PostDoc in Signal and Image Processing, Paris

POST-DOCTORAL POSITION - 2009 Department : Signal and Image Processing http://www.tsi.enst.fr/

Lab : LTCI UMR Telecom ParisTech/CNRS 5141 http://www.ltci.enst.fr/

TOPICS : machine-learning for structured data, social networks, random graphs, graphical models

Description : The Department Signal and Image Processing (TSI) of Telecom ParisTech (France) is offering a one year post-doctoral position in Machine-Learning. The post-doctoral fellow will develop and implement machine-learning procedures and statistical techniques for investigating the way information is spread through small social networks (« ego networks »). The main focus of this research project lies on information related to knowledge about dietary risks.

Required diplomas and skills : candidates will be recruited at the level of a PhD in Mathematics or Statistics. They will have confirmed skills in mathematical modelling, data analysis, statistical or machine learning methods, mathematical programming (Matlab or R), and will be highly motivated for applications to social sciences.

Funds : position is funded by a new Grant « Futur & Rupture « (Institut Telecom).

The Project Team: the candidate will enjoy a challenging and rewarding working environment, within a top leading laboratory in the field of Information and Communication Theory.

Members : Stéphan Clémençon (Telecom ParisTech - TSI), Fabrice Rossi (Telecom ParisTech – INFRES), Nicolas Vayatis (ENS Cachan - CMLA), Sandrine Blanchemanche (INRA Unité Met@risk), Akos Rona-Tas (UCSD Dept of Sociology).

Position starting March 2009, in Paris (France)

Net salary : ranging from 2200 to 2700 euros per month (depending on experience of the candidate)

Interested applicants should sent C.V. to :
Stéphan Clémençon stephan.clemencon@telecom-paristech.fr
Telecom ParisTech ‐ 37 rue Dareau ‐ 75014 Paris – France
Tel : +33 1 45 81 78 07, Fax : +33 1 45 81 71 58

Summer Schools in Logic and Learning

An Open Invitation to attend the Summer Schools in Logic and Learning 26 January to 6 February 2009 Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

One of the grand challenges in science and engineering is to build computer systems that are trustworthy and intelligent. While achieving this goal could be many decades away, computer systems are clearly getting smarter and more reliable year by year and human society is becoming more reliant on exploiting their increasing intelligence. Logic and machine learning are two indispensable parts of the efforts to meet this challenge.

Join us for a new summer school experience where you have a unique two week opportunity to combine the solid foundations of logic and machine learning, with an introductory track in artificial intelligence in the second week.

Courses are taught by some of the world's leading computer scientists and blend practical and theoretical short courses with lectures and demonstrations in state-of-the-art computer facilities at ANU.

Courses and Speakers

Artificial Intelligence Courses http://ssll.cecs.anu.edu.au/speakers/ai

Logic Courses http://ssll.cecs.anu.edu.au/speakers/lss

Machine Learning Courses http://ssll.cecs.anu.edu.au/speakers/mlss

Fees and Registration http://ssll.cecs.anu.edu.au/registration

More information http://ssll.cecs.anu.edu.au/

If you would like to discuss this invitation in more detail, including advice on suitable candidacy, please go to http://ssll.cecs.anu.edu.au/about/contact

The Summer Schools in Logic and Learning are supported by ANU and NICTA.

Committee

Dr Tiberio Caetano, Convener
Professor John Slaney, Convener
Dr Alwen Tiu (Acting Convener)
Diane Kossatz
Michelle Moravec

PhD Studentship in Interactive Question Answering

PhD Studentship in Interactive Question Answering
(£12,000 per year)
Closing date: 16th Jan 2009
http://clg.wlv.ac.uk/jobs/

The Research Group in Computational Linguistics, University of Wolverhampton invites applications for a three-year-funded PhD studentship in Computational Linguistics. The successful candidate is expected to carry out research in the domain of interactive question answering. We are looking for candidates with a good degree in Computational Linguistics, Linguistics, Computer Science or Information Sciences, with programming skills and some experience in Natural Language Processing. The studentship is part funded by Unilever.

Required skills:

• degree in Computational Linguistics, Linguistics, Computer Science or Information Sciences
• experience with at least one of the following: Java, Perl, C++, .NET
• experience in Natural Language Processing
• good command of the English language

Desirable skills:

• Master's degree in Computational Linguistics, Linguistics, Computer Science or Information Sciences
• experience in question answering, information extraction and/or dialogue systems
• familiarity with a wide range of programming environments and operating systems

Applications should be sent to

Dr. Constantin Orasan
Research Institute of Information and Language Processing
University of Wolverhampton
Stafford St.
Wolverhampton
WV1 1SB
United Kingdom
E-mail: C.Orasan@wlv.ac.uk

and must include:

• completed application form available from http://clg.wlv.ac.uk/jobs/PhD-application.pdf
• CV
• copy of university degree (in English)
• copy of transcript listing all university marks (in English)
• evidence of postgraduate qualification if applicable
• a covering letter in which candidates explain why they have applied for the studentship, give details of their research interests/experience, background, programming skills and an outline of
• any experience in Natural Language Processing or Linguistics.

Applications should be made both by email and surface mail. The closing date for applications is 16th January 2009. The short-listed applicants will be interviewed by email and telephone in the week beginning 26th January 2009.

The studentship includes a maintenance grant of 12,000 GBP a year and also covers the tuition fees for 3 years.

The successful candidate is expected to start as soon as possible after 1st February 2009. She or he will be working in a vibrant research environment, engaging in active research. The studentship is part-funded by Unilever.

Established by Prof. Mitkov in 1998, the Research Group in Computational Linguistics is a highly successful one, delivering cutting-edge research in a number of NLP areas such as anaphora resolution, automatic summarisation, question answering, lexical knowledge acquisition, text categorisation, named entity recognition, information extraction, corpus construction and annotation, automatic terminology processing, multilingual processing, and multiple-choice question generation. To a large extent, this research has been undertaken in projects funded by major UK funding bodies and commercial partners. The recent UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) results have confirmed the Research Group in Computational Linguistics as one of the top research performers in the UK.

PostDoctoral Research Associate, Open University, UK

Natural Language Generation group

(http://mcs.open.ac.uk/nlg/)

Centre for Research in Computing
(http://crc.open.ac.uk)
The Open University, UK

"CODA - COherent Dialogue Automatically generated from text"

Position based in Milton Keynes, UK (40 minutes from central London by train) Duration: 2 years (Full-time) Expected start date: March 1, 2009

*** Project Overview:

The Department of Computing at The Open University (OU) has recently been awarded research funds by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop the theory and technology for automatic transformation of text in monologue form to information-delivering dialogue, specifically dialogue between a 'layman' (e.g., patient or student) and an 'expert' (e.g., doctor or tutor).

The project will include construction of a parallel corpus of monologues and dialogues that express the same information. The corpus will be employed to develop and implement a system for mapping spans of text in monologue form to dialogue. For example, a text describing when and how to take a medicine may be transformed into the text of a dialogue between a patient and pharmacist. The aim is for the text in dialogue form to present the same information as the original text, but in a more memorable and engaging way.

In collaboration with the visiting researcher to the project, Dr. Prendinger of the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, the project will also investigate how the proposed technology for mapping monologue to dialogue can be interfaced with state-of-the-art multimedia information presentation systems (involving computer-animated characters and speech synthesis). The project will build on the pilot study described in Piwek et al. (2007).

Piwek, P., H. Hernault, H. Prendinger and M. Ishizuka (2007). Generating Dialogues between Virtual Agents Automatically from Text. In: Intelligent Virtual Agents: Proceedings of IVA07, LNAI 4722, pages 161-174. Springer Verlag.

*** A Research Position will be available on the project for:

a candidate with a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science (or related area)/equivalent experience, and good programming skills (preferably in Java).

Interest in all of the following areas and knowledge in at least one of the areas is desirable:

• Paraphrasing/Text-to-Text generation/Machine Translation
• Natural Language Generation
• Dialogue Modelling
• Corpus linguistics

£24,152 - £28,839 according to experience & qualifications.

Closing date for applications: 31 January 2009. Interviews are expected to be in February. We welcome informal enquiries. Please contact Paul Piwek for further details and information on the formal application process.


Dr. Paul Piwek
Lecturer in the Computing Department
Centre for Research in Computing
The Open University
Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, UK

Web: http://mcs.open.ac.uk/pp2464

Postdoctoral position in Text Analysis (University of Pisa, Italy)

The research will be conducted as part of an undergoing project on semantic tagging of Wikipedia, in cooperation with Yahoo! Research and the Institute of Computational Linguistics of the CNR (http://medialab.di.unipi.it/wiki/index.php/ Analisi di testi per il Semantic Web e il Question Answering).

The research will be conducted at the Department of Informatics with an opportunity to spend periods at Yahoo! Research Barcelona.

The successful candidates will have a strong background in computer science and knowledge of statistical machine learning techniques, with emphasis on text and natural language analysis. They are expected to provide leadership on technical issues and well as to contribute to the development of object oriented high performance applications.

