of existing climate data imputation procedures

Duties and Responsibilities

Minimum Requirements

Education and Experience

• Analysing research data and preparing reports following guidelines from supervisors
• Writing computer code as required to meet specified objectives
• Re-engineer existing software to suit new research objectives
• Developing, debugging and testing of customised software packages
• Compiling software documentation (user guides and programming documentation)
• Assisting with training researchers, extension specialists and farmers in the use of custom software packages

Knowledge and Skills

• BSc/Hons Degree in Computer Science (preferably with Maths or Physics)
• Computer programming and data processing skills
• Experience and/or training in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence or Neural Networks
• Experience in web, Python and/or R programming will be an advantage
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• A desire to work in an agricultural research environment
• Ability to work independently and within a team

Remuneration and Benefits

• The successful incumbent will receive an allowance of R4500.00 on a monthly basis
• There is onsite accommodation, meals, clinic facilities and a laundry service at a monthly fee of R380.00 (optional)