PhD Open position: Synergistic interactions in swarms of heterogenous agents

PhD Studentship @ IDSIA

Synergistic interactions in swarms of heterogenous agents

From February 2011, 3 years
@
Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA)
Lugano, Switzerland

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Mission:
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The research work is in the context of a Swiss project involving multiple laboratories. The project aims at laying the foundations for the design, implementation, and adaptive control of heterogeneous multi-agent systems that are composed of humans, animals, and robots working in cooperation to solve distributed tasks that require a wide diversity of sensory-motor and cognitive skills. The objective is to provide each component of such a mixed swarm with a high level of autonomy in order to allow it to fully exploit its own unique skills and abilities, and at the same time to set up close bidirectional interactions and information flows between all system components in order to ensure overall synergistic cooperation. In the context of this project, the candidate will focus on the issue of the adaptive system-level planning of the activities of a networked swarm of mobile agents with different sensory-motor and cognitive capabilities.

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Candidate Profile:
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We are looking for an excellent and highly motivated candidate with a strong interest and a scientific background in: combinatorial optimization, sensor networks, distributed systems, and swarm intelligence. The candidate must have a MASTER degree (or equivalent). She/he is expected to have good programming and mathematical skills, and to have a positive attitude toward interdisciplinary research and teamwork.

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Time frame, Enrollment, and Salary information:
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- Expected duration of the studentship: 3 years, starting from February 2011
- The candidate will be affiliated to the Faculty of Informatics at USI and will be supervised by Prof. Luca Gambardella (IDSIA).
- English is the official language both at the Faculty of Informatics of USI and at IDSIA.
- The gross salary is roughly 40,000 CHF (29,000 EURO) per year (corresponding to a net salary of about 2,700 CHF/month). There is travel funding in case of papers accepted at conferences and for project meetings.

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Research environment:
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IDSIA (http://www.idsia.ch) is a research institute affiliated to the University of Lugano (http://www.usi.ch/en/index.htm) and theUniversity of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (http://www.supsi.ch/home_en.html).
IDSIA is a truly international, stimulating, and dynamic environment. It currently hosts about 50 people, including senior researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and Ph.D. students. The research activities carried out at IDSIA address a number ofdifferent domains, including: swarm robotics, machine learning, combinatorial optimization, networking, bio-inspired computing,data mining, information theory, complex systems, and simulation.

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How to Apply:
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Applications should be submitted by e-mail to Dr. Gianni A. Di Caro
at the following address: gianni.di.caro AT gmail DOT com, using "Phd in Mixed swarm interactions" as subject.
They must include:
- Detailed curriculum vitae (including grades)
- List of two references (including email addresses)
- Statement about the research interests of the candidate, pointing out their relationship with the topics of the project (1 page)
- Links to master thesis and publications

Position is open until filled. Candidates are strongly encouraged to send their applications before December 22, 2010.