PhD Position in Artificial Intelligence at the Delft University of Technology

The Delft University of Technology offers a PhD Position in Artificial Intelligence to highly motivated students. This PhD project aims to contribute toward the development of a hybrid-intelligence (HI) platform for supporting climate change deliberations and negotiations.

This is a PhD position in the Hippo (Hyper-heuristics for interpretable public policy analysis) lab.

Summary

Project Description

Collective action by all stakeholders (e.g., public administrators, scientists, and citizens) is necessary to tackle a global societal challenge such as climate change. Collective action requires systematic deliberations and negotiations in each step of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Current, mostly manual, approaches for consideration and negotiation are subject to significant pitfalls, including limited participation, information overload, Balkanisation, and various cognitive biases.

The HI deliberation platform will support humans with AI (specifically, via natural language processing and knowledge representation and reasoning techniques) in recognising the deliberative structure of discussions, clustering and visualising arguments and perspectives, finding novel objectives, and modelling opinion dynamics over time.

The Hippo lab’s core goal is to advance multi-purpose decision support using collaborative and heuristic AI methods. You will work as part of an interdisciplinary team between the Interactive Intelligence section in the Intelligent Systems (INSY) department at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) and the Policy Analysis section in the Multi-Actor systems (MAS) department at the Faculty of Technology Policy and Management (TPM), tackling the following significant scientific challenges:

1. How can we integrate subjective notions of ethics and fairness into algorithmic design?
2. How can we create an optimality taxonomy to find practical trade-offs in policy search?
3. How can we develop interpretable AI methods to gain public confidence and provide unbiased support in real decision-making contexts?
4. How can we support public policy deliberation via collaborative AI methods?

The Hippo lab is a Delft Artificial Intelligence Lab. Artificial Intelligence, Data and Digitalisation are becoming increasingly important when looking for answers to significant scientific and societal challenges. In a DAI-lab, experts inthe fundamentals of AI technology’ and experts in ‘AI challenges’ run a shared lab. As a PhD, you will work with at least two academic staff members and three other PhD candidates. In total, TU Delft will establish 24 DAI-Labs, where 48 Tenure Trackers and 96 PhD candidates will have the opportunity to push the boundaries of science using AI.

Each team is driven by research questions that arise from scientific and societal challenges and contribute to the development and execution of domain-specific education. You will receive a 5-year contract and be deployed for AI-related education for the usual teaching effort for PhD students in the faculty plus an additional 20%.

The extra year compared to the standard 4-year contract accommodates 20% of other AI, Data and Digitalisation education-related activities. All team members have many opportunities for self-development. You will be a member of the thriving DAI-Lab community that fosters cross-fertilisation between talents with different expertise and disciplines.

Application Deadline

The deadline for applications is April 04, 2021 

Eligibility

The candidate must have:

• Completed an MSc degree in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, or a field relevant to the PhD research.
• Demonstrated competence or strong interest in an artificial intelligence topic, preferably natural language processing, text mining, or social media analytics.
• Strong programming skills.
• Acceptable English language and communication skills (written and oral)
• An affinity with teaching and guiding students

Team spirit and open personality for cooperation with colleagues and co-supervision of students

Conditions of employment

• Salary and benefits follow the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from € 2395 per month in the first year to € 3217 in the fifth year.
• As a PhD candidate, you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School.
• The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor.
• The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills.
• The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health
• insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible
• work schedules can be arranged. For international applicants, we offer the Coming to
• Delft Service and Partner Career Advice to assist you with your relocation

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

The Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world-class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society.

For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context. At TU Delft we embrace diversity and aim to be as inclusive as possible (see our Code of Conduct). Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale.

Challenge. Change. Impact! 

Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) brings together three disciplines – electrical engineering, mathematics and computer science. Combined, they reinforce each other and are the driving force behind the technology we use in our daily lives. Technology such as the electricity grid, which our faculty is helping to make future-proof. We are also working on a world in which humans and computers reinforce each other.

We are mapping out disease processes using single-cell data and using mathematics to simulate gigantic ash plumes after a volcanic eruption. There is plenty of room here for ground-breaking research. We educate innovative engineers and have excellent labs and facilities that underline our strong international position. In total, more than 1,100 employees and 4,000 students work and study in this innovative environment.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science.

Additional information

For more information about this vacancy, please contact Pradeep K. Murukannaiah, Assistant Professor, email: P.K.Murukannaiah@tudelft.nl, tel: +31 15 27 82291

Application Process

Submit as a single pdf file the following documents:

• Motivation letter (max 1 page)
• Curriculum vitae (max two pages)
• Names and contact information of 3 referees
• Writing sample (e.g., a paper or part of your thesis).

• Pre-employment screening can be part of the selection procedure.
• You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post.
• Acquisition in response to this vacancy is not appreciated.

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