[agents] PhD vacancy / scholarship in Artificial Intelligence

[Matthias Nickles]

Applications are invited for a PhD position (with possible scholarship) based at the College 
of Engineering & Informatics at National University of Ireland, Galway. The successful candidate 
will perform research in the area of Artificial Intelligence under the supervision of Dr. Matthias
Nickles and will have the opportunity to collaborate with the Digital Enterprise Research 
Institute (DERI), Galway. 

Candidates should have a very good degree in Computer Science or in a closely related subject. 
They should have excellent analytical skills and should be able to work independently as well as 
in cooperation with others. The successful applicant needs to have very good English skills.
Prior research experience in some area of Artificial Intelligence such as machine learning, logic, 
Data Science/Big Data, probabilistic modeling, or Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies, 
is a significant plus. 
Applicants are expected to possess very good programming skills in at least one of the following
languages: Scala, Java, C/C++, Haskell, Clojure, Prolog, or Answer Set Programming/AnsProlog.

Suitable candidates will be considered for a scholarship. The scholarship is expected to start in
September 2013 and is tenable for up to a maximum of four years, dependent on satisfactory 
progress and availability of funding. The value of the scholarship is up to 12,000 euro per year 
(tax-free) plus course fees.

The PhD research work will be positioned in the areas of Statistical Relational Learning (SRL)
and/or uncertainty reasoning for the Web, the Semantic Web, and Linked Data. 
SRL is an emerging subfield of Machine Learning and Data Mining for learning in relationally-,
graph- or network-like structured domains, such as the (Semantic) Web, Linked Data and Social 
Networks. SRL builds upon classical Machine Learning and probability theory as well as on 
first-order logic and formal knowledge representation, bridging the gap between two of the 
most important spheres of Artificial Intelligence. SRL frameworks such as Markov Logic Networks 
have already proven to be highly successful in real-world applications. A direction of SRL which 
is particularly interesting in regard to the prospective PhD research is Relational Reinforcement 
Learning (RRL), which combines Reinforcement Learning with structurally rich relational or 
graph-like representation formats. 
Possible topics for PhD work are the investigation and development of novel methods, techniques 
and tools for the SRL of interaction processes on the Web/the Semantic Web, SRL for predictions 
using large-scale dynamic data on the Web/Semantic Web, and SRL backed-up by Constraint 
Solving or Answer Set Programming. 
Further topics can be found at http://www.it.nuigalway.ie/researchtopics.html#_Toc201304261
Variants of these might also be possible.

Interested candidates should contact Dr. Matthias Nickles < matthias.nickles at nuigalway.ie > 
as soon as possible for a discussion of suitable project topics and for further details. 

Application is a two-stage process. Initial applications consisting of a CV, transcript(s), a
motivation letter and a list of papers published (if any) should be sent to Dr. Matthias Nickles 
no later than 15th May 2013.