Research Associate in Deep Learning Video Analytics (570887)

Faculty of Engineering

The Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, seeks to recruit a Research Associate in Deep Learning Video Analytics for Precision Livestock Farming. The work will be carried out in collaboration with Digital Dairy Value Chain (DDC) consortium partners, such as First Milk and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC).

Term: Fixed (12 months)

The Digital Dairy Value Chain (DDC) project aims to establish Southwest Scotland and Cumbria as a leader in advanced, sustainable and high-value dairy processing to catalyse business growth and deliver an uplift in economic prosperity and resilience. Current R&D activity in the milk-processing chain is thin and fragmented and to address this a range of innovative projects are proposed. The DDC objectives are to:

• Increase opportunities for, and investment in, industry-focused R&D and innovation.
• Grow the exploitation of digital technologies and advanced manufacturing processes.
• Facilitate a pipeline of talent coming into advanced dairying and technology development.

A key element of this is provision of data analytic based solutions that are applicable to the dairy sector. Positive animal welfare to ensure that all animals experience a ‘life worth living’ is at the core of First Milk and their members. One aspect of this will be the use of video analytics to automatically identify traits associated with positive welfare so that members and their customers can be assured that their animals enjoy the highest possible of welfare standards.

You will be part of a prestigious programme financed under the governments Levelling Up agenda which will pursue a wide range of knowledge transfer activities along with research into intelligent video scene analysis that can support the complex analysis of cattle welfare. The Research Associate will engage with academic colleagues, industrial partners, and research students on a daily basis to support the projects. The Associate will undertake personal research activities, pursue research funding, produce technical reports for project partners, publish conference and journal papers, mentor research and undergraduate project students, supervise junior research staff, assist with undergraduate recruitment, and school liaison, and participate in student outreach programmes.

To be considered for the role you will be educated to PhD level* in an engineering, physical sciences, mathematics or computing discipline or you will have a minimum of a 2:1 Degree in addition to significant, relevant experience in a similar role. You will have strong experience in one or more of the following fields: machine learning, deep learning, computer vision and real-time video analytics. You will possess a strong background in your core discipline and will have proven self-motivated research experience. The ability to assimilate outcomes from across a broad range of disciplines and to plan your own research is essential, as are strong communication, programming skills and mathematical background.

* Whilst a Post-Doctoral Research Associate is ideally sought for this position; applications from candidates who are close to PhD completion or whose award is pending, are welcome. In such circumstances, the appointment will be made at Research Assistant level (RS06 salary scale £31,396 -£34,980) and duties will be adjusted to reflect the grade of the post. This will continue until the PhD award is confirmed, at which point the duties and grade will be revised accordingly.

For informal enquiries, please contact Professor Craig Michie, c.michie@strath.ac.uk

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