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PhD student position available (now filled!!)
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IDSIA
Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale
Galleria 2, CH-6928 Manno (Lugano), Switzerland

 

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JOB OPENING: A PhD student position for 3 years is open for applications.

PROJECT TITLE: Unifying graphical models by credal networks: algorithms and applications.

Swiss National Science Foundation (project 200020-116674/1).

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IDSIA invites applications for a PhD student position at University of Lugano. We are looking for an outstanding PhD student with excellent mathematical as well as computer programming (e.g., C, C++, Java) skills.

This project will focus on the graphical model for uncertainty called credal network. A credal network can be regarded as a set of Bayesian networks with the same graph (an overview paper about credal nets is available here). As such, it maintains some of the key features of Bayesian networks (e.g., compact and intuitive representation, consistency of the delivered probabilistic inference), while substantially expanding their expressivity. The project will aim at exploiting such expressivity in order to give a credal net-based unifying view of some important graphical models (e.g., decision nets, qualitative nets), and at developing algorithms for credal nets that can be re-played in the other graphical models thanks to the provided unification.

To get a better idea of credal nets-related research, please have a look at the following publications (Reference 2 is particularly relevant for the present project):

  1. Antonucci, A., Zaffalon, M. (2007). Fast algorithms for robust classification with Bayesian nets. International Journal of Approximate Reasoning 44(3), 200–223.
  2. Antonucci, A., Zaffalon, M. (2006). Locally specified credal networks. In Studený, M., Vomlel, J. (Eds), PGM'06: Proceedings of the third European Workshop on Probabilistic Graphical Models, Action M Agency, Prague (Czech Republic), pp. 25–34.
  3. Antonucci, A., Zaffalon, M., Ide, J. S., Cozman, F. G. (2006). Binarization algorithms for approximate updating in credal nets. In Penserini, L., Peppas, P., Perini, A. (Eds), STAIRS'06: Proceedings of the third European Starting AI Researcher Symposium. IOS Press, Amsterdam (Netherlands), pp. 120–131.
  4. De Cooman, G., Zaffalon, M. (2004). Updating beliefs with incomplete observations. Artificial Intelligence 159(1–2), 75–125.
  5. Zaffalon, M., Fagiuoli, E. (2003). Tree-based credal networks for classification. Reliable computing 9(6), 487–509.
  6. Fagiuoli, E., Zaffalon, M. (1998). 2U: an exact interval propagation algorithm for polytrees with binary variables. Artificial Intelligence 106(1), 77–107.

The position is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The initial appointment will be for 3 years, with possible prolongation. The goal is to finish the PhD thesis within 3-4 years. The new PhD student will be supervised by Marco Zaffalon, will interact with other people at IDSIA, and will be involved in international research collaborations. The salary is roughly 38,000 CHF (Swiss Francs) per year, low taxes. There is travel funding in case of papers accepted at good conferences. The official language at IDSIA is English.

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HOW TO APPLY
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In order to be admitted, the applicant must have completed a Master degree in one of the following areas (or in a closely related one): computer science, physics, mathematics, engineering. The position is suitable for applicants no older than 35 years.

Applicants should submit:
(i) Detailed curriculum vitae
(ii) List of three references (and their email addresses)
(iii) Transcripts of undergraduate and graduate (if applicable) studies
(iv) Concise statement of their research interests (two pages max).

Please address all correspondence to:

Marco Zaffalon, IDSIA, Galleria 2, CH-6928 Manno (Lugano), Switzerland.

Applications can also be submitted by email to zaffalon@idsia.ch (2MB max). WWW pointers to ps/pdf/doc/html files are welcome. Use Firstname.Lastname.DocDescription.DocType for filename convention.

We guarantee that the selection process, based solely on the research records, will give equal opportunities to female and male researchers.

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APPLICATION DEADLINE
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The position will be filled as an adequate candidate will become available. However, we suggest to apply by

1 May 2007.

 

Thanks for your interest.

Marco Zaffalon, Senior researcher, IDSIA.

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SHORT DESCRIPTION OF IDSIA
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IDSIA is a joint research institute of University of Lugano and Swiss Italian University for Applied Science. Our research focuses on uncertain reasoning, imprecise probabilities, graphical models, data mining, artificial neural nets, reinforcement learning, complexity and generalization issues, unsupervised learning and information theory, forecasting, artificial ants, combinatorial optimization, evolutionary computation. IDSIA is small but visible, competitive, and influential. The "X-Lab Survey" by Business Week Magazine ranked IDSIA among the world's top ten labs in Artificial Intelligence. IDSIA's algorithms hold the world records for several important operations research benchmarks (see Nature 406(6791):39-42 for an overview of artificial ant algorithms developed at IDSIA).
 

IDSIA develops and participates in projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, by the European Commission and by the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation. IDSIA also consults private firms and enterprises.
IDSIA (see our building) is located near the Swiss supercomputing center. IDSIA is close to the beautiful city of Lugano in Ticino, the scenic southernmost province of Switzerland. Zurich, Milan and Venice are only few hours by train from Lugano.

 

Last updated March 29, 2007