Full Professor in Artificial Intelligence at VU Amsterdam

The Artificial Intelligence group at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is looking for a full professor (1 FTE).
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) is a leading, innovative and growing university that is at the heart of society and actively contributes to new developments in teaching and research. Our university has ten faculties, and provides work for over 4,500 staff and scientific education for more than 23,000 students.
Research at the Faculty of Sciences focuses on the areas of Life & Health, Networked World, Fundamentals of Science, and Energy & Sustainability. The faculty’s teaching activities are directly linked to this excellent research. Cooperation with other faculties on the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam campus generates attractive, high-quality Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes. At international level, the faculty cooperates closely with leading scientific institutes and other partners.
The AI section belongs to the department of Computer Science, which has approximately 170 staff members, including 35 tenured staff and 40-50 PhD students. The tenured staff members form a critical and essential basis for the functioning of the department. A tenured staff member is required to make significant contributions to the research and education programmes, and to spend effort on specific tasks at the department level.
Much of the AI research with the department is embedded in the Network Institute of Vrije Universiteit, covering disciplines such as Social sciences, Humanities, and Economics. The Department also actively participates in Amsterdam Data Science, a collaboration between more than 600 data science researchers from different institutions in Amsterdam.
The department explicitly encourages inter- and cross disciplinary research, and expects successful candidates to collaborate with colleagues in other fields of Computer Science, as well as with colleagues from other disciplines such as those participating in the Network Institute and in Amsterdam Data Science
Artificial Intelligence at the VU
Candidates are invited who can contribute to the growth of AI teaching and research within our department. We are interested in AI experts who can contribute to any of the following directions for research in AI:
• Integration of symbolic and subsymbolic methods;
• Learning systems;
• Explainable and responsible AI;
• Embodiment of AI in many systems;
• Interaction between humans and AI systems.
Our Artificial Intelligence Section comprises three research groups. Among these are the Computational Intelligence group lead by Prof. Guszti Eiben and the Knowledge Representation and Reasoning group lead by Prof. Frank van Harmelen.
The successful candidate is expected to shape the third group according to his or her research interests and to collaborate with the other groups and capitalize on our strengths:
• Knowledge representation and reasoning, in particular at very large scale, and in open, dynamic and heterogeneous environments;
• Computational intelligence that drives adaptive systems, mainly applied to robotics and smart devices;
• Personalized behaviour support, based on knowledge driven models of psychological and social processes;
• Health and well-being is an important application area, ranging from prevention, hospital care to individual support at home.
The AI section maintains close links with AI research at the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Informatics. We share responsibility for a common Master’s program in AI, in addition to Bachelor and Master programs at the VU.
Tasks
Research
A successful candidate will build her/his own research line, including forging strong links to other research programmes established through concrete collaborations. We expect our researchers to excel, as witnessed by outstanding publications, high-profile research projects, prestigious awards and grants, and successes in raising external funds. A criterion for success is the extent to which the candidate’s research programme stands out in uniqueness while at the same time linking to other programmes.
Teaching
We expect staff members to teach at least one Bachelor-level course and one Master-level course each year. We tend to let only our best professors teach in Bachelor programmes, and notably consider first-year courses as crucial for a successful programme.
A successful candidate will excel in teaching as witnessed by evaluations and awards, has a clear vision on education, and can convincingly demonstrate to consider teaching equally important as research. Our teaching is in English.
Requirements
• English language proficiency;
• Dutch language proficiency, or willingness to learn Dutch within 2 years of appointment;
In addition to the general requirements for full professorship, candidates should meet the following criteria:
• International academic reputation in well-defined area(s) of Artificial Intelligence;
• Excellent teaching skills in subjects concerning Artificial Intelligence;
• Commitment to act as champion for Artificial Intelligence in relevant bachelor and master curricula;
• Willingness to participate in outreach to the general public.
Further particulars
For tenure-track positions, the initial appointment will be for a period between four and five years. Based on performance indicators agreed at the start of the appointment, a tenure track position will lead to a tenured position in a period of maximally 5 years.
In the fifth year of the appointment the tenure decision will be taken.
You can find information about our excellent employment conditions at www.workingatvu.nl such as:
• Remuneration of 8,3% end-of-year bonus and 8% holiday allowance;
• Participation in a solid pension scheme (ABP);
• A minimum of 29 holidays in case of full-time employment.
Salary
The salary will be in accordance with university regulations for academic personnel, and depending on experience.
Information
For additional information please contact: Prof. Dr. Frank van Harmelen (Frank.van.Harmelen-AT-vu.nl)
Application
Please send your application before 18 January 2018 to informatica.secretariaat.few-AT-vu.nl.
Please mention the vacancy number (17345) in the e-mail header.
Any other correspondence in response to this advertisement will not be dealt with.