Postdoctoral fellowship (1 year and 10 months) within Approximate Reasoning with Applications in Materials Science

The Department of Computing science is offering a postdoctoral scholarship within the project “Understanding and designing Block Copolymers using AI”. The scholarship is full-time for 1 year and 10 months with access in February 2025 or by agreement. Last day to apply is 2024-12-12.

The Department of Computing science is characterized by world-leading research in several scientific fields and a multitude of educations ranked highly in international comparison. The department has been growing rapidly in recent years where focus on an inclusive and bottom-up driven environment are key elements in our sustainable growth. Our department consists of a diverse group from different nationalities, background and fields.
See more information at: Department of computing science

This project is a collaboration between the groups NAUSICA: PrivAcy-AWare traNSparent deCIsions group (led by Vicenç Torra) and Formal Methods for Trustworthy Hybrid Intelligence (led by Juan Carlos Nieves), and the Naser Tavajohi lab (led by Naser Tavajohi, Chemistry department). Our research includes approximate reasoning, fuzzy knowledge-based systems, logic-based methods, answer set programming, probabilistic formal argumentation, decision-making models.

Our groups collaborate with several national and international research groups on these topics (Spain, Japan, USA, Brazil, etc), and have active links with the private and public sectors. For more information see:

https://www.umu.se/en/research/groups/nausica-privacy-aware-transparent-decisions-group-/

https://www.umu.se/en/research/groups/formal-methods-for-trustworthy-hybrid-intelligence-/

https://www.umu.se/en/research/groups/naser-tavajohi-lab/

Project description  

This project aims to use Artificial intelligence for understanding, designing, and optimizing Block Copolymers (BCPs) and their self-assembly. A hybrid intelligence system will be designed and developed during a multi-disciplinary collaboration. This system will combine two parts. First, a knowledge-based inference system that encodes existing knowledge using a domain-specific ontology and fuzzy logic-based rules. In short, this fuzzy knowledge-based system will express the known relationships between the chemical structure of polymers and their corresponding properties. Second, we will combine this knowledge-based system with a data-driven model. This model will be extracted from experimental data using state-of-the art machine learning techniques. 

The scholarship project is funded by the Kempe Foundations. This scholarship is for 1 year and 10 months with a start date to be agreed. The scholarship amounts to 350,000 SEK per year (approximately 28,306 euros). Please note that the scholarship is not for 2 full years, which means that in year 2 only 10 months will be paid. The grant is not taxable.

Qualifications

To qualify as a post doctoral scholarship holder, the postdoctoral fellow is required to have completed a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a doctoral degree. This qualification requirements must be fulfilled no later than at the time of the decision about scholarship recipient.

Priority should be given to candidates who completed their doctoral degree, according to what is stipulated in the paragraph above, no later than three years prior. If there are special reasons, candidates who completed their doctoral degree prior to that may also be eligible. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, appointments of trust in trade union organizations, military service, or similar circumstances, as well as clinical practice or other forms of appointment/assignment relevant to the subject area.

A qualified applicant is required to have:

• A PhD degree or a foreign degree that is deemed equivalent in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or another subject of relevance for the project.
• Documented knowledge and proven research experiences in at least one of the following areas approximate reasoning, logic-based methods, knowledge modeling, fuzzy sets and systems, probabilistic answer set programming, or uncertain ontologies, is required.
• A scientific and result-oriented approach.
• A very good command of the English language, both written and spoken.

^{Other desirable merits:}

• Good research merits and scientific publications in the area of the position are strongly meriting.
• International research experience is also a merit.

Application

A full application should include:

• Cover letter in which you summarize your qualifications, research interests, motivation for applying, and briefly describe the connection between you past research and the position (max 2 pages).
• Curriculum vitae (CV) with publication list,
• Verified copy of doctoral degree certificate or documentation that clarifies when the degree of doctor is expected to be obtained,
• Verified copies of other diplomas, list of completed academic courses and grades,
• Copy of doctoral thesis and possibly 5 numbers of relevant articles (briefly describe why you selected these papers).
• Other documents that the applicant wishes to claim.
• Contact information to two persons willing to act as references.

The application should be written in English (preferably) or Swedish. Your complete application, marked with reference number FS 2.1.6-2097-24 should be sent electronically (in PDF format) to medel@diarie.umu.se (with reference number on the subject line). The closing date is 2024-12-12.

Further details are provided by Prof. Vicenç Torra, vtorra@cs.umu.se. (project leader) and Assoc. Prof. Juan Carlos Nieves.  jcnieves@cs.umu.se.

Welcome with your application!