Ph.D. position in Canada

Dear Colleagues,
Please find below a Ph.D. position offer in Canada. (Apologies for cross-posting)

The Semantic Technologies Lab at the Royal Military College of Canada and the WeST
Lab at Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal are recruiting a PhD student for the OntoCmaps
project. The position includes a Ph.D. research assistantship (19K/year pending to budget
approval) and support for conference travels and equipment.
Qualifications
The ideal candidate would:
• have a background in knowledge extraction, data mining, NLP and/or machine
learning
• have some knowledge on the Semantic Web and ontologies
• have (or soon receive) a Masters degree in computer science/engineering,
informatics, or related fields
• be interested in investing 3+ years as a "research assistant" (aka PhD student)
The OntoCmaps Project
In the context of the Semantic Web, the extraction, update and evaluation of formal
conceptual models (domain ontologies and rules) from unstructured and structured
knowledge sources is an important challenge. This task is particularly difficult when the
adopted approach is an open (domain independent) and unsupervised (without any
guidance) knowledge extraction. However, such a domain independent approach is
crucial to the interoperability and reuse of ontology learning methodologies across
various applications and domains. The interest of the availability of a complete ontology
(with all its layers) is that it is essential for agents to reason over semantic data and this
will provide effective knowledge retrieval capabilities.
The OntoCmaps project aims at developing a domain independent methodology
and a set of tools for learning the ontology layers (terms, taxonomy, conceptual relations,
relation hierarchies, axioms and axiom schemata) from unstructured knowledge sources.
In particular, we aim at automatically learning the three last layers, which has been done
very rarely in the state of the art. The research also explores filtering techniques that
identify important information and integration techniques that adequately combine
knowledge coming from various sources. The long-term objective of this research is to
build learning-by-reading systems by exploring the integration of deep semantic analysis,
filtering and knowledge integration techniques. Our current application domains are the
biomedical domain and the eLearning domain.
The Semantic Technologies Lab@RMC
The Semantic Technologies Lab@RMC is specialized in knowledge extraction in the
context of the Semantic Web. By joining the Lab, you will develop your skills in edge
technologies needed in both academia and industry. You will also have the opportunity to
have close collaborations (including internships, visits, joint conferences) with other
institutions including Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, Simon Fraser University and
Athabasca University, thus allowing multiple research experiences.
The WeST Lab@Ecole Polytechnique
The WeST Lab is specialized in natural language processing, knowlege-based systems,
and semantic web. It is still growing and is involved in many projects with industrial
partners. With many graduate students working on mutlidisciplinary projects, the WeST
Lab is a stimulating environment for any person interested in making interesting
researches on the interaction of language with knowledge.
The Royal Military College of Canada
The Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), established in 1876, is Canada's only
military university providing academic and leadership training to officer cadets, other
members of Canada's armed forces and civilians. RMC is also the only federal institution
in Canada with degree granting powers. Programmes are available at the undergraduate
and graduate levels on site through traditional studies and by distance learning through
the Division of Continuing Studies. There are possibilities to take courses at Queen's
University as well.
Web site: http://www.rmc.ca/
Tuition Fees: http://www.rmc.ca/aca/reg-sc/fees-fs-eng.asp
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.
Important Information :
1. The Ph.D. can be located at either one of the labs/universities.
2. Please note: If the accepted candidate is not a permanent resident or a Canadian
citizen, (s)he will have to obtain a work permit if (s)he chooses Ecole
Polytechnique de Montréal for the Ph.D.
3. Please note that Ecole Polytechnique offers the Ph.D. program in French, and the
RMC offers the program in French and English.
Application Process
The application deadline is November 1st, 2011, but we will consider applications until
the positions are filled. The start date is January 2012 or earlier. Candidates interested in
a 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. Masters thesis (if any; applicants who are not finished yet should include a
draft)
The accepted candidate will then have to submit an official application either at the RMC
http://www.rmc.ca/  or at Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal http://www.polymtl.ca/



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/