Applications are invited for a PhD position at National University of Ireland, Galway. The successful candidate will become a PhD student at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), Galway, where (s)he will perform research at the junction of Semantic Web/Linked Data technologies and Machine Learning/Probabilistic Modeling under the supervision of Dr. Matthias Nickles. DERI is one of the leading international web science research institutes.
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. Candidates should have a very good degree in Computer Science or in a closely related subject. Prior research experience in some area of Artificial Intelligence such as Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies, Machine Learning, Data Science/Big Data, Logic, or probabilistic models, is a significant plus. Applicants should have excellent analytical skills and should be able to work independently as well as in cooperation with others. The successful candidate needs to have very good English skills. 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. The PhD research work will be positioned in the areas of Statistical Relational Learning (SRL) and/or probabilistic modeling 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, SRL backed-up by Constraint Solving or Answer Set Programming, and probabilistic semantics of semi-structured data on the Web. Application is a two-stage process. Initial applications consisting of a CV, transcript(s), a motivation letter and a list of academic publications (if any) should be sent to Dr. Matthias Nickles ( [email protected] ) no later than 15th May 2013.