Skills and Experience

• A background in Computer Science with specialization in Computational Linguistics or Natural Language Processing
  
• Expertise in text mining or information retrieval
  
• Thorough understanding of software development methodologies
  
• Excellent programming skills in C++ and Python
  
• Expert-level understanding of statistical machine learning techniques as applied to text analytics, e.g., information extraction, summarization, classification, clustering, tone/sentiment analysis, relevance ranking
  

Education

PhD in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics or equivalent.

Application

The details of the call are available at: http://medialab.di.unipi.it/Announcement/BandoAssegno.pdf

Closing date for application is January 12, 2009.

General information about the Department of Informatics can be found at http://www.di.unipi.it.

Open Faculty Position Assistant or Associate Professor

Announcement Open Faculty Position Assistant or Associate Professor without tenure due to source of funding (WOT)

The Northwest Institute of Genetic Medicine in partnership with the University of Washington in Seattle is seeking a new biomedical and health informatics faculty member at the level of assistant or associate professor in the Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics (www.bhi.washington.edu) without tenure due to source of funding (WOT).

The Northwest Institute of Genetic Medicine (NWIGM) is a recently established multi-disciplinary multi-institutional program funded by the State of Washington Life Sciences Discovery Fund. The primary goals of the NWIGM are a) to facilitate the design, development, and execution of translational genetic studies that bridge basic and clinical research at academic institutions and biotechnology companies, and b) to promote outcomes research on the role of genetic testing in clinical medicine and its impact on the provision of healthcare. Key activities of the NWIGM include consultation related to study design, grant writing, and generation of pilot data.

Key disciplines involved in the NWIGM include the Division of Medical Genetics in the Department of Medicine, the Division of Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics, the Department of Genome Sciences, the Center for Biomedical Statistics in the Department of Biostatistics, and the Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics in the Department of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics. The organizations that have partnered to form NWIGM include the University of Washington, Seattle Children's Research Institute, and the Center for Health Studies at Group Health in Seattle. NWIGM also partners with the regional Institute of Translational Health Sciences (www.iths.org) which is an NIH CTSA funded center for clinical/translational research. The leadership for the NWIGM includes Dr. Gail Jarvik (Director), Dr. Bruce Weir, Dr. Deborah Nickerson, Dr. Michael Bamshad, and Dr. Peter Tarczy-Hornoch.

We encourage applications from candidates committed to biomedical informatics research in the area of genetic medicine both in the area of fostering discovery and in the area of applying the new discoveries. The responsibilities of the position include the following areas of activity: a) developing an independent program of research in the general area of linking electronic medical record phenotypic data (including natural language processing of text notes) with biological/genomic data sets in the context of genomic medicine, b) working with students and post-docs interested in this research area, c) providing consultation related to informatics support in this area related to grant writing, study design, and generation of pilot data, d) establishing collaborations with NWIGM members, and e) overseeing the development of an informatics consult service within the NWIGM.

The primary appointment will be 100% FTE with a 12-month service period in the Department of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics in the School of Medicine with opportunities for joint or adjunct appointment as appropriate. The initial appointment is without tenure due to funding (WOT). Generally, if an award of tenure would be proposed for consideration it would be after an individual has attained the full professor rank. Full funding through the NWIGM is available for 3 ½ years after which it is expected that the faculty member will be supported by a combination of grants and revenue from the NWIGM.

Candidates must have a doctoral degree in a core discipline of biomedical informatics, computer
science, or similar as well as training in biomedical informatics. Strong training in research methods is required; and experience with genetic association studies and/or natural language processing and/or electronic medical records is highly desirable. Demonstrated ability
to initiate and successfully conduct research is highly desired as well.

Review of applications will begin in Fall 2008 and continue until filled. We are seeking candidates available to start working Summer 2009 or earlier. Please send a statement of interest and qualifications, detailed curriculum vitae, and four letters of reference to:


NWIGM Informatics Faculty Search
c/o Donna Rowe
Department of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics
Box 357240
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-7430
www.bhi.washington.edu

email: zermatt@u.washington.edu
phone: 206-221-3322

Search committee chair:

Peter Tarczy-Hornoch, MD
Head and Professor
Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics
Department of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics
School of Medicine

University of Washington faculty engage in teaching, research, and service. The University of Washington is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. The University is building a culturally diverse faculty and staff and strongly encourages applications from women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and covered veterans.

Bioinformatics PostDoc Position

The Alberta Ingenuity Centre of Machine Learning [AICML], and the PolyomX (cancer genomics) researchers of the Cross Cancer Institute of the Alberta Cancer Board [ACB] are looking to hire a bright responsible Post Doctoral Fellow, to work with us in Edmonton on various bioinformatic projects: to help analyze biological and medical data, from microarrays, single nucleotide polyomorphisms (SNPs), and metabolic profiles, both to produce effective classifiers/regressors and also help identify the relevant biomarkers for further analysis.

The ideal candidate is knowledgable in both biology (genetics, molecular biology and population genetics) and machine learning, especially graphical models, learning algorithms (Weka), and also tricks for dimensionality reduction -- ie, coping with "large p, small n" problems. Interest and ability in programming (Matlab) is essential.

This PDF will take a lead role in coordinating a team of computing scientists (students and staff of the AICML, as well as several principle investigators) with researchers and clinicians from the ACB, on various projects. This may involve initiating new projects (from designing new experiments and obtaining funding), as well as working on existing projects, to understand a large inventory of already collected data. This is a great chance to both help solveimportant real-world problems, and also produce high-quality publications, in both artificial intelligence and medical journals.

This position is available immediately, for up to 2 years (possible extension of one more year, for a total of 3 years). The salary is commensurate with experience; we are an equal opportunity employer.

If you are interested, please send your information

• a cover letter, indicating why you qualify;
• your academic transcript;
• your CV, including a description of any previous research or industrial jobs you have held; and
• a list of your references, preferably including their email addresses.

to R Greiner: greiner -at- cs -dot- ualberta -dot- ca. For full consideration, we must receive your complete application by 15/January/2009.

(This information appears in http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~greiner/PDF-AICML-ACB.html.)

NLP Researcher at Motorola

Motorola’s Applied Research and Technology Center currently has the following research position available:

Text Processing Senior Staff Research Engineer
Job ID 83273
Location: Schaumburg, IL, United States (Suburban Chicago)
Job Category: Research Engineering, Software Engineering

Basic Qualifications

• Position requires enrollment in a Ph.D. program or a Masters Degree
• plus 1+ years experience in Computer Science; Computer Engineering;
• Electrical Engineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering;
• Computational Linguistics; or Linguistics.

Department Description

The Text Analysis and Processing Lab is part of Motorola's Applied Research and Technology Center (ARTC), where Motorola researchers study the interaction of people, devices, content, services, and environments.

Scope of Responsibilities/Expectations

This full-time position requires a Ph.D. with graduation date by June 30, 2009 or a Masters Degree plus 1+ years experience in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computational Linguistics, or Linguistics. The candidate's areas of specialization should include natural language processing, machine learning, or information retrieval. The candidate will be involved in projects employing advanced aspects of natural language processing, which may include machine learning and statistical approaches to natural language processing in projects related to information retrieval, information extraction, summarization, content matching and recommendation, topic identification, machine translation, or statistical modeling. These projects will typically involve the use of high-level linguistic or semantic abstractions. The successful candidate will become part of the Text Analysis and Processing Lab, which is part of a combined team within Motorola's Applied Research and Technology Center focusing on the advanced research and processing of textual, audio, and video streams.

Specific Knowledge/Skills

Experience in natural language processing required. Experience in machine learning desired. Candidate should have good statistical nlp grounding. C++, Java, or Python experience a plus.

To apply, please go to: http://www.motorolacareers.com/ select: Global Career Search in Search by Job ID, enter position: 83273

PhD studentships in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience, Edinburgh

We invite applications for 12 fully-funded PhD studentships at the University of Edinburgh Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience. The DTC is a world-class centre for research at the interface between neuroscience and the engineering, computational, and physical sciences.

Our four-year programme is ideal for students with strong computational and analytical skills who want to employ cutting-edge methodology to advance research in neuroscience and related fields. The first year consists of courses in neuroscience and informatics, as well as lab projects. This is followed by a three-year PhD project done in collaboration with one of the many departments and institutes affiliated with the DTC.

The DTC focuses on research into understanding the brain and the nervous system using computational models and experiments, and also includes applying findings from neuroscience to build better software and hardware (robots and microcircuits), and using advanced methods to improve data handling and analysis including clinical diagnosis. PhD topics fall into five main areas:

Computational neuroscience: Using analytical and computational models, potentially supplemented with experiments, to gain quantitative understanding of the nervous system. Current projects focus on the development and function of sensory and motor systems, including neural coding, learning, and memory.
Cognitive science: Studying human cognitive processes and analysing them in computational terms.
Biomedical imaging algorithms and tools: Using advanced data analysis techniques, such as machine learning and Bayesian approaches, for imaging-based diagnosis and research.
Software systems and applications: Using discoveries from neuroscience to develop software that can handle real-life data.
Neurorobotics and VLSI: Using insights from neuroscience to help build better hardware, such as neuromorphic VLSI circuits and robots that perform robustly under natural conditions.

