Postdoctoral scholarship (2 years) in Creative Problem Solving in Artificial Agents

The Department of Computing Science is offering a postdoctoral scholarship within the project: Developing systems to solve spatial problems creatively and train users’ skills, funded by Kempestiftelserna and directed by Assoc. Prof. Zoe Falomir.  The scholarship is full-time for two years, starting in January 2026 or by agreement.

The Department of Computing Science has been growing rapidly in recent years with a focus on creating an inclusive and bottom-up-driven research environment.  Our institution consists of a diverse set of people from different nationalities, backgrounds and fields. More information about the department is available at Department of Computing Science

You will research in collaboration with the Associate Professor Zoe Falomir at the Department of Computing Science at Umeå University.

If this sounds interesting, you are welcome to apply before 23 November 2025

Project description

Creative problem solving can be broadly described as the process through which agents discover novel ways of accomplishing a task that was unsolvable prior to the discovery. Computationally, creative problem solving can be achieved through planning, learning, or hybrid-AI approaches (Gizzi et al., 2022).
The postdoctoral scholarship holder will have the opportunity to: (1) explore existing planning, learning, or hybrid-AI approaches to solve a set of spatial problems and define a benchmark e.g. discovering alternative uses or object affordances (Olteteanu and Falomir, 2016) (2) study how to include a human-in-the-loop in the process; and (3) explore the capabilities of creative problem solving by Large Language and Vision Models or LLVMs (Nair, et al. 2024).

References:
Olteteanu and Falomir (2016) Object replacement and object composition in a creative cognitive system. Towards a computational solver of the alternative uses test. Cognitive Systems Research, 39:15–32.
Gizzi, E., et al (2022). Creative problem solving in artificially intelligent agents: A survey and framework. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 75.
Nair, L., E. Gizzi, and J. Sinapov (2024). Creative problem solving in large language and vision models -what would it take? In Y. Al-Onaizan, M. Bansal, and Y.-N. Chen (Eds.), Findings of the Assoc. for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2024, Miami, Florida, USA, pp. 11978–11994. Assoc. for Computational Linguistics.

Kempestiftelserna (Stiftelserna J.C. Kempes och Seth M. Kempes minne) are funding this project with a 2-year postdoctoral scholarship.  The scholarship amounts to 375 000 SEK per year and is not subject to tax. 

Qualifications
To qualify as a postdoctoral 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 requirement 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 before that may also be eligible. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, appointments of trust in trade union organisations, military service or similar circumstances, as well as clinical practice or other forms of appointment/assignment relevant to the subject area.   

Doctoral degree should be within Computing Science.

Additional requirements are state knowledge on cognitive science, human-computer-interaction, and programming paradigms involving logics (e.g. Prolog, Lisp, Clingo, Python, etc.). Knowledge in robotics (ROS2 programming) or in videogame programming (Unity, Unreal, C#) would be considered a plus.

Meritorious is:

• PhD dissertation topic on Computational Creativity or Human-Computer/Robot-Interaction
• Knowledge on hybrid-AI (i.e. neurosymbolic reasoning/planning and learning)

We are looking for you who likes hands-on programming work, thinks out of the box, enjoys user-studies and statistical analysis, is passionate about creativity and creative problem solving.

Application
The application should be written in English or Swedish, and attached documents should be in Word or PDF format. The application should be registered via Umeå University’s e-recruitment system Varbi and submitted by the deadline 23 November, 2025.

A full application should include:

- Cover letter in which you explain which project challenges you would prefer to study/explore (3 pages max).

- 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 five relevant articles,

- Other documents that the applicant wishes to claim,

- Contact information to two persons willing to act as references.

Further information

For further information, please contact Associate Professor Zoe Falomir, zoe.falomir@umu.se 

We look forward to receiving your application!