Research Associate in Information Theory for Distributed Artificial Intelligence

Location: London, South Kensington Campus - Hybrid

Job Summary

Applications are invited for up to three Post-Doctoral Research Associates to work on the interplay between information theory, decentralised decision-making, and robotics applications. The positions are funded by the EPSRC AI Hub on Information Theory for Distributed Artificial Intelligence (INFORMED-AI), a joint initiative between Imperial College London and the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Durham. The vision of the Hub is to develop the theoretical foundations of collective intelligence, including security and privacy, resilience and fault tolerance, and heterogeneity.

Successful candidates will be based in London, supervised by Deniz Gunduz, Yiannis Demiris or Seyed Moosavi-Dezfool at Imperial College London, and co-supervised by a collaborator at a partner institution: Ayalvadi Ganesh, Sidharth Jaggi, Oliver Johnson or Jonathan Lawry (Bristol); or Ioannis Kontoyiannis, Po-Ling Loh, Nilanjana Datta or Amanda Prorok (Cambridge); or Neil Walton or Thiru Vasantam (Durham). Funds for this post are available for 1 year (renewable up to 3 years) in the first instance, with a generous allowance for training, conference travel and collaboration.

Duties and responsibilities

This is an exciting opportunity to conduct ambitious research at the interface of information theory, statistical machine learning and robotics applications as part of an interdisciplinary team. Successful candidates will be expected to contribute to activities across the hub, including research and publication, developing academic collaboration opportunities, and engaging in training and knowledge exchange. 

Duties of the research associate include:

1. developing and conducting individual and collaborative research projects as part of the overall work of the INFORMED-AI programme,
2. writing up research results in a form suitable for journals or conferences, and
3. presenting their work at seminars and conferences.

While teaching is not a required part of this role, there will be the option to undertake development opportunities in teaching or project supervision.

Essential requirements 

• Applicants should have a PhD degree in mathematics or a closely related discipline (or be working towards one), with expertise in probability, theoretical statistics, theoretical computer science or machine learning. Interest and experience in working towards realistic applications in distributed sensing and robotics is a plus.
• Good oral and written communication skills are essential.
• We welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

*Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant level with a salary range from £41,694 to £44,888.

Further Information 

Should you require any further details on the role please contact: Professor Deniz Gunduz - d.gunduz@imperial.ac.uk.

Queries regarding the application process should go to Ms Joan O’Brien at j.obrien@imperial.ac.uk. For technical issues when applying online please email recruitment@imperial.ac.uk.

Further information about the post is available in the job description.

The College is currently trialling a Work Location Framework until early 2023. Hybrid working may be considered for this role and the role holder may be expected to work 60% or more of their time onsite, with 40% the minimum time spent onsite. The opportunity for hybrid working will be discussed at interview. 

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/ 

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research/ 

We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment for all. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender reassignment, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Disability Confident Leader and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.

Apply online via the above ‘Apply’ button.

Closing date: 23 June 2024