<html><head><style>body{font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px}</style></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;"><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.7682590484619px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Doctoral Studentship</strong></p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.7682590484619px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Department of Computer Science</strong></p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.7682590484619px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">University of Oxford Supervisor: Professor Shimon Whiteson</strong></p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.7682590484619px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Start Date: October 2015 (later start maybe possible)</strong></p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The Machine Learning Group at Oxford University's Department of Computer Science is offering a fully funded D.Phil studentship which will pay fees at home/eu rate for three years and provide a stipend of at least £14057 for three years.</p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The aim of this project is to develop a new class of reinforcement learning and sample-based decision-theoretic planning methods that overcome fundamental obstacles to the efficient optimisation of control policies for autonomous agents. Creating agents that are effective in diverse settings is a key goal of artificial intelligence with large potential implications in robotics, e-commerce, information retrieval, traffic control, etc.</p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">In particular, the project will develop a new approach that simultaneously optimises both policies and the distributions over stochastic events that are sampled from when evaluating those policies, with the aim of greatly reducing the currently prohibitive computational cost of evaluating policies.</p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The focus of the project is on policy-search methods for reinforcement learning as well as closely related methods for sample-based decision-theoretic planning. Techniques such as stochastic optimisation, Bayesian optimisation, and Bayesian quadrature are expected to play a key role. The project will involve both theoretical work as well as an extensive empirical analysis on challenging tasks from robotics and information retrieval.</p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">We will consider applicants with a strong background in computer science or a closely related area. Excellent mathematical and programming skills are essential. Strong communication and organisational skills are also important. A background in machine learning and/or decision-theoretic planning is a plus.</p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Applicants must in addition satisfy the usual requirements for studying for a doctorate at Oxford, see selection criteria here:</p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/dphil-computer-science" style="color: rgb(64, 97, 135); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.7682590484619px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.7696361541748px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/dphil-computer-science</span></a></p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Please apply online here:</p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><a href="https://apply.graduate.ox.ac.uk/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app_crs" style="color: rgb(64, 97, 135); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.7682590484619px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">https://apply.graduate.ox.ac.uk/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app_crs</a></p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">by 17th July quoting CS-SW-2015 as the studentship code.</p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">If you have any questions about the studentship or the application process please email:</p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: justify; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><a href="mailto:Julie.sheppard@cs.ox.ac.uk" style="color: rgb(64, 97, 135); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.7682590484619px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Julie.sheppard@cs.ox.ac.uk</a></p></div></body></html>