2 postdoctoral positions in Computer Science with focus on AI for Data Management - Befattningen är under tillsättning eller redan tillsatt, och det är inte längre möjligt att lämna in en ansökan

At our department characterized by world-leading research in several scientific fields and a multitude of educations ranked highly in international comparison we now look for two post doctors in AI for Data Management.  Deadline for application is 30 June 2022.

The department has been growing rapidly in recent years where focus on an inclusive and bottom-up driven environment are key elements in our sustainable growth. Our workplace consists of a diverse group from different nationalities, background and fields. If you work as a postdoc with us you receive the benefits of support in career development, networking, administrative and technical support functions along with good employment conditions. See more information at:

https://www.umu.se/en/department-of-computing-science/

Project description and working tasks

The research will be carried out within the research group in “Artificial Intelligence for Data Management”, led by Prof. Diego Calvanese. The research group currently consists of two post-doctoral researchers and three PhD students, and it will be joined starting from summer this year by two associate professors and several PhD students. The group will closely collaborate with the research team of Prof. Calvanese at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, which is well-known as one of the leading groups worldwide for its foundational and applied research at the interplay between Semantic Technologies, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, and Databases.

The research project investigates foundational aspects and develops advanced software tools for the flexible and efficient management of large amounts of richly structured data, by relying on the paradigm of Virtual Knowledge Graphs (VKGs, also known as Ontology-based Data Access). The project will build on the open source system Ontop (http://ontop-vkg.org/) and will be carried out in close collaboration with the research team of Prof. Calvanese at the Free Univ. of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. It aims at extending the foundations, implementation, and application areas of VKGs along several directions:

• (i) dealing with additional forms of data/knowledge (e.g., temporal, geospatial, aggregated, numeric);
• (ii) managing heterogeneous data sources of different types (e.g., graph-data, json, xml, csv, streaming, textual);
• (iii) tackling novel kinds of problems (e.g., provenance and explanation, personalization, data analysis and machine learning over VKGs, optimization and performance tuning); and
• (iv) applying VKGs to novel domains (e.g., industry 4.0, smart cities, e-health).

The activities in the project range from foundations to the actual design, implementation, and optimization of advanced algorithms. Depending on qualifications and interests, the postdoc can carry out more foundational and theoretical research or more application-oriented research, or a combination of both.

The postdoc is expected to actively collaborate with and support PhD students in the area of AI for Data Management.

The positions are funded by Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) which is Sweden’s largest individual research program ever, a major national initiative for strategically motivated basic research, education and faculty recruitment. The program addresses research on artificial intelligence and autonomous systems acting in collaboration with humans, adapting to their environment through sensors, information and knowledge, and forming intelligent systems-of-systems. The vision of WASP is excellent research and competence in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and software for the benefit of Swedish industry. Read more: https://wasp-sweden.org/

Terms of employment

The appointment is for two years full-time employment. Postdocs are typically offered the opportunity to gain teaching experience on suitable undergraduate courses. Expected starting date is October 2022 or as otherwise agreed. 

Qualifications

To be appointed under the postdoctoral agreement, the postdoctoral fellow is required to have completed a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a doctoral degree. This qualification requirements must be fulfilled no later than at the time of the appointment decision.

To be appointed under the postdoctoral agreement, priority should be given to candidates who completed their doctoral degree, according to what is stipulated in the paragraph above, no later than three years prior. If there are special reasons, candidates who completed their doctoral degree prior to that may also be eligible. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, appointments of trust in trade union organisations, military service, or similar circumstances, as well as clinical practice or other forms of appointment/assignment relevant to the subject area. Postdoctoral fellows who are to teach or supervise must have taken relevant courses in teaching and learning in higher education.

The following are required qualifications:

• Documented knowledge and proven research experiences in one or more of semantic technologies (e.g., RDF, SPARQL, OWL), their foundations in knowledge representation and reasoning (e.g., description logics, logics for knowledge representation), and data management.
• A very good command of the English language

The following are additional desirable qualifications:

• Good research achievements and scientific publications in the project areas.
• Capability to advance the state of the art and produce high quality scientific articles that warrant publication in the top-rated international conferences and journals in the project areas.
• International research experience.
• Development experience in Java, preferably in large-scale projects.

Desirable personal skills:

• Strong motivation and interest in developing new competences and acting in an international environment.
• Good communication skills as well as ambition and good ability to co-operate in a team.
• Independency, creativity, and passion for research.

Application
The application should include:

• An introductory letter summarizing qualifications, research interests, and motivation for applying (max 2 pages);
• CV with list of publications;
• Copies of PhD thesis and of (max 10) relevant scientific publications;
• Verified copies of degree certificates, including documentation of completed academic courses and obtained grades;
• Name and contact information for two or three persons willing to act as references;
• Any other relevant information, e.g., software development or previous industry experiences.

The application must be written in English (preferred) or Swedish. The application is made through our electronic recruitment system. Documents sent electronically must be in Word or PDF format. Log in to the system and apply via the button at the end of this page. The closing date is 30 June 2022.

Further details are provided by Prof. Diego Calvanese, diegoc@cs.umu.se.

We look forward to your application!