PHD in Semantic Web Technologies @ Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal

The Semantic Technologies Lab at the Royal Military College of Canada (Ontario) and the WeST Lab at Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal (Quebec) in collaboration with the Laboratory for Systems, Software and Semantics (LS3, Ryerson University) are recruiting a PhD student at Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal.

Overall, the project aims at building a semantic search engine based on Linked Data. The selected candidate will work on several aspects such entity identification and linking as well as entity search and ranking. The candidate will be based at Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal but will be part of a bigger project involving two PhD students at Ryerson University.  The candidate should be prepared to participate to onsite (Quebec, Ontario) and online meetings with the team.

The supervisors involved in this thesis are Dr. Michel Gagnon (Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal), Dr. Ebrahim Bagheri (Ryerson University) and Dr. Amal Zouaq (RMC).

The position includes a Ph.D. research assistantship (20K/) and support for conference travels and equipment. The position is funded for the first year and renewable for another 2 years given satisfactory performance and availability of funds.
Qualifications
The ideal candidate would:

1.      have a background in knowledge extraction, data mining, NLP and/or machine learning, Linked Data, information retrieval and search engines

2.      have some knowledge on the Semantic Web and ontologies

3.      have (or soon receive) a Master’s degree in computer science/engineering, informatics, or related fields

4.      be interested in investing 3+ years as a "research assistant" (aka PhD student) and be highly motivated and perseverant.

The candidate should speak at least English. A good knowledge of French will be an asset.

The WeST Lab@Ecole Polytechnique
The WeST Lab is specialized in natural language processing, knowlege-based systems, and the Semantic Web. It is involved in many projects with industrial partners (MITACS, NSERC). With many graduate students working on multi-disciplinary projects, the WeST Lab is a stimulating environment for any person interested in research on the interaction of language and knowledge.

Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal
Founded in 1873, Polytechnique Montréal is one of Canada's leading engineering teaching and research institutions. It is the largest engineering university in Québec for the size of its student body and the scope of its research activities. With over 37,000 graduates, Polytechnique Montréal has graduated 25% of the current members of the l’Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec. Polytechnique provides training in 16 engineering specialties, has 241 professors and more than 6,900 students. It has an annual operating budget of over $200 million, including a $72-million research budget.

Application Process
We will consider applications until the position is filled. The start date is soon as possible between January 2015 and May 2015. Candidates interested in the position are asked to contact amal.zouaq@rmc.ca and michel.gagnon@polymtl.ca with the following documents:

1. A statement of interest
2. A list of publications (if any) and a CV
3. A list of contributions to software projects (if any)
4. Master’s thesis (if any; applicants who are not finished yet should include a
draft)

Once accepted after an interview process, the selected candidate will have to submit an official application at Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal http://www.polymtl.ca/


Dr. Amal Zouaq
Professeure adjointe | Assistant Professor
Département de mathématiques et d'informatique|
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Collège militaire royal du Canada | Royal Military College of Canada
CP 17000, Succursale Forces, Kingston ON CANADA K7K 7B4
amal.zouaq@rmc.ca<mailto:amal.zouaq@rmc.ca>
Office | Bureau Girouard 320
Telephone | Téléphone 613-541-6000 # 6478<tel:613-541-6000%20%23%206478>
Fax | Télécopieur 613-541-6584<tel:613-541-6584>
http://azouaq.athabascau.ca/