College of Engineering
Department of Computer Science

CS Wage-based Instructonal Support and Expertise (W.I.S.E)

The Virginia Tech Computer Science Department and Innovation Campus Wage-based Instructional Support and Expertise (WISE) students assist faculty in the department in the teaching mission. WISE students gain valuable professional experience for their future career.

Expected Hours a Week (Spring 2025)

10 - 20 hours a week as approved by instructor

Job Description

We are looking for motivated graduate (MEng) student workers who are interested in assisting Instructors of different courses at the Capital region campus (Northern Virginia). A student worker is required to answer students’ technical questions on Piazza, grade students’ projects, and other course-related tasks assigned by the instructor.

All applications should be able to:

• Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships
• Willingness to help students on their assignment projects

Minimum Requirements:

Required skills by course

1. AWS Support
   • Experience with:
     • AWS - Basics of AWS (EC2, VPC, EKS)
     • Big Data (e.g. MapReduce/Hadoop, Spark)
     • ML (e.g. Sagemaker, Spark ML, etc.)
     • Serverless (e.g. AWS Lambda).
     • GCP (e.g. BigTable, BigQuery, Vertex AI, AutoML)
2. Cloud Computing
   • Experience with:
     • AWS - Basics of AWS (EC2, VPC, EKS, . . .) , Big Data (MapReduce/Hadoop, Spark, . . .), ML (Sagemaker, Spark ML, Bedrock, etc.), Serverless (AWS Lambda).
     • GCP – BigTable, BigQuery, Vertex AI, AutoML, etc.

PREFERRED SKILLS (ALL COURSES)

• Industry experience with AWS (e.g., solution architect certification)
• Industry experience in software management or development
• Graduate-level coursework in class assignment

Duration

Spring Semester 2025

Apply

For the AWS Support
- Send resume to melissacameron@vt.edu on/before January 16th at 6:00 PM EST

For the Cloud Computing
- Send resume to mengistu@vt.edu on/before January 15th at 6:00 PM EST

Who Can Apply

This program is geared to our MEng students who cannot otherwise be a GTA. The program is aimed towards students on the Innovation Campus

Applicants must be a current VT graduate student in the Computer Science graduate program by the time they begin to be a WISE student.

A WISE student cannot also hold a full GTA or GRA position at the same time. The sum of any WISE student support and any GRA support must be 100% or less.

BS/MEng accelerated CS students may NOT start a WISE student position until after they have graduated with their BS degree.

MS and PhD students must NOT submit this form. MS and PhD students are NOT eligible for a WISE student positions.

WISE positions are open to US citizens, permanent residents, F1 students and those who have work authorization.

VT and the CS Dept. can not pay WISE students who are not physically located within the United States.

Details

• CS grad students, who have completed the CS WISE student survey, and accept other funding, must email DirAcadOps@cs.vt.edu to indicate you no longer need WISE student funding.
• Students awarded a WISE student position will receive an email message with the WISE student offer information.
• The dates on WISE student contracts correspond to State of Virginia employment salary schedules. Although the contract dates may start and end earlier than academic semesters, WISE student are hired to work during an academic term.
• New WISE students who have never been employed by Virginia Tech must contact the CS Dept. Human Resources Specialist, Mr. Joe Morgan, (1180D Torgersen Hall | jmorgan22@vt.edu | (540) 231-8452 ), to schedule an appointment to complete their required VT employment paperwork.

Course Management Systems (CMS)

Canvas

• Guides
• Help
• VT Canvas information

Excel

Many instructors use Microsoft Excel for grade management. If you need to learn Excel, online training is available for free to VT students through Lynda.com whose tutorials are licensed by Va Tech. To obtain access log on using your VT email PID (without the "@vt.edu") and your VT email password and access the Lynda Excel tutorial.

Software

VT has site licences for many software products and reduced pricing:

• Engineering Software information
• VT Software reduced pricing
• CS VT Common Software site (requires CS SLO logon)

Academy for Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) Excellence

If you are interested in more support and educational opportunities, visit the GrATE site

Presentation Kiosk Access

If you need access for lab teaching or otherwise request your supervising CS faculty member to setup access for you through VT Classroom A/V Services.

Required Training

English Proficiency

The VT Graduate school requires certain level of English proficiency. Get more information at the link.

All Virginia Tech non-U.S. citizen or non-U.S. permanent resident graduate students must demonstrate English proficiency .

• a minimum TOEFL score of 90 (IBT) IELTS score of 6.5
• TOEFL scores of 20 or greater in Listening, Writing, Speaking, and Reading subsections are required.
  
• WISE student English requirement: score of  25 or greater on the TOEFL Speaking subtest.
  

English proficiency can also be demonstrated through a conferred bachelor’s degree from an accredited university where English is the medium of instruction.

FERPA

FERPA training is required for all WISE students.

All WISE students are required to complete and submit the FERPA form. The form can NOT be submitted electronically. You must print the form, complete it, sign it and physically turn it in to the secretary in Torgerson Hall room 3210. (If you have previously been a WISE student and have already submitted a FERPA form you do NOT need to do so again.)

Title IX

All Va Tech employees are required to complete Title IX and Retaliation training. The sexual harassment of students and sexual violence involving students are forms of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX and university policy. The training explains Title IX’s focus on sexual harassment, sexual violence and the prohibition against retaliation for participating in a discrimination investigation or complaint. Learn how to support students, satisfy your compliance responsibilities under Virginia Tech’s policy and ensure that actions are not taken to retaliate against someone for bringing or participating in an investigation. Direct all questions regarding Title IX training and access to training to Human Resources at hrservicecenter@vt.edu. (If you have previously been a WISE student and have already completed the Title IX Training you do NOT need to do so again. Title IX training needs to be renewed every two years.)

ZOOM webinars for Title IX training will be posted here when they become available. WISE students need only attend only one of the following sessions and engage in the webinar, to receive credit for the Title IX training:

Once you complete the training, VT HR will be informed and update your information to indication your completion. Be aware though, you must engage during the webiunar to receive credit. 

Privacy

Be aware that in your duties as a WISE student you may have access to other students’ grades and academic work. Note that you will have a legal obligation, (as do all people who work for the university), to maintain the strict confidentiality of any students’ grades and work. As policy, student data must NOT be downloaded for permanent storage. Only temporary download of student data is allowed as necessary for the entry/updating of students' grades. All student data will only be stored on the course servers or instructor’s computer.

• NEVER download student data to external data mediums, (USB flash drives, etc.)!
• NEVER identify students by their full name and VT ID number via email or in documents.
• Return all hard copies of student data to supervisor(s) at the end of the semester for destruction.

When deleting temporarily downloaded students’ data from your computer you must use file shredding software to ensure permanent deletion of the data:

• MS Windows: File Shredder, Eraser

• Mac OS: Shredder, Eraser

Sage Advice

Read the GTA Survival Guide written by Mr. McQuain, an instructor with many years of experience here at VT.

© 2023 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

updated: 2023.02.10 DirAcadOps@cs.vt.edu