Edinburgh has a world-class research community in these areas and leads the UK in creating a coherent programme in neuroinformatics and computational neuroscience. Edinburgh has been voted 'best place to live in Britain', and has many exciting cultural and student activities.

Students with a strong background in computer science, mathematics, physics, or engineering are particularly welcome to apply. Highly motivated students with other backgrounds will also be considered.

Up to 12 full studentships (12,973-14,766 UK pounds/year) are available to UK students and a small number of EU students. Non-EU/non-UK applicants are also encouraged, but will need to provide their own funding and evidence thereof.

Further information and application forms can be obtained from: http://www.anc.ed.ac.uk/dtc

For full consideration for entry in September 2009, please apply by 16 February 2009.

Postdoctoral Position in Computational Linguistics at Northwestern University

Pending availability of funding, the Analytical Crisis and Reputation Management group at Northwestern University is seeking to fill a postdoctoral research position for the project "Language and Political Behavior." This project brings together researchers from the Departments of Linguistics and Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences as part of the Northwestern Institute in Complex Systems (NICO). Its goal is to analyze written and spoken text in business and politics in order to detect and trace issues and opinions, tonality of documents, and to explore the relationship between linguistic output and voting patterns, interest group positioning and survey data. The project also explores applications to political and reputational risk management.

Candidates should hold a doctoral degree in Linguistics, Computer Science, or a related area. Requirements include:

(i) a solid theoretical background and practical experience in quantitative methods in computational linguistics and/or information retrieval;
(ii) excellent programming skills; and
(iii) a strong motivation and proven ability to work and publish collaboratively.

The position is available immediately. The initial appointment will be for 12 months, with the possibility of extension by another 12 months, subject to performance and availability of funding. Financial compensation will be competitive and commensurate with the candidate's qualification.

Prospective candidates should send their curriculum vitae, including list of publications, to the following address:

Justin Heinze

Center Administrator
Ford Motor Company Center for Global Citizenship
Kellogg School of Management
586 Donald P. Jacobs Center
2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208-2001

j-heinze@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Tel. (847)-467-0524
Fax. (847)-467-1220

Applicants should arrange for two letters of reference to be sent directly to the same address. For full consideration, application materials including letters should arrive no later than January 31, 2009. For further information, contact Stefan Kaufmann at kaufmann@northwestern.edu.

Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, and applications from minority and women candidates are especially welcome. Hiring is contingent upon eligibility to work in the United States.

Post-Doctoral Position in Health Informatics - University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota Department of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems (Twin Cities) and the Computer Science Department (Duluth) invite applicants for a post-doctoral position in health informatics. This position will support a project that will focus on developing measures of semantic relatedness among biomedical concepts and applying these measures for medication safety surveillance. The University of Minnesota has a strong emphasis on Biomedical and Health Informatics. The successful applicant for this position will join a dynamic and rapidly growing group of investigators with a broad spectrum of expertise including informatics, computer science, pharmacy, medicine, public health, linguistics and cognitive science.

The successful candidate will have a doctorate degree in computer science, computational linguistics, information science, health informatics or a closely related discipline. The candidate will also have a strong programming background (Java, C++ and/or Perl) as the work will involve software development and evaluation including database management and web-based technologies.

Preference will be given to candidates with strong backgrounds in natural language processing and machine learning and those that have demonstrated experience in working with measuring semantic similarity and ontological and terminological resources such as WordNet, UMLS, SNOMED-CT. Familiarity with building software applications for distributed multi-processor platforms is also a plus.

Interested individuals should submit a letter of intent, a curriculum vitae, and contact information for three references to : Dr. Serguei Pakhomov (pakh0002@umn.edu) and Dr. Ted Pedersen (tpederse@d.umn.edu)

Application review process will begin on February 1, 2009. This is a one year appointment, which can be renewed for up to three years.

PhD in Forecasting & Data Mining at Lancaster U. Management School

Lancaster University Management School
www.lums.lancs.ac.uk
Department of Management Science & Centre for Forecasting

Research Assistant & Part-time PhD
£24,588-£28,839 pro rata
Forecasting & Data Mining with Neural Networks

Applications are invited for a four-year part-time PhD student & Research Assistant position, funded by the Research Centre for Forecasting, Department of Management Science, Lancaster University Management School, to commence January 2008.

Applicants will be expected to work 3 days per week for the Lanacster Centre for Forecasting under the supervision of Dr. Sven F. Crone, and will be paid pro rata. Applicants will have the opportunity to pursue a part-time PhD (duration 4 years) in the remaining time. PhD tuition fees (equivalent of up to £9,200 for overseas students) will be covered in addition to the salary for four years. A formal review after year one will determine continuation of the PhD and access to the remaining 3 years of the position. Successful candidates will work with colleagues, external clients, and students whilst developing their research agenda, and will undertake all aspects of academic research, applied research projects, teaching, supervision and administration in forecasting and data mining.

We seek applicants that should have the potential to develop academic and applied research of international standard within our team. Candidates should have an excellent first degree and be completing a Master’s degree or equivalent in management, engineering or computer science, or even hold a first Ph.D. in a related subject area. Corporate experience is also valued. Candidates should have excellent verbal/written communication skills, a strong quantitative background, basic computer programming experience (in C#, mathlab etc.) and some initial expertise in the areas of forecasting and /or data mining with neural networks, preferably in the context of management science, operational research or operations management.

Please initially apply for the Research Associate position by either applying online at http://www.personnel.lancs.ac.uk/vacancydets.aspx?jobid=A121 or alternatively telephone Human Resources, quoting reference A121 on 01524 846549 (answerphone) to request an application pack. Application deadline is the 3rd of December 2008!

Enquiries on administrative aspects of the application process should be directed to Gay Bentinck at g.bentinck@lancaster.ac.uk. Enquiries on the research topics should be directed to Dr. Sven F. Crone, Deputy Director, Lancaster Centre for Forecasting, Tel. +44 (0) 1524 592991 or mobile +49 (0) 171 4910100 - Email: s.crone@lancaster.ac.uk

Postdoctoral fellow in Theoretical Computer Science at the University of Michigan

Mathematics and Computer Science Departments at the University of Michigan. The position will be at the rank of Assistant Professor for a period of three years (shorter if desirable) in the Mathematics Department. The salary is competitive with postdoctoral salaries and there are opportunities for supplemental summer support. We invite applicants from all areas of theoretical computer science.

The teaching load will be one course per semester, alternating mathematics courses with computer science courses. The postdoc is encouraged to teach at least one seminar course on an advanced topic of his or her choice for the Computer Science Department and to participate in the Theoretical Computer Science seminar, which is joint between Mathematics and Computer Science.

All applications must be processed through the Mathematics Department. You can find out more information about the department's postdoctoral program. Please note that the teaching load and distribution of courses for this position is different from that of the other positions. The postdoctoral program in Mathematics at the University of Michigan is one of the largest in the country and is a lively, active young mathematical community.

You may apply online at the American Mathematical Society's (AMS) website: mathjobs.org. The deadline for complete applications, which includes the AMS cover sheet, a separate cover letter, four letters of reference (one of which addresses teaching), C.V, research statement, teaching statement, and a publication list, is December 15, 2008.

To ensure that we can search our applicant database quickly, we encourage all applicants to list as their primary research area AMS code [68] Computer Science. You may also enter any other research interests for which the AMS has a category; e.g., [5] Combinatorics, [3] Mathematical Logic and Foundations.

Open positions in Machine Learning, Lille (France)

We would like to advertise that tenure positions for researchers will be opened soon by the French National Research Institute for Computer Science and Control (INRIA, http://www.inria.fr/index.en.html).

In Lille, two research groups have strong interest in machine learning:

• Sequel (http://sequel.futurs.inria.fr/), reinforcement learning, online learning
• Mostrare (http://mostrare.futurs.inria.fr/), structured prediction 4 positions of junior researchers and 1 position of experienced researcher will be open in Lille.

We would also like to mention that opportunities exist for:

• tenure positions for senior researchers in order to create a new research group
• five years positions for senior researchers
• postdoctoral positions
• PhD grants

A thorough description of these opportunities is given on our Web sites.

If you have any question, please get in touch with us, either remi.gilleron@inria.fr (Mostrare), or remi.munos@inria.fr, philippe.preux@inria.fr for SequeL. If you want to apply, it is crucial that you get in touch with us, as early as possible.

