PhD opportunity at DERI / National University of Ireland, Galway

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 ( matthias.nickles@nuigalway.ie ) no later than 15th May 2013.

Received on Wednesday, 1 May 2013 08:04:02 UTC