PhD student in Machine Learning and Computer Vision

Are you interested in working with neural language models with applications in computer vision, with the support of competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment? Are you looking for an employer that invests in sustainable employeeship and offers safe, favorable working conditions? We welcome you to apply for a PhD position at Uppsala University. 

Uppsala University has a long tradition of successful research – among its alumni are 16 Nobel Prize laureates, including, most recently, Svante Pääbo. The University is unique when it comes to combining IT with wider research, from life sciences to the humanities, and this collaboration is currently facilitated by AI4Research and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Mathematics.

The Department of Information Technology holds a leading position in both research and education at all levels. We are currently Uppsala University's third largest department, have around 350 employees, including 120 teachers and 120 PhD students. Approximately 5,000 undergraduate students take one or more courses at the department each year. You can find more information about us on the Department of Information Technology website.

At the Division of Systems and Control, we develop both theory and concrete tools to design systems that learn, reason, and act in the real world based on a seamless combination of data, mathematical models, and algorithms. Our research integrates expertise from machine learning, optimization, control theory, and applied mathematics, spanning diverse application domains such as medicine, energy systems, biomedical systems, neuroscience, and safety and security.

The Division of Systems and Control enjoys a wide network of strong international collaborators all around the world, for example at the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Imperial College, University of British Columbia, University of Sydney, University of Newcastle and Aalto University. We strive for all PhD students to get a solid international experience during their PhD.

The position is a part of the Beijer Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence Research, funded by Kjell and Märta Beijer Foundation. The Beijer Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence Research was established in 2023 at Uppsala University with an ambition to grow activities within the subject of AI, focusing on applications in the life sciences and questions related to societal development.

Project description
In this project, the selected candidate will join us in conducting fundamental machine learning research and developing principled foundations of vision-language models, with opportunities to validate the methods on challenging real-world problems involving computer vision. There will be a strong focus on deep learning, image analysis and neural language modeling within the project. Some topics of interest within the project scope include, but are not limited to, designing efficient algorithms for integration of visual and textual modalities, aligning visual and text embeddings into a cohesive embedding space and representation learning. We will consider various forms of data, including text, images and videos.

Technical keywords for the position include: deep learning, image analysis, representation learning and language modeling.

Duties
A Ph.D. student is expected to devote their time to graduate education mainly. The rest of the duties may involve teaching at the Department, including also some administration, to at most 20%.

Requirements
To meet the entry requirements for doctoral studies, you must

• hold a Master’s (second-cycle) degree in computer science, applied mathematics, engineering physics, electrical engineering, machine learning, data science, image analysis, robotics or in a similar field, or
• have completed at least 240 credits in higher education, with at least 60 credits at Master’s level including an independent project worth at least 15 credits, or
• have acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way.

Read about the specific requirements in the study syllabus for the subject. 

We are looking for candidates with

• a strong interest in deep learning, image analysis and neural language modeling,
• good communication skills with sufficient proficiency in oral and written English,
• excellent study results,
• programming proficiency (preferably in Python),
• personal characteristics, such as a high level of creativity, thoroughness, and/or a structured approach to problem-solving are essential.

Additional qualifications
Experience and courses in one or more subjects are valued: statistical machine learning, optimisation, linear algebra, deep learning, natural language processing, image analysis and computer vision.

Rules governing PhD students are set out in the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5, §§ 1-7 and in Uppsala University's rules and guidelines.

Application
The application must include: 
1) a statement (at most 2 pages) of the applicant’s motivation for applying for this position, including a self-assessment on why you would be the right candidate for this position; 
2) a CV;
3) degrees and transcript of records with grades (translated to English or Swedish); 
4) the Master’s thesis (or a draft thereof, and/or some other self-produced technical or scientific text), publications, and other relevant documents; 
5) references with contact information (names, emails and telephone number) and up to two letters of recommendation. 
 
Applicants who meet at least one of the entry requirements are strongly encouraged to apply. All applicants should state their earliest possible starting date.

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position according to the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 § 7. Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date 1 October 2024 or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala. 

For further information about the position, please contact: Assistant Professor Ekta Vats, e-mail: ekta.vats@it.uu.se..

Please submit your application by 12 August 2024, UFV-PA 2024/2352.

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