PhD Research Fellow in Computer Science: Sequence-Driven Analytics and Prediction

The Department of Computing, Mathematics and Physics at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), has a vacancy for a research fellow (PhD position) in Sequence-Driven Analytics and Prediction for a period of 4 years.

The PhD research fellow will be part of the PhD programme in Computer Science: Software Engineering, Sensor Networks and Engineering Computing (http://ict.hvl.no). The research programme in Computer Science currently includes 20 professors and associate professors, 25 PhD and post-doctoral research fellows, and a large number of master's students.

About the PhD project

Sequence-driven analytics and prediction play an important role for many domains and applications. For instance, sequence analytics can be applied to analyze the behavior of customers based on their transactions and mobile logs. Interesting patterns can be discovered in customer transactions to support decision-making. Moreover, models can be extracted to select relevant products for the recommendation. In this project, the candidate is expected to work on developing new data mining and machine learning algorithms for sequence-driven analytics and prediction and apply the developed algorithms to various domains and applications, such as NLP, trajectory analysis, or collaboration recommendation. The project is also expected to integrate the developed algorithms in a system or platform, to facilitate their use in other applications.

Research environment

The computer science research environment at HVL (http://ict.hvl.no) has a strong focus on use-inspired and applied research, and on ICT as an enabling technology. The research environment has cooperation with many national and international research groups, and with national and regional industry partners. The research programme includes the research themes of software engineering, engineering computing, communication systems and sensor networks, grid computing and physics data analysis, machine learning, and interactive and collaborative systems. The current PhD research fellow position is allocated to the research activities in sequence-driven analytics and prediction.

Qualifications

The PhD research fellow should have master's degree or have submitted the master's thesis before the application deadline in Computer Science, or in a closely related field. In the latter case, it is required that the master's degree must be awarded within 4 weeks after the applications deadline. 

A successful candidates should have background knowledge in at least one of the areas of: data analytics in pattern-driven mining in heterogenous and bigdata environment; trajectory data analytics and mining; natural Language Processing (NLP) in sequence prediction; collaboration recommendation; the state-of-the-art machine learning models used in NLP and recommendation system; and have published at least one peer-review academic conference/journal paper.

A solid background in statistics, data mining, machine learning and artificial intelligence will be considered an advantage when candidates are ranked. A background in bio-informatic which can be utilized to analyze the DNA-sequence data for further research and analytic will also be considered an advantage.

In addition to the required educational and scientific background, the following criteria will be evaluated: competence and grades on completed course work, quality of the master's thesis (excellent grade, equivalent of grade B or better on the ECTS grading system), publications (if any), research and teaching experience, practical software engineering skills and experience. A possible outline of a research plan for a potential PhD project will also be taken into account.

The candidate must be diligent and display the ability to work independently, supplemented with regular guidance, and is expected to carry out high-quality research and to publish the results in international workshops, conferences, and journals.

The PhD research fellow must enroll in the PhD programme in Computer Science: Software Engineering, Sensor Networks and Engineering Computing at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and must meet the formal admission requirements for admission into the PhD programme. 25% of the 4-year period will be designated to duties such as teaching, development and administrative tasks. The employment period may be reduced if the successful applicant has held previous employment as a research fellow.

The PhD candidate will be assigned two academic supervisor(s) at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. An application for enrolment should first be submitted after an appointment is made and the supervisor(s) will help with this procedure. The candidate must be enrolled as a PhD student within 3 months from the start of the employment.

Application procedure

Applications will be evaluated by an expert panel of three members. Applicants are asked to submit their application and CV online. Please use the link ?Apply for this job" (?Søk stillingen").  

The following documentation should be uploaded as an attachment to the online application:  

• Master thesis

• Copies of selected academic publications in english (no more than 3)

• A CV with a complete list of academic publications

• Diplomas and certificates

Applicants should indicate which publications or parts of publications should be given special consideration in the evaluation. If the documents submitted are not in a Scandinavian language or in English, the applicants must submit certified translations of these. The transcripts must specify the topics, the course works, and the grades at the bachelor`s and master`s degree levels.

Applicants should note that the evaluation will be based on the documentation submitted electronically via Jobbnorge within the submission deadline. The applicants are responsible for ensuring that all the documentation is submitted before the closing date. It is of utmost importance that all publications to be considered in the evaluation are uploaded as an attachment with the application, since these are sent electronically to the expert panel. Applications cannot be sent by e-mail or to individuals at the college.

Salary

Initial salaries will be offered at grade 51 (449.400.-) (code 1017) in the Civil Service pay grade table scale. There is a compulsory 2 % deduction to the pension fund (see http://www.spk.no/en for more information). The successful applicant must comply with the guidelines that apply to the position at any time.

General information

The appointment will be made in accordance with the regulations for State employees Law in Norway ("Lov om statens ansatte)". Organizational changes and changes in the duties and responsibilities associated with the position must be expected.

State employment shall reflect the multiplicity of the population at large to the highest possible degree. Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Bergen has therefore adopted a personnel policy objective to ensure that we achieve a balanced age and gender composition and the recruitment of persons of various ethnic backgrounds.

Information about the applicant may be made public even though the applicant has requested not to be named in the list of applicants. The applicant will be notified if his/her request is not respected. 

Applicants may be called in for an interview.

Homepage

http://www.hvl.no/

http://ict.hvl.no/

http://ikelab.net

Contacts:  

Associate Professor Jerry Chun-Wei Lin, 

Phone: (+47) 55587043, 

E-mail: jerrylin@ieee.org, chun-wei.lin@hvl.no

Associate Professor Reza Arghandeh,

Phone: (+47) 55587195, 

Email: Reza.Arghandeh@hvl.no

Professor Håvard Helstrup, Coordinator of PhD Program on Computer Science,

Phone: (+47) 55 58 75 61

E-mail: Havard.Helstrup@hvl.no