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New PhD Position in "Deep Learning for the Square Kilometer Array" at University of Amsterdam

Country/Region : Netherlands, The

Website : http://www.uva.nl

Description

The Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam invites applications for a fully funded position for a PhD student in the area of machine learning and involves applying deep learning to astronomical data.
Supervisor: Max Welling
Salary indication: ? 2.083,-- to ? 2.664,-- gross per month, based on 38 hours per week
Job / Project Description:
Deep Learning for Big Data Analysis in Astronomy.
With an estimated Exabyte of data per day in 2024, the new “Square Kilometer Array” radio telescope will be one of the largest generators of big data ever. In this project we will train deep neural networks to reconstruct the image of radio sources from the sparse (Fourier transformed) data received at the telescopes. We will use “Stochastic Variational Bayesian” learning to jointly train the encoding network (observations to sources) as well as the generative network (sources to observations). Models will be trained from simulator data as well as from real observations. A major challenge will be to develop deep learning algorithms that can handle the enormous amounts of data generated by these telescopes and reconstruct the sources efficiently and accurately.
The PhD student will be conducting research in the area of machine learning on the topic described above. In addition s/he may have some teaching duties as a teaching assistant. The PhD student will be directly supervised by Prof. Dr. M. Welling.
Institution:
The research group Machine Learning & Autonomous Intelligent Systems of IvI conducts research in the area of large scale modeling of complex data sources. This includes the development of new methods for probabilistic graphical models and nonparametric Bayesian models, the development of faster (approximate) inference and learning methods, deep learning, causal inference, reinforcement learning and multi-agent systems and the application of all of the above to large scale data domains in science and industry (“Big Data problems”). The Machine Learning and Autonomous Intelligent Systems group is embedded in the Intelligent Systems Lab Amsterdam (ISLA). ISLA conducts research in sensory information processing and autonomous systems. It produces theoretically as well as applied research. ISLA has an outstanding group of researchers and collaborates with national and international research institutes and companies.
Requirements
Candidates are required to have a master's degree in mathematics, statistics or physics (preferably with a specialization in computational methods) or computer science (preferably with a specialization in artificial intelligence and/or machine learning).
Necessary qualifications for candidates include excellent grades, proven research talent, affinity with computational statistics or machine learning and excellent programming skills.
Candidates are expected to have an excellent command of English, and good academic writing and presentation skills. Applicants are kindly requested to motivate why they have chosen to apply for this specific position.
Further Information
Further information about this vacancy can be obtained from Prof. Dr. M. Welling, email: m.welling-AT-uva.nl.
Appointment
The appointment will be full time (38 hours a week) for a period of four years (initial employment is 18 months and after a positive evaluation, the appointment will be extended further with 30 months) and should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). An educational plan that includes attendance of courses and national and international meetings will be drafted. The PhD student is also expected to assist in teaching of undergraduates. The salary is in accordance with the university regulations for academic personnel. The PhD student salary will range from ? 2.083,-- (first year) up to a maximum of ? 2.664,-- (last year) before tax per month (scale P) based on a full-time appointment. There are also secondary benefits, such as 8% holiday allowance per year and the end of year allowance of 8.3%. The Collective Employment Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.
English is the working language within the Informatics Institute. Moreover, since Amsterdam is a very international city where almost everybody speaks and understands English, candidates need not be afraid of the language barrier.
Job Application
Applications may only be submitted by sending your applications to application-science-AT-uva.nl. To process your application immediately, please mention the position you are applying for in the subject-line. Applications must include a motivation letter explaining why you are the right candidate, curriculum vitae, a copy of your master’s thesis, a list of projects you have worked on (with brief descriptions of your contributions and the names and contact addresses of two academic references).
All these should be grouped in one PDF attachment.
Applications will be accepted until 1 October 2014.

Last modified: 2014-08-29 22:02:07