Liaison Manager: National Centre for Text Mining and Biomedical ResearchCentre, University of Manchester

The Biomedical Research Centre and the National Centre for Text Mining (www.nactem.ac.uk) seek to appoint a liaison manager to support their research and commercialisation activities; to establish, maintain and develop strategic links with industry and tool/resource suppliers; and to contribute substantially to ensuring the sustainability of both centres.The post is available with immediate effect for 2 years in the first instance.

The National Centre for Text Mining forms part of the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester. Its role is to provide text mining services to the academic community and to engage with industry. The successful candidate will provide industrial and research support for a strong and dynamic team in text mining, liaising between the Biomedical Research Centre and the National Centre for Text Mining activities.

Closing date for applications: 10/01/2009

Further details are available at:
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/jobs/research/vacancy/index.htm?ref=144704

Please quote reference: EPS/81303

Informal enquiries should be made to sophia.ananiadou@manchester.ac.uk

Post doctoral position in Machine Learning/Cognitive Vision/CBIR

For a project funded by the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) and the European Commission, we are looking for a highly motivated post doctoral researcher with background in machine learning and/or cognitive vision and/or content based image retrieval. Among the possible fields of specialization are on-line learning, active learning, reinforcement learning, visual object classification, relevance feedback, and query-by-example search.

To learn more about the above project and the research at the Chair of Information Technology, University of Leoben, Austria, please visit http://institute.unileoben.ac.at/infotech.

This position will be filled in January 2009 for the duration of 2 years (with a possible extension). Depending on your qualification salary is 30000-45000 EUR per year (after paying all social and insurance benefits and taxes this is net 1500-2000 EUR per month). Highly qualified PhD candidates may be considered as well.

Applicants should submit 1) a CV, including a brief research statement, 2) 1-3 recent publications in electronic format, and 3) the names and contact information of three individuals who can serve as references.


Contact:

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Peter Auer
University of Leoben
Chair for Information Technology
Franz-Josef-Strasse 18, A-8700 Leoben, Austria
Fax: +43(3842)402-1502
E-mail: auer@unileoben.ac.at

2 research assistants for TextMining in Geneva, Switzerland

University of Applied Science Geneva & University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland

The Geneva Text Mining and Bibliomics group is looking for two talented research assistants. Positions are funded for at least three years and should be fulfilled asap. Candidates should have the following qualifications:

• a strong academic record in computer science, computational linguistics, information science, bioinformatics or chemoinformatics;
• a clear interest in practical applications and service delivery to end-users;
• a solid background in at least one of the following areas: information retrieval, machine learning, ontology engineering, bibliometrics;
• a clear aptitude for independent and creative research as evidenced byan excellent master or phd thesis - possibility to participate in a PhD program will be offered;
• good communication skills in English and optionally in French - or at least a clear indication of willingness to learn the latter;
• the following items would be an asset: previous experience with patent document processing; familiarity with biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, toxicology, adverse effect signaling or drug design.

Please send your curriculum vitae, academic transcript, and contact information to patrick.ruch[at]sim.hcuge.ch

Research Assistant, Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing, University of Glasgow

A vacancy has arisen for a Research Assistant to work on the Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing (1700-1945). The AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) awarded a grant over three years (June 2007-May 2010) for the development of an electronic corpus of Scottish literary and non-literary texts from the period of 1700-1945. This corpus is to be mounted on the Web and will be freely available to researchers, educators and members of the public. The focus of the corpus is on Scots and Scottish English. The appointee will work under the supervision of the Glasgow grant-holders, Professor John Corbett and Professor Jeremy Smith, and the Computing Officer, Mr Dave Beavan. The project team includes a postgraduate research student, Mr Dorian Grieve, and associated members of staff, including Mrs Jean Anderson, Dr Wendy Anderson and Professor Christian Kay. The primary task of the Research Assistant will be to support the grant-holders and Computing Officer in maintaining the work-flow necessary to deliver the project targets within the final 17 months of the funding period. The Research Assistant will also contribute to the research outputs of the project.
For further information please visit www.gla.ac.uk/jobs/vacancies

Application Forms should be submitted to the Human Resources Department (Recruitment Section), University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ.

Closing Date: 17 December 2008

INTERVIEWS FOR THIS POST WILL TAKE PLACE ON MONDAY 12th JANUARY 2009.

Two Software Engineers, National Centre for Text Mining

Two Software Engineers, National Centre for Text Mining, School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, UK

We seek two (2) software engineers to enhance our team expertise particularly in the areas of large-scale bibliometric applications, visualization and user interfaces. Emphasis is on development of software components and integration of these with our text mining tools and services, in a context where users wish to view and interact with results from the processing of large amounts of full text documents. Candidates should thus have expertise in developing scalable solutions for huge amounts of data.

The successful candidates will be part of a strong and dynamic team in bio-text mining located at the National Centre for Text Mining which is hosted by the School of Computer Science and the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre.

The posts are available immediately for a period of 28 months.

Essential skills: A good first degree and an MSc, both in Computer Science or closely related discipline; several years of large scale software development in the requested areas (bibliometrics and/or information retrieval and/or visualisation); proven track record in full software development lifecycle; experience with Service Oriented Architectures ; excellent knowledge of Lucene, C, C++, Java, XML, PHP, databases, Windows, Linux, Web programming and Web Services; expertise in modern software development tools, techniques and processes.

Closing date for applications: 11/12/08

Further details are available at: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/jobs/technical/vacancy/index.htm?ref=145803

Please quote reference: EPS/81364

Informal enquiries should be made to Dr Sophia Ananiadou, Sophia.Ananiadou@manchester.ac.uk

PhD scholarship for computing in medicine and life sciences, Luebeck University, Germany

The Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences at the University of Luebeck (Germany), publishes 16 Ph.D. scholarships for 16 individual projects in the fields of bioinformatics and robotics.

PhD scholarship amounts to 1250 € per month. Students with a master's degree (or its equivalent) in computer science, mathematics or engineering are invited to apply for admission. The application deadline is January 15, 2009. In certain cases, students must submit, as part of their application, the results of one of the acknowledged language tests to prove their English proficiency.

For further information, please visit our website at www.gradschool.uni-luebeck.de. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions via email: management@gradschool.uni-luebeck.de before sending your application.

1. Correction of Susceptibility caused Distortions in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Recently a research group at the host university has discovered a method for computing the distortions of the static field in MRI. This method is based on multi-grid methods, and has been successfully applied to the correction of the geometric distortions in T1-weighted images.
Based on new registration methods, it was shown that the statistic measure of similarity between CT images and T1-MR images of the same anatomy increased after applying this new method. The goal of this project is to apply the techniques developed to fMRI images, in order to allow for the use of fMRI in navigation.

2. Endoscopic Optical Coherence Tomography in the Deep Brain

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a new high-resolution, real-time imaging modality. Institutes of Lübeck University have been instrumental in developing this emerging technology, which is now beginning to gain recognition in laboratories world-wide. We have shown that OCT is able to capture the difference between white and grey brain matter.

The goal of the project is to investigate Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) as a minimal-invasive imaging modality for deep brain navigation and diagnosis in neurological disorders. The goals of the project are:

1. Development of endoscopic OCT, thus OCT that can be placed inside a thin endoscopic needle.
2. Development of signal processing methods for tissue identification and classification.
3. Integration of OCT in a stereotactic environment.
4. Integration of OCT into neuronavigation systems.

3. Transcranial sonography (TCS) in monogenic forms of Parkinsonism

The project: There are several open questions regarding ultrasound technology in genetic and nongenetic forms of parkinsonism:

1. Is there information other than aSN or LN hyperechogenicity in the ultrasound signal from the mesencephalic and diencephalic ultrasound images to characterise distinct forms of parkinsonism/PD?
2. Is the ultrasound investigation useful to screen a large population for genetic and other forms of PD?
3. Can SN hyperechogenicity serve as a preclinical marker?

Computer methods for automated investigator-independent detection of the SN and LN will be developed. After development of this tool for the detection of aSN and LN hyperechogenicity, a statistical image processing tool will be created to detect specific characteristics of the images.

4. Stroke Rehabilitation Robot

The robots under investigation must have novel sensory capabilities to adapt to the patient's individual needs. Interdisciplinary tracks of developments would aim at cheap, yet precise sensor-actuator combinations, high acceptability by ergonomic and psychologically optimised appearance, interactivity by smart sensors and signal analysis as well as therapeutically optimised movement paradigms.

5. Parallel mode of action control: from human studies to intelligent robotic interfaces

The goal of the project is to transfer knowledge about the function of the motor system into haptic interface systems and stroke rehabilitation robotics. We will first consider the well established task of reaching for / grasping an object. This complex action consists of two main components, which are processed in parallel channels. The phylogenetically "older" reaching component is processed in the fast dorso-dorsal channel and the "younger" component of grasping requires more programming of the hand-object interaction and is processed in the slower ventro-dorsal channel. Neuroimaging studies with fMRI, MEG and DTI will be used to validate models.

6. Cardiac pacemaker localisation

The Graduate School of Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences (funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG, and the German Government within the German university excellence program) at the University of Luebeck is now offering a PhD scholarship for the project "Cardiac pacemaker localisation “ in the research field of Robotics and Neuro-Rehabilitation.

