PhD Position on Program Analysis with Machine Learning - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

The Department of Information Technology has a leading position in research and education. The Department currently has about 280 employees, including 120 teachers and 110 PhD students. More than 4000 students study one or more courses at the department each year. More info: http://www.it.uu.se

Duties/Project description: Improving the quality of software programs and reducing the likelihood of bugs is an important concern for societies and industries that are increasingly dependent on software.
The goal of the announced full-time PhD position is to find new ways of using machine learning (in particular, methods based on deep neural networks) to improve, extend or replace classical program analyses. Two focus areas are model checking (algorithms that can automatically prove the absence of bugs in programs) and defect prediction (methods that can predict the likelihood of defects in given code segments). The research is motivated by the dramatic advances in the machine learning field, which are starting to seep into other research areas such as formal methods and software engineering.

About the project: The PhD work will be carried out in the context of a collaboration between Uppsala University and Microsoft Research Cambridge. The PhD student will have the opportunity to work together with several world-leading groups at both institutes: the Embedded Systems group and the Algorithmic Verification group at Uppsala University, and the Confidential Computing and Machine Intelligence & Perception groups at Microsoft Research Cambridge. The position is partly funded through a Microsoft Research PhD scholarship, and includes benefits such as summer schools organised by Microsoft Research Cambridge.

Founded in 1991, Microsoft Research has become one of the largest and most respected
software research organizations in the world. The Microsoft Research Cambridge branch was set up in July 1997, and today hosts over 130 researchers, mostly from Europe. More info.

Qualifications: The candidate should have a Master of Science in computer science, computer engineering, or equivalent, with a solid grasp in data mining and machine learning, formal methods and verification, and language technology such as compiler construction. Goodprogramming skills and communication skills are required in this project. We expect the student to have demonstrated ability to do research, as seen through his/her MS thesis. Excellent skills in spoken and written English are an absolute requirement.

The position is for a maximum of five years and includes departmental duties at a level of at most 20% (typically teaching) as well as course studies. The candidate will be expected to teach in English or Swedish.

Working in Sweden: Sweden is a fantastic place for living and working. Swedes are friendly and speak excellent English. The quality of life is high, with a strong emphasis on outdoor activities. The Swedish working climate emphasizes an open atmosphere, with active discussions involving both junior and senior staff. All PhD students and Postdocs are full employees, with standard salaries and five weeks of paid holiday. The starting salary of PhD student is currently 27400sek/month (around 2700Euro/month). Spouses of employees are entitled to work permits, and, after being awarded a PhD degree, non-EU-citizens are eligible for permanent work permits. Healthcare is free after a small co-pay and the university subsidizes athletic costs, such as a gym membership. The parental benefits in Sweden are among the best in the world, including extensive parental leave (for both parents), paid time off to care for sick children, and affordable daycare.

Application: The application should include a description of yourself, your research interests, reasons for applying for this particular PhD position and past experience (max. 3 pages), a CV, copies of relevant university degrees and transcripts, relevant publications, a copy of your MSc thesis (or a summary in case the thesis is ongoing) and other relevant documents. Candidates are encouraged to provide up to 3 letters of recommendation and contact information to reference persons. We would also like to know your earliest possible date for starting.

Please note that applications can only be accepted via the web interface link below (and not via email).

Rules governing Ph.D. candidates are set out in the Higher Education Ordinance Chapter 5, §§ 1-7 and in Uppsala university's rules and guidelines http://regler.uu.se/search/?hits=30&languageId=1&search-language_en=English

Uppsala University strives to be an inclusive workplace that promotes equal opportunities and attracts qualified candidates who can contribute to the University’s excellence and diversity. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and from people of all backgrounds.

Information about the positions can be given by Dr. Philipp Rümmer,
philipp.ruemmer@it.uu.se, and Dr. Marc Brockschmidt, mabrocks@microsoft.com.

Salary: According to local agreement for PhD students and teaching assistants.
 
Starting date: As agreed upon, temporary position.

Type of position: Full time position.

For further information about the position please contact
Dr. Philipp Rümmer, philipp.ruemmer@it.uu.se, and Dr. Marc Brockschmidt, mabrocks@microsoft.com

Please submit your application by 31 August 2018, UFV-PA 2018/2679.

Are you considering moving to Sweden to work at Uppsala University? If so, you will find a lot of information about working and living in Sweden at www.uu.se/joinus. You are also welcome to contact International Faculty and Staff Services at ifss@uadm.uu.se.