Research Intern, Special Projects at Higharc in Remote

Summary: Higharc is a VC-backed startup that is changing how new homes are designed and built. They are seeking three PhD Research Interns to join their Special Projects team for a 12-week engagement, focusing on research in Vision-Language Models and semi-supervised learning for instance segmentation. Responsibilities: - Build data pipelines and extract data from Higharc's existing datasets - Design, implement, and execute semi-supervised and weakly-supervised VLM and segmentation training pipelines - Develop evaluation suites and error taxonomies for targeted multimodal tasks - Run rigorous ablations and scaling experiments, track results, and maintain reproducibility and research hygiene throughout - Document findings and present results through technical reports, demos, and a submission-ready draft Required Qualifications: - Active enrollment in a PhD program in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field at a U.S. institution - Strong Python programming skills and experience building deep learning training workflows (PyTorch preferred) - Solid understanding of computer vision, transformers, representation learning, and ML experimentation practices - Demonstrated research ability through publications, strong preprints, open-source research code, or equivalent evidence of research impact - Comfort working in conventional research and engineering stacks (RoboFlow, Modal, WandB, or similar) Preferred Qualifications: - Experience with vision-language models or multimodal foundation models - Experience designing and deploying semi-supervised learning methods (pseudo-labeling, self-training, distillation, consistency regularization) and familiarity with common failure modes such as confirmation bias, noisy pseudo-labels, and calibration drift - Experience with multi-GPU training and large-scale experimentation - Familiarity with AEC data and workflows — CAD/BIM concepts, plan understanding, or domain-specific labeling Required Skills: Python programming, Deep learning training workflows, PyTorch, Computer vision, Transformers, Representation learning, Machine learning experimentation, Research publication, Vision-language models, Multimodal foundation models, Semi-supervised learning, Multi-GPU training, CAD/BIM concepts, Research instincts Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, Unlimited PTO, Meaningful maternity/paternity leave, Short and long-term disability plans, 401K, A stipend to create the ideal home office