7. Brain Modelling

The Graduate School of Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences (funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG, and the German Government within the German university excellence program) at the University of Luebeck is now offering a PhD scholarship for the project "Brain Modelling “ in the research field of Navigation Methods in the Deep Brain.

8. Robot assisted navigation guided OCT operating microscope

We have recently demonstrated that optical coherence tomography (OCT) of human brain in vivo can be done and that this optical tissue imaging delineates adjacent brain, tumour invaded brain and the highly cellular part of the tumour. In such a scenario, a robot-assisted and navigated microscope would be able to obtain consecutive images of a tumour resection cavity. These imaging data could be scored for residual tumour.

The goals of this project are: (1) Robotic microscope, (2) Integration of optical coherence tomography into the optical pathway of a neurosurgical operating microscope (3) 3D mapping data of the OCT tissue analysis and imaging data for navigation.

9. Definition of cortical networks for the control of eye and hand movements

One of our topics will be to define the possible modulation of these cerebro-cerebellar activation patterns depending on a variable context of the movement. This will be investigated by using different levels of complex tasks, or, as in "normal" life situations, different levels of attention to the tasks especially due to different levels of external distraction. This definition of certain cerebro-cerebellar networks allows a possibly more precise interaction with technical devices such as EEG or ECoG, for instance to control a computer or an external technical device in a more natural way.

10. 3-dimensional kinematic principles of eye, head and limb movements

The project addresses two hypotheses:

The central processing of convergent semicircular canal information in the human brain as assessed by head impulse tests is consistent with its prediction obtained from the alignment of 3D rotation vectors of the spontaneous nystagmus in patients with brain stem lesions and the vectors resulting from individual semicircular canal stimulation.

Eye-centred rather than body-centred mechanisms are governing the integration of target and hand position in programming reaching movements in patients with a vestibular lesion with the head unrestrained vs. restrained.

11. Interfaces based on EEG, ECoG and DBS

The goal of this project is to develop stationary medical grade signal processing hard- and software to record from 256 wideband channels while ignoring synchronous magnetic disturbances (TMS). The second step will deal with the improvement of the stationary system to a mobile platform, based on embedded signal processing. The goal is to develop optimal classifiers to interpret brain activity and utilise this analysis to provide a scarce command set for output devices.

12. Inhibitor Design

Three-dimensional models for the homologous Mip proteins from Chlamydia spp. will be constructed by homology-model building. Along with the X-ray structure of Legionella Mip, these will be used in virtual screening for and docking of potential new inhibitors. Hits found in this procedure will be synthesised in-house and tested for PPIase inhibition in vitro and for antibacterial effects in vivo.

13. Efficient Methods of Exact Solutions of Complex Problems in Molecular Biology

Finding an optimal alignment is a very difficult and time consuming task due to the inherent algorithmic complexity. Therefore, most software systems provide only approximate solutions. We have developed new exact sequential algorithms that give better performance. A current PhD project tries to parallelise our new methods in a suitable way such that further significant speedups by parallel processing can be achieved. The algorithms are tested on our high performance shared-memory parallel machine SunFire 15K. An important innovation for our solution is the reduction of the tasks to specific graph theoretical problems that can be solved efficiently also in parallel, for example to distance problems in specific regular graphs.

14. Synaptic Plasticity: Regulatory Mechanisms in Receptor Trafficking

The project deals with the modelling and the simulation of the molecular mechanisms of LTP and LTD in the synaptic transmissions. The proposed project aims in the explanation of fundamental mechanisms of multistable reactions both in synaptic plasticity and in more general context. An essential part of such reactions is a positive-feedback loop, which has been found in various biochemical and medical investigations.

15. Computational analysis of RNA structure

We propose to develop computer-based tools for the automated theoretical design of gene interruption and to implement suitable algorithms. The development will be based on novel machine learning methods for motif detection and classification.

16. Analysis of adult stem cells by computer vision

In this project, time-lapse imaging of living cells is combined with computer vision and machine learning technologies to discover patterns in the in vitro behaviour of the cells. This non-invasive approach has the advantage that the cells are left undisturbed, since already small perturbations may alter the growth and differentiation characteristics of the cells. Moreover, the method allows for the investigation of large cell numbers, thus ensuring the statistical relevance of the obtained data.

PhD/Posdoc Positions in Biomedical Data Mining

PhD/Posdoc Positions in Biomedical Data Mining
University of Geneva/University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland

Applications are invited for 2 PhD students and 1 Postdoc in data mining
applied to biomedical data. The candidates will work on a 4 year
European research project (FP7). The project will involve several
clinical sites across Europe, including the University Hospitals of
Geneva, as well as leading EHR vendors. The goal of the project is to
deliver computer tools and methods to advance the state of the art in
documenting, detecting and preventing antibiotics resistance at both
clinical and population levels.

Candidates should have the following qualifications:
-an outstanding academic record in computer science as well as strong
mathematical and programming skills;
-a solid background in at least two of the following areas: distributed
database management, quantitative analysis, machine learning,
information retrieval, business intelligence, ontology engineering,
multimodal data management (structured data/text/signals...).
-a clear aptitude for independent and creative research as evidenced by
an excellent Master or PhD thesis;
-good communication skills in English and French (or at least a clear
indication of willingness to learn the latter).

The salary for a research assistant at the University of Geneva starts
at about 50000 CHF (~45000 USD or 30000 Euro) per year. The University
and University Hospitals of Geneva are equal opportunity employers.
Please send your curriculum vitae, academic transcript, and contact
information to patrick.ruch@sim.hcuge.ch.

PostDoc position in Computer Vision in China

Postdoc position in ** Computer Vision and Statistical Learning for Human Behavior Analysis **.

LIAMA Sino-French Laboratory in Computer Science, Automation and Applied Mathematics, BEIJING, P.R. CHINA.

French CNRS postdoctororal contract, for two years.

The closing date for application is ** March 30, 2008 **.

The postdoc project is described on: https://www2.cnrs.fr/DRH/post-docs08/?pid=1&action=view&id=596&lang=en

Formal description of the position is available on: https://www2.cnrs.fr/DRH/post-docs08/?pid=8&lang=en

For further information, feel free to contact Franck.Davoine at gmail.com

Applications include a CV and a statement of interest, a link to the Ph.D. thesis, a list of publications, references (names, homepages), in PDF-format, and the formal application form available on https://www2.cnrs.fr/DRH/post-docs08/?pid=1&action=view&id=596&lang=en at the following address:

Dr. Franck Davoine, LIAMA / CASIA, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 95, Zhongguancun Dong Lu, PO Box 2728, BEIJING 100080, P.R. CHINA.


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Despite active research in the past decades, robust analysis of facial actions for automatic human behavior understanding in unconstrained environments, as well as non invasive and very accurate capture of subtle facial performances are still very difficult problems, and pose significant research challenges. This is mainly due to the high variability of the face's appearance over time, caused by intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as changes in illumination, out-of-plane rotations, occlusions, facial expressions, etc.

The postdoc position is in the field of human activity and behavior analysis. The successful candidate is expected to participate in the development of novel methods, together with Dr. Franck Davoine, considering richer adaptive models for a better analysis of faces, possibly considering contextual knowledge extracted for example from modalities like body postures or hand gestures. Different focus options are available depending on the interests and strengths of the candidate.

He will be expected to do leading-edge research in the area of computer vision and statistical learning, and be involved in collaborative research projects with academic and industrial partners. He will be employed by the CNRS, and based at the LIAMA Sino-French laboratory in Beijing, P.R.China, during 24 months.

LIAMA is located in the northwestern part of Beijing, in the Haidian science park described as China's Silicon Valley. It offers a very exciting environment for research, a possibility to conduct competitive research and opportunities to cooperate with some of the best groups in China.

Information about the LIAMA is available on http://liama.ia.ac.cn/wiki/

We seek a post-doctoral researcher worldwide. Applicants must have most of the following attributes:

* Excellent computer programming abilities in C/C++/Matlab.
* Proven knowledge and experience of modern computer vision or statistical methods for machine learning.
* A track record of publications in first-rank international computer vision or statistical learning conferences and journals.
* Fluent in English, both written and spoken.
* Creative team player.

text mining position at the National Centre for TextMining in collaboration with Pfizer

Research position at the National Centre for Text Mining (www.nactem.ac.uk) in collaboration with Pfizer

School of Computer Science, University of Manchester

Applications are invited for a Research Associate in biotext mining for a period of 12 months. The post is available from 1st April 2008. The candidate will work within a project funded by Pfizer. The overall aim of the project is to develop named entity recognisers for biotext mining applications. The project will extend and customise NaCTeM's tools and services such as TerMine and AcroMine, to support text mining research at Pfizer. The successful candidate will be part of a strong and dynamic team in biotext mining, and will work closely with the co-located team of the National Centre for Text Mining (www.nactem.ac.uk) which is hosted by the School of Computer Science.

