PhD Student Position in Computing Science - Befattningen är under tillsättning eller redan tillsatt, och det är inte längre möjligt att lämna in en ansökan

Umeå University is looking for a PhD student in Computing Science in Extraction and Integration of Semantic Representations for Video-Based Advertising. The position is placed at the Department of Computing Science and comprises four years of fulltime studies. The application deadline is 8 April 2018.

You will be part of the project SAVANT – Self-Optimising Video Platform for Affiliate Marketing, a collaboration between the Department of Computing Science and the industry partners Gavagai AB (Sweden), Smart Video Nordic AB (Sweden, project leader), and Valossa Labs Oy (Finland). At the Department of Computing Science, the project is driven by Language Processing Centre North (LPCN) who conduct research related to the processing of language, both in isolation and in multimodal contexts in which language is an integral part of media contents such as video. Visit http://lpcn.umu.se/ for more information.

As we strive for a more balanced gender distribution within the department, we specifically encourage women as applicants.

The Department of Computing Science has about 100 employees from about 20 countries, with more than 20 PhD students. We conduct education and research on a broad range of topics in Computing Science and collaborate with various national and international research institutions and industry partners. We offer you an inspiring international atmosphere, challenging research questions and excellent career opportunities.

Research projekt                  

SAVANT is funded by Vinnova as part of the Eurostars programme. Its goal is the development of a fully automated video platform for affiliate marketers and other small publishers. The major technological challenge is that today’s computer technology mostly regards video as a black box whose semantic contents is inaccessible. Algorithmic processing of video content thus relies on auxiliary metadata, rather than the video itself. To cope with this situation, the PhD project will develop algorithmic techniques for producing high-level semantic representations of video content, based on a multimodal analysis of the material, available metadata, and other information. This offers a much better view into the video, thus paving the ground for real-time programmatic advertising in the SAVANT platform.

The challenge is to extract and combine data from complementary sources into a high-level representation, and to cope with large video archives. This makes it necessary to find suitable forms of representation, and corresponding algorithms that are both efficient and highly accurate.

About the position

Being employed as a PhD student aims at a PhD degree in Computing Science and is limited to four years of fulltime studies or up to five years if involved in teaching (max 20%), provided that the education makes reasonable progress. The salary will follow Umeå University’s standard for PhD student positions. The student is expected to collaborate with the other project partners, and in particular with Smart Video Nordic AB.

Admission requirements

Eligibility requirements for the education consist in 240 ECTS of completed coursework, including 60 ECTS credits in second cycle (i.e. at Master programme level) in Computing Science or of direct relevance for the PhD student position.

We are looking for a graduate student with theoretical and practical knowledge in Computing Science in general, and in media analysis and language processing in particular. Familiarity with the theory and practice of machine learning, graph algorithms and semantic modelling are regarded as merits.

Candidates must be able to communicate in English in both speech and writing without difficulty.

The application

Applications may be written in Swedish or English and shall contain:

1. a personal letter describing your research interests and experience and containing contact information (maximum 2 A4 pages);
2. documentation of completed academic courses with grades (transcript of records) and copies of degree certificates;
3. Curriculum Vitae;
4. copies of relevant theses and any other kind of significant scientific work;
5. the names and contact details of two persons willing to act as references.

Start date: 1 June 2018 or according to agreement.

For further information, contact Professor Frank Drewes tel. +46 90-786 9790, e-mail drewes@cs.umu.se or associate professor Johanna Björklund tel. +46-90-786 7927, e-mail johanna@codemill.se.

Applications must be submitted electronically using Umeå University’s e-recruitment system, and be received no later than 8 April 2018.

According to the Higher Education Ordinance (chapter 12, 2§) the hiring decision cannot be appealed.

We look forward to receiving your application!