PH.D. STUDENT RESEARCH POSITION AT U.B.C.

[Iead Rezek]

*********** PH.D. STUDENT RESEARCH POSITION OPENING ****************
               Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept.
               University of British Columbia (UBC)
                    http://www.ece.ubc.ca

The Pattern Recognition research group in the Electrical & Computer
Engineering Dept. of the University of British Columbia (UBC), seeks
an appropriately qualified individual to work on the development of
Software Engineering methodologies & tools for Pattern Recognition
research and development. The applicant will have to apply for
enrollment in a Ph.D.  program, under the supervision of Prof. Rabab
Ward FRSC, and will be expected to interact and cooperate with the
other members of the research group. A full description of the
project is attached to this email.

Potential applicants please contact Dr. Nawwaf Kharma for an
interview.  The last date for submission of applications is July 31st
99 (for the session starting January 1st 2000). Late applicants will
be considered for next academic year.  The successful applicant will
have to provide for one full year of tuition & maintenance costs,
however, he/she can expect to work as a Teaching Assistant, during the
following the years, for a total salary of about C$ 17K (enough to
cover tuition plus most maintenance costs).

We would be very grateful if you would post or share this information
with other people interested in a Ph.D. in Pattern Recognition &
Software Engineering, at UBC.

Nawwaf N. Kharma
E&CE Dept. UBC
2356 Main Mall,
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z4
Tel: +1-604-822 1742
Fax: +1-604-822-5949
Email: nawwaf at ieee.org



================================================================

                         Ph.D. Project Description

Purpose

The aim of this project is to investigate the theoretical and pragmatic
aspects of using guided random optimization techniques (e.g. Genetic
Algorithms) for the automatic construction of pattern recognition software
systems. The final goal of this project is the development of a software
system capable (with little human intervention) of constructing another
software system, one, which is (near-) optimally, suited to a specific
recognition task. An example of a recognition task would be the recognizing
of the set of words making up a hand-written Arabic sentence.

Background & Motivation

A Character recognition system may be broken up, functionally, into four
components. One component carries out 'pre-processing' functions, such as
normalization and thinning. Another component accepts the pre-processed
input pattern and extracts those features that best characterize the
pattern. The extracted features are used by a 'classification' component
(such as a Neural Net) to assign a label to the pattern. All functions
carried out after (initial) classification fall under 'post-processing'.
[Image]
[Image]The majority of the effort expended in the field of character
recognition has been directed towards the discovery of new algorithms; ones
that pre-process the input pattern, that extract the most relevant features,
or that are most able to classify the patterns with increased certainty and
efficiency.  However, almost all of this effort has been done manually,
though, there is no reason why a lot of this work cannot, in the future, be
done by machines. This is exactly the reason for our interest in any/all
techniques that are potentially capable of emulating some of Man's unique
ability to search and optimize, and to do so efficiently.

Objectives

specific objectives of this project are:

- To achieve a clear and comprehensive understanding of the processes of
feature selection, and classification- both in character recognition systems
and in humans.

- To survey the wide rage of genetic and other evolutionary computation
algorithms (& software), currently used in the realm of Pattern Recognition,
and specifically: Character Recognition.

- To acquire a good degree of working knowledge of recent methodologies of
software engineering; such as object-oriented methodologies (including UML),
as well as a reasonable level of software testing expertise.

- To propose a hypothesis relating to the theoretical and pragmatic aspects
of the automatic development of character/pattern recognition software
systems.

- To methodically specify, design, and code a software development platform
capable of authoring/customizing software for specific character recognition
purposes  (in line with hypothesis- above.)

- To validate the software development platform via extensive testing,
including using it to actually construct a simple (but complete) example of
a character recognition software.

- To document all the above via various progress reports, scientific papers,
a software user's manual, and (of course) a thesis.

Skills Required

Very good programming skills (in Delphi/C++), plus an interest in Software
Engineering.  Some basic background in Character Recognition or/and the
ability to autonomously learn new concepts and techniques in
Structural/Statistical Pattern Recognition. Good writing, presentation, and
communication skills (in English).  Patience!