Applicants should have a good relevant first degree (minimum 2:1), an MSc in Computer Science, and preferably a PhD in a text mining area. They should not be still studying for a degree. They should have excellent software engineering skills; have the ability to develop algorithms and software for NLP/TM systems; the ability to produce experiments for biotext mining applications using large data sets; excellent knowledge of text mining using machine learning techniques and in particular named entity recognition, disambiguation, information extraction for biomedical applications; excellent knowledge of C, C++, Java, XML, Windows, Linux and Web Services. A good publication record would be an advantage. Successful candidates should ideally have research project experience in the areas of biomedical named entity recognition and disambiguation.

For more information see the following website:
http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/employment/jobs/research/vacancy/index.htm?ref=131689

Closing date for applications: 27th February 2008

Informal enquiries should be made to Dr Sophia Ananiadou.

Please quote reference: EPS/80057

Post-Doctoral Position in "Language Technology and Cognitive Systems"

Post-Doctoral Position in "Language Technology and Cognitive Systems"

Saarland University, Saarbruecken, Germany

International Research Training Group "Language Technology and Cognitive Systems" is pleased to announce the availability of a post-doctoral position available from June, 2008. The programme, established in 2001, is a collaborative PhD training programme between Saarland University and the University of Edinburgh - two leading institutions in the fields of computational linguistics, cognitive science and artificial intelligence. The participating departments in Saarbruecken are the Department of Computational Linguistics and Phonetics and the Department of Computer Science.

The IRTG focuses on the computational and cognitive foundations of human language processing, particularly emphasizing the following research areas:

- Language understanding (including spoken language processing, cognitive modelling, and experimental psycholinguistics)
- Knowledge representation, inference, the lexicon, and ontologies
- Data-intensive language models (including corpus-based and machine learning methods)
- Dialogue and language generation (computational and cognitive models)

Candidates must have completed all requirements for their PhD degree by the time of appointment. The ideal candidate for the post-doctoral position will have research interests which span computational and cognitive aspects of language processing, and have experience overlapping several of the above areas. In addition to the opportunity to carry out independent and collaborative research, the position also includes some administrative duties associated with the program. Some teaching is also possible, but not a requirement of the post. The position comes with access to state-of-the-art computing facilities, and the possibility to use the range of facilities on-site - such as eye-tracking, dialog, speech, and robotics laboratories - by arrangement with the relevant lab directors. Salary is on the German TV-L E13 scale (approx. 35K Euros per annum, depending on age and marital status). Support for travel to conferences is also available. The position is available from June 1, 2008 until March 31, 2010.

For more information about the graduate college and current members, prospective applicants are encouraged to look at our website: http://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/projects/igk/

The final deadline for applications is 3 March, 2008. Any inquiries concerning the post should be directed to the e-mail address below. Complete applications including: (1) a statement of research interests, (2) a full CV, (3) two example publications, and (4) the names (and e-mail addresses) of two referees, should be sent (preferably via e-mail) to:

Prof. Dr. Matthew Crocker
e-mail: irtg-admin@coli.uni-sb.de

Department of Computational Linguistics
Saarland University
P.O. Box 15 11 50
66041 Saarbruecken, Germany

Tel. +49 (0)681 302-6560
Fax +49 (0)681 302-6561

Scholarships for PhD study in Informatics@Edinburgh

FIFTY research scholarships are available for UK, EU and overseas students. Many are full scholarships, paying your tuition fees and a stipend of 12940 pounds to cover living expenses in your first year, rising in second and third years. The rest pay your fees and/or a contribution towards living expenses. Payment of fees for non-EU students is subject to successful competition for an Overseas Research Student award. By making contributions to teaching, for example by leading tutorial groups, you can expect to earn an additional 500-1000 pounds per year.

INFORMATICS is the study of information and computation, in both natural and engineered systems. It comprises a vast range of scientific and engineering endeavour and has enormous economic and social impact. The University of Edinburgh's School of Informatics possesses a combination of breadth and strength unparallelled elsewhere in the UK and competitive world-wide. It is the only department to have achieved the top 5*A rating in Computer Science in the UK government's 2001 Research Assessment Exercise round, and it is the UK's biggest research group in this area. We currently have around 270 students studying for PhD, and around 140 for MSc.

PHD STUDY is carried out within one of our six research Institutes:
ANC: Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation
CISA: Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
ICCS: Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems ****this is where we do most of our language work
ICSA: Institute for Computing Systems Architecture
IPAB: Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour
LFCS: Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science

FOR MUCH MORE INFORMATION and a list of potential PhD research topics see http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd-advert.html

APPLY by mid-March or earlier if possible. Applications for an Overseas Research Student award must be completed by mid-February. Chinese applicants who are interested in funding from the China Scholarship Council should apply by late January.

PhD positions in Language, Interaction and Computation

PhD positions and studentships are available in the Language, Interaction and Computation track of the PhD program offered by the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences at the University of Trento:

http://www.cimec.unitn.it/

The Language, Interaction & Computation track is offered by CLIC, an interdisciplinary group of researchers studying verbal and non-verbal communication using both computational and cognitive methods.

http://clic.cimec.unitn.it/

Areas of particular interest include:

* The study of the use of semantic and encyclopedic knowledge in communication. We try to connect work of a theoretical nature in linguistics and computer science (formal linguistics, lexical semantics, ontological modeling) with empirical data-intensive approaches based on statistics and text mining (lexical acquisition from textual data and multimodal sources) as well as behavioral and neuroscientific evidence on conceptual representation in the mind/brain.

* The study of multimodal communication, in which agents communicate using (and keeping in mind what is expressed with) a variety of expressive means that go from verbal expressions to
gestures as well as in the direction of a look, and that can also use images and diagrams. Both the cognitive/linguistic aspects of this type of communication as well as the possible technological applications are studied in various types of interfaces.

The latest Call of the Doctoral School in Cognitive and Brain Sciences has been announced and is available, with application details, at the page:

http://www.cimec.unitn.it/education.php

Deadline for applications: March 14th, 2008

The PhD program is taught in English by an international faculty, For more details, visit the page above or contact:

phd.cimec@unitn.it.

For more details on CLIC, visit http://clic.cimec.unitn.it/ or contact marco.baroni@unitn.it

Postdoctoral or Research Fellow in Biomedical Text Mining

Postdoctoral or Research Fellow in Biomedical Text Mining
Faculty of Medicine CENTRE FOR HEALTH INFORMATICS
http://www.chi.unsw.edu.au
UNSW Sydney Australia

We are seeking to appoint a highly motivated and experienced researcher, as a postdoctoral or research fellow in the Centre for Health Informatics, with a background in computational linguistics, computer science or a related area to develop and evaluate advanced text mining techniques and apply them in knowledge management applications in the biomedical domain.

The Centre for Health Informatics is Australia's largest academic health informatics research group conducting fundamental and applied research focusing on the design, evaluation and application of decision-support technologies for healthcare and the biosciences. The Centre is located at the University of New South Wales and collaborates with researchers in computer science, health services research and with industry and the public and private sectors.

This position offers an outstanding opportunity to work in a unique multi-disciplinary research environment encompassing information, communication, cognitive and organisational science to support health service and biomedical innovation.

Requirements for the position are:

• A PhD in Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science or a related area.
• A track record of publication in the peer reviewed literature.
• Skills in one or more of the following areas: text mining, information extraction, named entity and relation extraction, computational lexicon development, text categorization, automatic text
• summarization, information retrieval.
• Preferably a strong track record and experience in statistical machine learning approaches to natural language processing.
• Excellent programming skills (Java/Python/Perl/C++).
• Knowledge of research experimental methods; ability to develop, implement prototypes and validate algorithms.
• Good oral and written communication skills; ability to produce oral presentations and written
• technical reports of publishable quality.
• Demonstrated skills in working in a team and desire to coach junior researchers and students.

The position is for two years full time with the possibility of extension depending on further funding. This opportunity offers much flexibility in supporting individual career development, including the commencement of new initiatives. A part-time appointment may be considered.

FIXED TERM: This is a fixed term position available until June 2009. The salary range is: Postdoctoral Fellow (Level A) $50,014 - $66,686; Research Fellow - Level B $70,028 - $82,554 (plus up to 9% employer superannuation plus leave loading), depending on qualifications and experience. The salary includes a superable UNSW academic loading of $3,000 per annum payable to academic staff (pro rata for fractional academic staff). A part-time appointment may be considered..

Please direct any enquiries to Dr Grace Chung on 02 9385 9016 or by e-mail on graceyc@unsw.edu.au.

Applications close 29 February 2008.

