Netherlands : PhD Student - Sort-It-Out: Visual Analytics for Multimedia Collections

The Informatics Institute (IvI) is one of the large research institutes with the faculty, with a focus on complex information systems divided in two broad themes: Computational Systems and Intelligent Systems. The institute has a prominent international standing and is active in a dynamic scientific area, with a strong innovative character and an extensive portfolio of externally funded projects.

The Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam invites applications for a fully funded position in the Technology Foundation STW project: PhD Student - Sort-It-Out: Visual Analytics for Multimedia Collections.

Project Description

The overall aim of the project is to develop a multimedia analytics approach (combining multimedia analysis, information visualization, and data mining) for effective large scale categorization of images and their metadata based on a number of different metaphors.

The project comprises two PhD students one in the area of Information Visualization at the Eindhoven University of Technology, the other is the vacancy described here. The UvA vacancy is within the Intelligent Sensory Information Systems (ISIS) group of the Intelligent Systems Lab Amsterdam (ISLA) and will be supervised by Dr. Marcel Worring.

The research will focus on

• techniques for deriving patterns, categories, and relations in mixed media data (images and all their metadata);
• techniques to learn new categorizations from relevance feedback on the results found;
• scalability of the proposed solutions to datasets of >1 Million images;
• integration of the above techniques with information visualization to yield multimedia analytics solutions for categorization;
• evaluation of the proposed techniques in benchmark settings;
• application of the techniques especially within the domain of forensics and intelligence.

Requirements

Applicants must have a master's degree in artificial intelligence, computer science or a closely related area. In addition, a successful candidate should have:

• good knowledge of content-based multimedia analysis and mining;
• excellent analytic and scientific writing skills;
• solid programming skills, preferably in C/C++;
• a goal and application oriented attitude;
• a strong motivation for the project.

Further Information

Information about the context of the position can be found at:

• Project website: http://staff.science.uva.nl/~worring/sort-it-out.html
• Marcel Worring’s website: http://www.science.uva.nl/~worring
• Intelligent Systems Lab Amsterdam http://isla.science.uva.nl

Informal inquiries can be made by email to:

• Marcel Worring

Some of the things we have to offer

• Competitive pay and excellent benefits
• Extremely friendly, interactive, and international working environment
• New building near the city center of one of Europe's most beautiful and lively cities
• Access to high-end computing facilities

English is the working language within the Informatics Institute. Moreover, since Amsterdam is a very international city where almost everybody speaks and understands English, candidates need not be afraid of the language barrier.

Appointment

The appointment will be full time (38 hours a week) for a period of four years (initial employment is 18 months and after a positive evaluation, the appointment will be extended further with 30 months) and should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). An educational plan that includes attendance of courses and national and international meetings will be drafted. The salary is in accordance with the university regulations for academic personnel. The PhD student salary will range from € 2.042,-- (first year) up to a maximum of € 2.612,-- (last year) before tax per month (scale P) based on a full-time appointment. There are also secondary benefits, such as 8% holiday allowance per year and the end of year allowance of 8.3%. The Collective Employment Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

Job Application

To save paper and the environment, applications may only be submitted by electronic mail by clicking the Apply Now-button below. To process your application immediately, please quote the vacancy number 13-026 and the position you are applying for in the subject-line.

Applications must include a curriculum vitae, a motivation letter and the names and contact details of at least two academic referees. All these should be grouped in one PDF attachment.

Application Deadline : 30 November