<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;"><h1 itemprop="title" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 33, 71); margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.25em; widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Postdoctoral Researcher in Reinforcement Learning</h1><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.7655057907105px; 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="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.7682590484619px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">Fixed term for 2 years from 1 October 2015, or as soon as possible thereafter</strong></p><span itemprop="description" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.766881942749px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(56, 56, 56); line-height: 19.9539947509766px; widows: 1; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; text-align: justify; 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;">Grade 7: Salary £30,434 – £37,394 p.a.</strong><br><br>An opening for a full-time Postdoctoral Researcher in Reinforcement Learning has arisen in the Department of Computer Science. 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. <br><br>Reporting to Professor Shimon Whiteson, the focus will be on policy-search methods for reinforcement learning, and techniques such as stochastic optimisation, Bayesian optimisation, and Bayesian quadrature are expected to play a key role. It offers an interesting balance of 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: inherit; font-size: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; text-align: justify; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">You should have a PhD in Computer Science or related area (or be very close to completion), with good knowledge of the current state-of-the-art in machine learning, evidenced by a track record of research in the areas of machine learning or decision-theoretic planning (or a related area). Experience of conducting large-scale experiments with large-scale datasets and knowledge of the current state-of-the-art in reinforcement learning and decision-theoretic planning are highly desirable.</p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; text-align: justify; 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;">The closing date for applications is 12 noon on 29 July 2015.</strong></p><p style="padding: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin: 0.75em 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; text-align: justify; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">For further details and to apply please visit: <a href="https://www.recruit.ox.ac.uk/pls/hrisliverecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=119004" 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://www.recruit.ox.ac.uk/pls/hrisliverecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=119004</a> </p></span></div></body></html>