Eight Ph.D. Fellowships in Linguistics, 2008

Eight Ph.D. Fellowships in Linguistics, 2008
--------------------------------------------

The Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG) announces the
eight fellowships for study leading to Ph.D. degrees in Linguistics.

http://www.let.rug.nl/~nerbonne/clcg/phd-2008/

Two-Year Lecturer Position

Two-Year Lecturer Position (Universitaire Docent)
-------------------------------------------------

The department of Humanities Computing (Alfa-Informatica) at the
University of Groningen is seeking a temporary:

Lecturer (Universitair Docent)
Full-time position for two years

http://www.let.rug.nl/nerbonne/clcg/ud-ik-2008/

Research Posts in Semantic Web Services

The Knowledge Media Institute at The Open University needs Research Assistants and Research Associates to undertake research in Semantic Web Services within our EU-funded projects: LUISA, (http://luisa.atosorigin.es/www/index.php) with focus is on shifting e-Learning from a learning objects-based paradigm to a paradigm based on Semantic Web Services; and SOA4ALL (http://www.soa4all.org) which aims to combine SWS technology with the principles underlying Web and Web 2.0 to create a web of billions of services. All of our work will be centred on our framework and implemented infrastructure for developing Semantic Web Services, IRS-III (http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/irs/ ).

You will be considered according to qualifications and experience. A Research Assistant requires a Masters qualification or equivalent post-graduate experience and a Research Associate requires a PhD qualification or equivalent experience.

For detailed information and how to apply go to http://kmi.open.ac.uk/jobs/, call the KMi Recruitment Coordinator on +44 (0) 1908 654774 or email quoting either the appropriate reference number (4363 for Research Assistant or 4255 for Research Associate)

Salary: £25,134.00 - £32,796.00

Closing date: 15th Feb 2008

Senior Researcher in Bio-text Mining

Senior Researcher in Bio-text Mining

National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM)
School of Computer Science
University of Manchester, UK

We are looking for one senior researcher in text mining to work for a new project at NaCTeM (www.nactem.ac.uk) in text mining for systems biology (ONDEX project http://ondex.sourceforge.net/ ). The post is available immediately and for a duration of three years. The successful candidate will be appointed at Research Fellow level (salary £33,779 - £41,545 p.a) and will be part of the growing team of researchers associated with NaCTeM which is hosted by the School of Computer Science.

Essential skills: a good first degree and a PhD in an area relevant to text mining as well as excellent software engineering skills. The ability to develop algorithms and software for NLP/TM systems and to produce experiments for text mining applications using large data sets. Excellent knowledge of natural language processing/text mining using machine learning techniques and in particular named entity recognition, parsing, information extraction; excellent knowledge of C, C++, Java, XML, Windows, Linux and Web Services. A strong publication record is a must. Experience with biomedical text mining would be an advantage.

Informal enquiries should be made to Dr Sophia Ananiadou, Sophia.Ananiadou[at]manchester.ac.uk

Closing date for applications: 8th February 2008

Further details are available at: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/jobs/research/vacancy/index.htm?ref=130141

Please quote reference: EPS/80023

Oferta de beca de investigacion predoctoral

La Junta de Andalucia, a traves de la Consejeria de Innovacion, Ciencia y Empresa, ofrece una plaza de personal investigador en formacion (PIF) asociada al proyecto de investigacion de excelencia "Algoritmos Eficientes para Busqueda Heuristica Multicriterio" (P07-TIC-03018).

* Perfil: el trabajo a desarrollar es adecuado para titulados en Ingenieria Informatica, Ingenieria de Telecomunicaciones, y Licenciados en Matematicas.

* Finalidad: El personal seleccionado se incorporara por un periodo de cuatro años al 'Grupo de Investigacion y Aplicaciones en Inteligencia Artificial' del Departamento de Lenguajes y Ciencias de la Computacion de la Universidad de Malaga (España). En dicho periodo trabajara en la realizacion de su tesis doctoral.

* Plazo de solicitud: Hasta el dia 1 de febrero de 2008. Las solicitudes se tramitaran electronicamente a traves de la pagina Web de la Consejeria de Innovacion, Ciencia y Empresa,
http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/innovacioncienciayempresa (enlaces 'Incentivos'>'Becas proyectos de Investigacion de excelencia 2007'))

* Convocatoria: Resolucion de 27 de septiembre de 2007 (publicada en BOJA numero 12, de 17 de enero de 2008, paginas 6-17),
http://boja.cica.es/2008/boletin_2008_12.pdf

* Requisitos: los requisitos detallados se encuentran en la resolucion de 15 de marzo de 2007 (BOJA numero 63, de 29 de marzo de 2007, Articulo 33, pg. 19),
http://boja.cica.es/2007/boletin_2007_63.pdf

* Breve resumen del proyecto:

La ‘busqueda heuristica’ es la principal hipotesis de la Inteligencia Artificial simbolica para explicar el fenomeno de la resolucion de problemas. La resolucion de muchos problemas reales puede modelarse mediante un proceso de busqueda en un grafo. Por este motivo, el estudio de los algoritmos de busqueda en grafos asi como la incorporacion de conocimiento heuristico para mejorar su eficiencia es un campo de estudio central en Inteligencia Artificial.

En este proyecto abordamos el analisis y desarrollo de algoritmos y metodos de busqueda en grafos con multiples criterios para la resolucion de problemas. El objetivo fundamental es aumentar el rango y complejidad de los problemas resolubles en la practica.

Las aplicaciones de la busqueda multicriterio incluyen varios problemas importantes de la Inteligencia Artificial, como la generacion de trayectorias de robot, el planeamiento de rutas, la generacion de planes de accion, el diseño arquitectonico y de carreteras, o los sistemas de coordinacion y negociacion.


* Contacto: Aquellos candidatos que deseen mas informacion sobre el proyecto pueden ponerse en contacto mediante correo electronico con Lorenzo Mandow (lawrence@lcc.uma.es).

PostDoc job in Planning under Uncertainty

PostDoc job in Planning under Uncertainty

A postdoctoral research grant is available at the Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR) of the Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon. The topic of the grant is planning under uncertainty in the context of multi-robot search and rescue. The goal is to develop methodology and algorithms for heterogeneous teams of robots involved in urban search-and-rescue tasks. Planning in such scenarios requires agents to handle uncertainty in acting, sensing as well as communication.
Decentralized partially observable Markov decision processes form a state-of-the-art formal approach for multiagent planning, and we intend to apply them to multi-robot search-and-rescue tasks. More details can be found at http://www.isr.ist.utl.pt/~mtjspaan/decpucs/ .

ISR-Lisbon is a research institute of the Instituto Superior Técnico, the oldest and largest engineering school in Portugal. ISR-Lisbon has a long standing tradition of research and development and offers a modern and enthusiastic research environment with strong interdisciplinary and international links.

The grant has duration of (a maximum of) two years, and candidates should have obtained a relevant PhD degree (e.g., Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Electrical Engineering). The ideal candidate has expertise in Markov decision processes and multiagent/multi-robot systems. Applications should include CV, a statement of research interests and two recommendation letters, and be sent to Dr. Matthijs Spaan at mtjspaan@isr.ist.utl.pt or fax: +351-21-8418291, who can also be contacted for more information. Application deadline is February 7, 2008.

Position in Innovative Agents Architectures

Position in Innovative Agents Architectures at the Vienna University of Technology, Austria!


Today's distributed physical systems, e.g., for automated manufacturing or logistics have to deal with increasing complexity and a need to adapt to rapidly changing environments. Traditional hierarchical and centralized approaches are not adequate for control of such distributed systems and can fail due to insufficient capabilities to cope with high degree of complexity and practical requirements for robustness and flexibility. A useful approach for decentralized control is to employ autonomous software agents. This approach can be used in distributed physical systems by assigning software agents to physical components. Given an ontology of the "world" surrounding the agent and its assigned physical component, the agent is provided with a real-time representation of its environment built from sensor data and communication with other agents. In the course of the project, an innovative architecture for such agents as well as an agent platform should be developed.

Candidates should have a degree in computer science or software engineering and have knowledge or strong interests in artificial intelligence, agent-based system and ontologies.


For application and further Information please contact Prof. Herman Kaindl (kaindl@ict.tuwien.ac.at) or Edin Arnautovic (arnautovic@ict.tuwien.ac.at).

Researcher Positions in Text Processing for Biomedical Applications

Researcher / Senior Researcher Positions in Text and Language
Processing for Biomedical Applications

NICTA Victoria Research Laboratory
Melbourne, Australia

National ICT Australia (NICTA) is looking to fill research positions for a new project in Text and Language Processing for Biomedical Applications. Appointments may be made at the Researcher or at the Senior Researcher level. Appointments are for at least 2 years, potentially renewable for a 3rd year, to commence in 2008. Remuneration is at an internationally competitive level.

To apply and to view full Position Descriptions, go to http://nicta.com.au/about/careers
For further information or any enquiries, contact Dr. Lawrence Cavedon at lawrence.cavedon@nicta.com.au .

Closing date is February 15, 2008.

