<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;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="padding: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr style="vertical-align: top;"><td colspan="4" class="erq_searchv4_heading1" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 33, 71); padding-right: 5px; width: 480px;">Researcher on Reinforcement Learning Project</td></tr><tr style="vertical-align: top;"><td colspan="4" class="erq_searchv4_heading2" style="padding-top: 4px; padding-bottom: 4px; margin: 0px; font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: bold;">Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford</td></tr><tr style="vertical-align: top;"><td colspan="4" class="erq_searchv4_heading3" style="padding-top: 4px; padding-bottom: 10px; margin: 0px; font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">Grade 7: £30,738 - £37,768 p.a.</td></tr><tr style="vertical-align: top;"><td colspan="4" class="erq_searchv4_heading3" style="padding-top: 4px; padding-bottom: 10px; margin: 0px;"><p style="font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">A full-time postdoctoral position is available for a researcher in the area of reinforcement learning. This is a European Research Council-funded project, working with Professor Shimon Whiteson. The goal of the 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="font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">The postholder will be expected to collaborate in the preparation of research papers, development and analysis of new algorithms, present papers at conferences, act as a source of information and advice to other members of the group on scientific procedures and experimental techniques, which may include stochastic optimisation, Bayesian optimisation, Bayesian quadrature, and deep learning.</p><p style="font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">The postholder will require a doctoral degree (or be very close to completion) in Computer Science or a related area, together with a documented track record of published, peer-reviewed research in machine learning and/or decision-theoretic planning (or a related area) and possess strong mathematical skills in probability and statistics together with strong programming skills. Experience of conducting large-scale experiments with complex datasets and simulators is highly desirable.</p><p style="font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">The closing date for applications is 12.00 noon on 7 October 2016. Interviews are expected to be held in mid-late October 2016.</p><p><font face="verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11px;">For further details and to apply please visit: https://www.recruit.ox.ac.uk/pls/hrisliverecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=125326</span></font></p></td></tr><tr style="vertical-align: top;"><td class="erq_searchv4_heading5_label" style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; margin: 0px; font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; width: 130px; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"></td><td class="erq_searchv4_heading5_text" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; width: 220px; font-size: 8pt;"><br></td><td class="erq_searchv4_heading5_label" style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; margin: 0px; font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; width: 130px; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br></td><td class="erq_searchv4_heading5_text" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; width: 220px; font-size: 8pt;"><br></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div id="bloop_sign_1473433711025294080" class="bloop_sign"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">-------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Shimon Whiteson | Associate Professor</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Dept. of Computer Science | U. of Oxford</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Room 407 | Wolfson Building</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">-------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Tutorial Fellow | St. Catherine’s College</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Room 3 | Alan Bullock Building</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">-------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><div>+44 (0) 1865 283 515 (dept. office)</div><div>+44 (0) 1865 281 574 (college office)</div><div>+44 (0) 7443 287 697 (mobile)</div></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><div>-------------------------------------------------------</div></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><div><a href="mailto:shimon.whiteson@cs.ox.ac.uk">shimon.whiteson@cs.ox.ac.uk</a> </div><div><a href="https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/shimon.whiteson/">www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/shimon.whiteson</a></div></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">-------------------------------------------------------</div></div></body></html>