[agents] [JOB] 1 year postdoc on Flexible Autonomy for Robot Swarms (Alan Turing Institute Project)

[Sarvapali Ramchurn]

Location: Southampton, UK
Salary:   £34,189 to £36,261 
Full Time Fixed Term (Until 29/04/2020)
Closing Date:  Tuesday 04 June 2019

We are looking for an innovative and organised individual who will take up a leading role in a pilot project funded by the Alan Turing Institute. The post is initially for a period of 12 months, with the potential extension depending on the availability of funds. The post is due to start as soon as possible.

To be successful, your primary research area  should be  within Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems, Machine learning, and Human-Robot Interaction. You should have a PhD* or equivalent professional qualifications in machine learning and a track record of publication at international leading venues (e.g. AAMAS, ICRA, CHI, IROS, AAAI, IJCAI, and related journals). You will need to have strong coding skills as the core work will involve building and testing algorithms for multi-robot coordination and control (Python, Java, Django, Javascript, ROS).

* Applications for Research Fellow positions will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification.  The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon successful completion of the PhD.  Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given.

The role will involve the development of human-machine teaming frameworks, specifically focusing on the evaluation of existing algorithms and command and control interfaces. This will include the development of algorithms for multi-robot coordination (focusing on unmanned aerial vehicles) and  human-machine interfaces for tactical commanders to manage large fleets of robots equipped with autonomous coordination behaviours. These will be built on an existing testbed that will be used in live trials to establish benchmarks of human-machine coordination e.g., qualitative and quantitative measures of improvements over  human-only or machine-only settings.

This role will also include a number of administrative duties including but not limited to the organisation of  events (e.g., workshops and focus groups), participating and contributing to international activities around Responsible AI, liaising with Industry, and co-supervision of a PhD student on the project.

You will join an internationally renowned and multi-disciplinary team across the University of Southampton (where this post is based). The team won several best paper awards at CHI and AAMAS. You will work alongside Prof. Sarvapali Ramchurn (www.sramchurn.com) and Dr. Danesh Tarapore.

 For more details and the application procedure, please see http://www.jobs.soton.ac.uk.

Application procedure:

You should submit your completed online application form at www.jobs.soton.ac.uk. The application deadline will be midnight on the closing date stated above. If you need any assistance, please call Charlene Tyson (Recruitment Team) on +44 (0) 23 8059 6803. Please quote reference 1140719FP on all correspondence.



Regards,

Gopal

—
Sarvapali D. (Gopal) Ramchurn, FIET
Professor of Artificial Intelligence,
Turing Fellow,
Director, Centre for Machine Intelligence
Electronics and Computer Science,
University of Southampton, UK.
t: +44 (0) 2380599309
w: http://www.sramchurn.com
l: Rm 4011, B32, University Road, Southampton.