----------------------------------
The appointee will work with NICTA research staff, engineering staff, University of Melbourne faculty and postgraduate students, and external biomedical collaborators (especially within Melbourne's Bio21 precinct) to develop new techniques in information access and presentation, document processing, and text mining, with application to the biomedical research and clinical domain. Expected outcomes will include fundamental research, publications in high-impact venues, development of novel IP, and prototype systems and demonstrators (developed together with engineering staff). Other duties will include working with external biomedical partners to understand and respond to needs, and supervision of University of Melbourne research students.

Key requirements and selection criteria for the positions include:

• a PhD in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or a related discipline;
• a strong track record of publication in respected journals and international conferences;
• demonstrated expertise in a research area related to the goals of the project, including: information retrieval, natural language processing, question answering, human computer interaction in an IR setting, parsing, named entity recognition and resolution, text summarisation, ontology building / integration, system efficiency;
• good interpersonal skills and a demonstrated commitment to working collaboratively in a research team and delivering on team goals;
• excellent communication skills in a variety of contexts, including presentation of research and liasing with external collaborators;
• a strong interest in collaborating with external domain partners to understand their needs and to jointly develop solutions;
• applicants to the Senior Researcher level are expected to have demonstrated ability to craft a research agenda and to effectively supervise junior staff and research students.

Other desirable skills and selection criteria include:

• previous experience in the biomedical domain;
• programming skills in a variety of languages, including C/C++, Java,Python, Perl;
• demonstrated experience in statistical techniques to NLP and/or experimental design and analysis for computer science research;
• an interest in developing Intellectual Property that may lead to commercial development by NICTA.

National ICT Australia (NICTA) is Australia's ICT Research Centre of Excellence. NICTA aims to bring together world-class researchers and professional staff, enhance their skills, and build a culture of entrepreneurship and achievement in use-inspired research that will build Australia's ICT capacity. See http://www.nicta.com.au for more information.

NICTA's Victoria Research Laboratory (VRL) is housed on the University of Melbourne campus, in the Parkville precinct of Melbourne, and within walking distance to one of the world's richest congregation of biomedical hospitals and research institutions. NICTA VRL has made a strong commitment to developing its Bioiformatics research program;
the Snr/Researcher will be encouraged to work with researchers from the wider Bioinformatics team, as well as the other researchers on this specific project. VRL has establised partnerships with a number of Melbourne's leading biomedical research institutions and biomedical projects with international profile; further collaborative partnerships are constantly being developed.

Robotics Faculty Position at Oregon State University

The School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (MIME) at Oregon State University seeks applications for a tenure-track position in the broad area of robotics. The appointment may be made either at the Assistant or Associate professor level depending on the qualifications of the applicant. Applicants must have earned a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Computer Science or related area, and demonstrated the ability to: perform and/or direct innovative research in robotics; communicate and teach effectively; and attract the necessary funding to sustain an innovative research program.

The successful candidate is expected to have a strong research record the specific area of robotics, as well as possess broad interdisciplinary knowledge in related areas such as dynamics, control, vision, mechatronics, and biological systems. There is strong potential for collaboration with current faculty on ongoing projects in the School (e.g., multi-robot coordination, walking robots, UAVs and understanding bat flight) as well as with other groups at Oregon State University (e.g., the Artificial Intelligence group in the School of EECS and the
Design group in MIME). This position offers the unique opportunity to not only lead and participate in exciting research, but also to help shape the direction of robotics research at Oregon State University.

To review posting and apply, go to http://oregonstate.edu/jobs (posting number 0001823). For full consideration, apply by February 29, 2008. OSU is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and has a policy of being responsive to dual-career needs.

3rd SIPTA School on Imprecise Probabilities

3rd SIPTA School on Imprecise Probabilities: 1st announcement

[All our apologies for cross-posting.]

Third school of the Society for Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications (SIPTA), July 2-8, 2008, Montpellier, France.

Dear colleagues,

The Society for Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications (SIPTA) organizes the 3rd edition of its school in Montpellier, France, during 2-8 July 2008, the local organization being handled by the Laboratoire d'Informatique de Robotique et de Microelectronique (LIRMM) of the university of Montpellier. The city of Montpellier is located in the south of France, on the Mediterranean coast, and the school will be held at the Centre Regional de Documentation Pedagogique, which is located in the very centre of Montpellier.

The aim of SIPTA schools is to introduce interested students and researchers with the basics of imprecise probability topics, both theoretical and applied. Some of the best specialists in different aspects of imprecise probabilities lecture, during one week time, on the main concepts and techniques associated to their area of expertise, in a friendly environment favouring interactions between participants.

Topics & Lecturers

Imprecise probability is used as a generic term to cover all mathematical or statistical models which measure chance or uncertainty without sharp numerical probabilities. Imprecise probability models are needed in inference problems where the relevant information is scarce, vague or conflicting, and in decision problems where preferences may also be incomplete. The topics covered this year will include:

Coherent lower previsions (Enrique Miranda, Spain, and Gert De Cooman, Belgium)
Predictive inference: from Bayesian inference to Imprecise Probability (Jean-Marc Bernard, France)
Imprecise immediate predictions (Gert De Cooman, Belgium)
Independence concepts in Imprecise Probability (Fabio Cozman, Brazil)
Possibility theory (Didier Dubois, France)
Algorithms & approximation methods for Imprecise Probability (Fabio Cozman, Brazil)
Game-theoretic probability and its link with Imprecise Probability (Glenn Shafer, USA)

The final program should be announced shortly on the summer school website.

Pre-registration

Since the number of participants is limited, we recommend you to inform us of your intention to participate to the school as soon as possible, by pre-registering by means of a simple reply to this email, indicating your name, email, status and affiliation, or by filling the pre-registration form at the school website.

More information is available at the school website:

http://www.lirmm.fr/SIPTASchool08/

We are looking forward to meeting you in Montpellier. We also welcome you to circulate this announcement around you.


Best regards,

Jean-Marc Bernard
Kevin Loquin
(for the scientific and organizing committees)

Text and Language Processing for Biomedical Applications

Researcher / Senior Researcher Positions in
Text and Language Processing for Biomedical Applications

NICTA Victoria Research Laboratory
Melbourne, Australia

National ICT Australia (NICTA) is looking to fill research positions for a new project in Text and Language Processing for Biomedical Applications. Appointments may be made at the Researcher or at the Senior Researcher level. Appointments are for at least 2 years, potentially renewable for a 3rd year, to commence in 2008. Remuneration is at an internationally competitive level.

To apply and to view full Position Descriptions, go to http://nicta.com.au/about/careers. For further information or any enquiries, contact Dr. Lawrence Cavedon at lawrence.cavedon@nicta.com.au .

Closing date is February 15, 2008.

----------------------------------------
The appointee will work with NICTA research staff, engineering staff, University of Melbourne faculty and postgraduate students, and external biomedical collaborators (especially within Melbourne's Bio21 precinct) to develop new techniques in information access and presentation, document processing, and text mining, with application to the biomedical research and clinical domain. Expected outcomes will include fundamental research, publications in high-impact venues, development of novel IP, and prototype systems and demonstrators (developed together with engineering staff). Other duties will include working with external biomedical partners to understand and respond to needs, and supervision of University of Melbourne research students.

Key requirements and selection criteria for the positions include:

• a PhD in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or a related discipline;
• a strong track record of publication in respected journals and international conferences;
• demonstrated expertise in a research area related to the goals of the project, including: information retrieval, natural language processing, question answering, human computer interaction in an IR setting, parsing, named entity recognition and resolution, text summarisation, ontology building / integration, system efficiency;
• good interpersonal skills and a demonstrated commitment to working collaboratively in a research team and delivering on team goals;
• excellent communication skills in a variety of contexts, including presentation of research and liasing with external collaborators;
• a strong interest in collaborating with external domain partners to understand their needs and to jointly develop solutions;
• applicants to the Senior Researcher level are expected to have demonstrated ability to craft a research agenda and to effectively supervise junior staff and research students.

Other desirable skills and selection criteria include:

• previous experience in the biomedical domain;
• programming skills in a variety of languages, including C/C++, Java, Python, Perl;
• demonstrated experience in statistical techniques to NLP and/or experimental design and analysis for computer science research;
• an interest in developing Intellectual Property that may lead to commercial development by NICTA.

National ICT Australia (NICTA) is Australia's ICT Research Centre of Excellence. NICTA aims to bring together world-class researchers and professional staff, enhance their skills, and build a culture of entrepreneurship and achievement in use-inspired research that will build Australia's ICT capacity.

See http://www.nicta.com.au for more information.

NICTA's Victoria Research Laboratory (VRL) is housed on the University of Melbourne campus, in the Parkville precinct of Melbourne, and within walking distance to one of the world's richest congregation of biomedical hospitals and research institutions. NICTA VRL has made a strong commitment to developing its Bioiformatics research program; the Snr/Researcher will be encouraged to work with researchers from the wider Bioinformatics team, as well as the other researchers on this specific project. VRL has establised partnerships with a number of Melbourne's leading biomedical research institutions and biomedical projects with international profile; further collaborative partnerships are constantly being developed.