Connectionists: 6 new posts: knowledge technology, neural symbolic robotic systems

[Stefan Wermter]

A new research group for Knowledge Technology is currently
being established in the department of Informatics at the
University of Hamburg (from March 2010).

We have now six new job openings in the area of knowledge
technology, intelligent systems, neural networks,
hybrid neural symbolic systems, ambient intelligence
and intelligent robotics.

The six posts in various projects are described for the
following areas as below:

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The university has two positions open for
research associates (wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in)
salary group 13 TV-L (equivalent to Verg.Gr. IIa BAT)
with a starting date of as soon as possible.

The positions are for 39 (fulltime) hours per week. This
contract will end after three years and can be
extended for a further 2 years (see also § 2 of the
Academic Fixed-Term Contract Law (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz)).

The university intends to increase the number of women
amongst its academic personnel and encourages qualified women
to apply. In compliance with the Hamburg Equal Opportunity
Law, preference will be given to qualified female applicants.

Responsibilities:
A research associate’s duties include academic service,
primarily in the areas of research and teaching. Within this
framework associates have the opportunity to further their
academic education, in particular through the completion
of a doctoral dissertation. At least one-third (13 hours/week)
of the set working hours will be made available for this purpose.

Area(s) of Responsibility:
The research area is knowledge technology and knowledge management,
in particular:

Research Associate 1) Hybrid Neural Systems: neural networks
in the context of hybrid knowledge-based systems. Application
could be in data mining, speech or text mining.

Research Associate 2) Neural Knowledge Management:  Application
could be in adaptive knowledge discovery, ambient intelligence,
or learning cognitive robots.

Requirements:
Academic degree in one of the above academic subject areas
qualifying the holder to carry out the above-mentioned
responsibilities. In particular, at least an MSc or equivalent
in Artificial Intelligence or Computer Science is required.
Excellent programming skills are needed and a background in
hybrid neural systems is an advantage for these two positions.
We are also looking for very good communication skills and
teamwork.

Preference will be given to disabled applicants with equal
qualifications.

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The university has further positions open for 1.5
research associates (wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in)
- salary group 13 TV-L (equivalent to Verg.Gr. IIa BAT) –
with a starting date of as soon as possible  for the
EU-funded project KSERA.

The positions can be filled as either two 0.75 positions or
as one fulltime (39h/w) and one halftime (19.5h/w) position.
This contract will end 31.1.2013 (see also § 2 of the
Academic Fixed-Term Contract Law (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz)).

The university intends to increase the number of women amongst
its academic personnel and encourages qualified women to apply.
In compliance with the Hamburg Equal Opportunity Law, preference
will be given to qualified female applicants.

Responsibilities:
A research associate’s duties include academic service for the
following project: KSERA Knowledgeable SErvice Robots for Aging.
Outside of these tasks the research associates have the opportunity
to further their academic education, in particular through the
completion of a doctoral dissertation. Results obtained by the
associate through project work may be used for the dissertation.

Area(s) of Responsibility:
The research area is intelligent systems and artificial intelligence,
in particular socially assistive robots and ambient intelligence.
This includes the integration of an ambient environment with a
cognitive humanoid robot. A system architecture, new sensor,
localization, navigation and monitoring modules for the robotic
device will be developed.

Requirements:
Academic degree in one of the above academic subject areas
qualifying the holder to carry out the above-mentioned responsibilities.
In particular, at least a MSc or equivalent in Artificial Intelligence,
Computer Science or Engineering with a focus on Intelligent Computing
is required. Excellent programming skills (C++, Python etc)
are needed and a background in robotics or sensor technology would be
an advantage for the two positions. The posts involve traveling within
Europe. We are also looking for good communication skills and teamwork.

Preference will be given to disabled applicants with equal
qualifications.

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The university has two further open positions
Early Stage Researcher (ESR) (wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in)
- salary group ESR of the EU for Germany – with a starting date of
as soon as possible  for the following EU-funded project RobotDoc.

The positions are for 39 hours per week (fulltime). This
short-term contract will end after three years (see also § 2
of the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Law
(Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz)).

The university intends to increase the number of women amongst its
academic personnel and expressly encourages qualified women to
apply. In compliance with the Hamburg Equal Opportunity Law,
preference will be given to qualified female applicants.

Responsibilities:
The two associates’ duties include academic service for the
project RobotDoc: Robotics for Development of Cognition
and pursue doctoral studies.

Area(s) of Responsibility:
The research area is knowledge technology, intelligent systems
and artificial intelligence, in particular neural networks for
the development of cognition in robots. The first ESR post is
on Neural Emotion and Action and the second ESR is on Neural
Cognitive Integration.

Requirements:
Academic degree in one of the above academic subject areas
qualifying the holder to carry out the above-mentioned
responsibilities. In particular, at least an MSc or equivalent
in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science or Engineering
with a focus on Intelligent Computing is required. Excellent
programming skills are needed and a background in neural
networks and/or robotics would be an advantage for these
two positions. The posts involve traveling within Europe.
Each PhD student will be expected to spend a study period in
at least one of the other partner sites. According to EU
mobility rules, applicants must not be nationals of Germany.
They must not have resided or carried out their main activity
(work, studies, etc.) in Germany for longer than 12 months in
the 3 years immediately prior to their recruitment. Early-Stage
Researchers are defined as those who are, at the time of
selection, in the first four years (full-time equivalent) of
their research careers. Preference will be given to disabled
applicants with equal qualifications.

Applications (application letter, curriculum vitae, degree
certificate(s), etc.) are to be submitted electronically
as a single pdf file to  morawski at informatik.uni-hamburg.de or to
University of Hamburg, MIN-Fakultät, Department Informatik,
Annette Morawski, Vogt-Kölln-Str. 30, 22527 Hamburg,
Germany by 11.3.2010 but we will accept applications until
the jobs are filled.

For more information on the context of the first two
posts see the department pages http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/ .

For more information on the KSERA project posts see
http://www.ksera-project.eu/

For more information on the RobotDoc project posts see
http://robotdoc.org/


For queries or more information please contact Prof. Dr.
Stefan Wermter, Head of new Research Group for Knowledge
Technology at wermter at informatik.uni-hamburg.de

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Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter
Head of the Research Group for Knowledge Technology
Department of Informatics
University of Hamburg
Vogt Koelln Str. 30
22527 Hamburg
Germany

email: wermter AT informatik.uni-hamburg.de

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