Connectionists: Research Postdoc in Brain-based Humanoid Robotics

[Tony Prescott]

Research Assistant/Associate Post in Brain-based Humanoid Robotics

Sheffield Centre for Robotics (SCentRo),
Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

A research post exists to develop brain-based 
controllers for humanoid robots as part of the 
EFAA (Experimental Functional Android Assistant) 
FP7 project (http://efaa.upf.edu/). Alongside our 
European collaborators you will assist in the 
development of a control architecture that will 
enable the humanoid robot iCub to have meaningful 
interactions with people. The particular role of 
the Sheffield group is to develop controllers for 
active tactile (haptic) sensing, probabilistic 
frameworks for sensor fusion, decision-making and 
planning (using models of the cortex and basal 
ganglia), and symbol grounding.

You will have a good degree in a relevant 
discipline and experience of robot control, 
computational neuroscience or biological 
modelling would be an advantage. For appointment 
to be made at Research Associate level (Grade 7) 
you will also have a significant track record of 
independent research and hold a PhD in a relevant 
discipline.
There will be opportunities to visit our European 
partners in Barcelona, Genoa, Lyon and London, to 
collaborate with experts in computational 
intelligence, computational neuroscience and 
humanoid robotics.  The post would be 
particularly suitable for a candidate with 
substantial post-doctoral experience interested 
in taking a leadership role within the project, 
however, more junior applicants with relevant 
experience will also be considered.

This is a full-time, fixed-term post with a start 
date of 1 October 2011, or as soon as possible 
thereafter and an end date of 31 December  2013. 
Salary range: Grade 6 - £23,661 - £27,428 per 
annum, Grade 7 - £28,251 - £35,788 per annum.

For further details, and to apply, please see 
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/jobs job reference 
UOS003131.  For informal enquiries please email 
t.j.prescott 'at' shef.ac.uk.

Further Background
The Sheffield Centre for Robotics 
(http://www.scentro.ac.uk) is a newly-formed 
research hub for robotics research in the UK 
which encompasses research groups in two 
Sheffield Universities (University of Sheffield 
and Sheffield Hallam University) and in 
disciplines ranging from Control Engineering, 
Computer Science, and Psychology, through to Art 
and Design (see http://www.scentro.ac.uk/).  The 
Active Touch Laboratory at Sheffield (ATL at S) in 
the department of Psychology 
(http://www.shef.ac.uk/psychology/research/groups/atlas) 
is a leading group for research in tactile 
sensing in animals and robots, funded by the 
European Framework programme and by the UK EPSRC, 
and publishing widely in leading robotics and 
neuroscience/biology journals. The department of 
Psychology, in addition to being a SCentRo 
partner, has a 40-year track record in Artificial 
Intelligence, Robotics, Computational 
Neuroscience research.  In the recent Research 
Assessment Exercise the department ranked 6th in 
the UK in terms of Research Power (i.e., quality 
_ quantity of research activity) and has been 
particularly commended the quality of the 
department's research output in the areas of 
neuroscience and computational modelling (see 
www.shef.ac.uk/psychology for further details).

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Tony J Prescott, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience,
Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield,
Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK. Email:T.J.Prescott at sheffield.ac.uk
Tel: (national 0114, international 44 114) 222 6547,  fax:  276 6515 
Web: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~abrg/people/tony/   
--------------------------------------------------------------------