looking for two outstanding post-docs for an ambitious EC cognitive systems project

[Jeremy L Wyatt]

Dear colleague,

I'm writing to a long list of people because we are looking for two
outstanding postdocs to work on a large EU funded project called CoSy. The
project involves seven sites around the EU, including people working in
natural language, robotics, vision, learning, psychology and AI.  The aim
is to put together many things that are normally done separately, e.g.
vision, language, planning, plan execution, 3-D manipulation, learning,
self-understanding, etc. integrated in a working robot in a coherent
architecture. The project is described in greater detail here:

    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cosy/

Because of the breadth of the project we hope to find people with broad
and deep knowledge of AI, at least one of whom should have experience in
robotics. Because the tasks are so challenging we have managed to obtain
funding for higher salaries than usual (at least in the UK) for 
post-doctoral positions.

The Birmingham portion of the project is led by Aaron Sloman and myself.  
If you know of any potential candidates please pass on the appended
advertisement directly, or circulate within your group.

If you are interested then some of the work in the Birmingham part of the
project is described here:

    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cosy/PlayMate-start.html

If you have time, please feel free to comment, criticise, join in, etc. We
hope that the project will be as open as possible, including the sharing
of code, as well as ideas.

The advert follows.

cheers
Jeremy

PS Aaron Sloman is also circulating the advert in a similar way. While
we've tried to make our mailing lists disjoint, I'd like to apologise if 
you've seen this advert more than once.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dr Jeremy L Wyatt                      Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Tel 00 44 121 414 4788                      School of Computer Science
Fax 00 44 121 414 4281                        University of Birmingham
jlw at cs.bham.ac.uk                              Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~jlw             www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/robotics
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

________________

Subject: Two Research Posts Birmingham UK: EC Cognitive Systems Robotic project

THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/

Research Fellows (2 Posts)
    on EC-Funded 'Cognitive Systems' Integrated Project

Applications are invited for two experienced researchers to work on
an ambitious seven partner EC-funded project (CoSy: Cognitive
Systems for Cognitive Assistants). The whole project will involve
upward of twenty people including partners working in robotics,
natural language, experimental and developmental psychology,
computer vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The work at Birmingham will involve designing and implementing
mechanisms and a cognitive architecture for a robot that sees,
manipulates and talks about objects on a table. Much of the emphasis
at Birmingham will be on developing and implementing architectures
that allow us to integrate the various components of an intelligent
system.

The aim of the whole project is to investigate ways of developing
physically embodied robots that combine perception, learning,
reasoning, planning, acting, communication and self-awareness in an
integrated architecture.

One of the posts will require some robotics experience. The remit of
the project is, however, very broad so people with experience in any
area of AI are encouraged to apply. Relevant areas include, but are
not limited to: reasoning, representation, architectures, learning,
natural language understanding, robotics, and computer vision.

Further details of the project and a draft description of work to be
done in Birmingham can be found at:
    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cosy/

A job specification with instructions for applicants is available at

    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/news/jobs/cosy.rf.04/

Informal enquiries can be made to the two Principal Investigators
at Birmingham:
    Dr Jeremy Wyatt <j.l.wyatt at cs.bham.ac.uk>
or
    Professor Aaron Sloman <a.sloman at cs.bham.ac.uk>

Starting salary: on scale 21,852 - 31,715 a year depending on
experience and qualifications, with potential progression to 34,838
(Scales are currently under review).

Likely starting date for the project is: 1 September 2004.

Appointments will be for a period of 18 months initially, with an
expected extension to 48 months (standard EC procedure).

Application forms are returnable by 10th June 2004, though late
applicants may be considered.

Further enquiries and requests for application forms may be made to

    Personnel Services,
    The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.

    Tel: +44 121 415 9000
    Email: Ms. Jo Gerald <j.a.gerald at bham.ac.uk>
    Web: www.punit.bham.ac.uk/vacancies

Please quote reference S36732 in all communications.

Working towards equal opportunities.
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