Connectionists: PhD positions in machine learning/optimization at the UC Merced

[Miguel A. Carreira-Perpinan]

PHD POSITIONS IN MACHINE LEARNING/OPTIMIZATION
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED

I am looking for one or more new PhD students to start in Fall 2015, in
the interface between machine learning and optimization. Students will be
funded through research assistantships, in particular through NSF award
IIS-1423515 "Algorithms for accelerating optimization in deep learning",
and/or teaching assistantships. Specific interests include developing
optimization algorithms based on auxiliary coordinates for deep learning,
nonlinear dimensionality reduction and other problems. This work can be
tied with specific applications in computer vision (eg segmentation,
articulated pose tracking, image registration); computer speech (eg
articulatory inversion, audiovisual speech processing); robotics and
computer graphics (eg inverse kinematics); sensor networks; and related
areas.

I'm looking for individuals strongly motivated to earn a PhD in computer
science or electrical engineering and publish their work in leading
conferences and journals in the areas mentioned above (NIPS, ICML,
AISTATS, CVPR, Interspeech, ICASSP, etc.). Desired qualifications:
- A BS or preferably an MS in CS, EE, Applied Maths or related areas.
- Strong mathematical skills (multivariate calculus, linear algebra,
  probability & statistics, optimization, numerical analysis, information
  theory, etc.).
- Strong programming ability in Matlab and C/C++.
- Research experience in machine learning, speech processing or computer
  vision.

For further information:
- My research: http://faculty.ucmerced.edu/mcarreira-perpinan.
- EECS graduate group at UC Merced: http://eecs.ucmerced.edu.
- Application procedure: http://graduatedivision.ucmerced.edu.
- Application deadline: January 15, 2015.

The Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) graduate group at UC
Merced consists of 12 core faculty members and over 40 PhD and MS
students. The group has collective interests in machine learning, computer
vision, speech processing, artificial intelligence, robotics, sensor
networks, distributed computing, computer graphics, databases, intelligent
systems and computational neuroscience, among others. UC Merced is the
tenth campus of the University of California and the first American
research university built in the 21st century. It is located in the
California Central Valley, at one hour drive from the Yosemite National
Park and two hours from San Francisco and the Bay Area.

-- 
Miguel A. Carreira-Perpinan
Associate professor
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
School of Engineering, University of California, Merced
5200 N. Lake Road. Merced, CA 95343
Tel. 209-2284545, Fax 209-2284047
http://faculty.ucmerced.edu/mcarreira-perpinan