Post-doctoral position Knowledge Representation

The Faculty of Engineering Technology, located on Technology Campus De Nayer (Sint-Katelijne-Waver), and the Department of Computer Science of the Science Engineering and Technology Group of KULeuven, invite applications for a 1 year post doctoral position.
We are looking for a dynamic and motivated person (m/f) for the development of experimental and computational research activities in the domain of Knowledge Representation in our laboratory and who is also able to teach related courses (such as Computational Thinking and Symbolic AI).

Responsibilities
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General Introduction
– The position is located on Technology Campus De Nayer in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, which is one of the operational sites of the  Faculty of Engineering Technology. The faculty is a multi-campus faculty following the integration of the engineering technology educational programs of the KU Leuven. The faculty has its own teaching, research and doctoral profile.
– The appointee is respectively a member of the Technology Cluster Computer Science, department of Computer Science and the Faculty of Engineering Technology of KU Leuven, because of his/her activities and teaching assignments.
– The appointee will be expected to perform to profile specific criteria and he/she will be evaluated against these criteria.
Research
The research group is looking for a person with expertise related to the implementation and optimization of knowledge representation techniques and rule-based AI in industrial applications. Many companies possess extremely niche-specific specialized technical knowledge. It is remarkable that this knowledge is not explicitly documented, but is only secured in the experience and expertise of senior employees. That fact poses a major risk to the continuity of business activities if these employees leave the company, and is a brake on the company’s growth in scale.State-of-the-art knowledge base systems make it possible to store complex knowledge in computers and to build reasoning systems that can be used industrially and scaled up. This topic fits in with the mission of research group EAVISE, where state-of-the-art AI techniques are translated into real-life industrial solutions, and is complementary to the current research at EAVISE. Specific research topics addressed by this vacancy include simplifying knowledge base creation for domain experts, knowledge extraction supported by novel representation languages, and on new logical inference tasks to strengthen the interaction with the users.
Competences in the domain of knowledge bank systems and knowledge representation (IPD, FO(.), …), symbolic AI and software engineering are an asset.
The candidate is also expected to develop his/her own research via contract, research projects and master theses in close cooperation with industry (particularly with SMEs) to achieve industrial innovation and scientific output that adheres to the highest international standards. Therefore, past experience in project applications in cooperation with industry will be highly appreciated.

Teaching
The successful candidate will take on teaching responsibilities in the Bachelor and Master of Science in Engineering Technology – EICT. Experience in the teaching of courses related to programming techniques, application architectures and (rule-based and symbolic) AI is a plus.
The appointee shall also be willing to teach or coordinate other courses related to his/her domain of expertise and to guide master theses.

Services
In addition to the research and teaching assignment, the selected candidates must be willing to perform more applied research projects, in collaboration with industry and government.

Profile
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The position is open to applicants with a PhD or doctoral degree in Engineering Science, preferably computer science. Applicants are expected to have good skills in applied research as well as in teaching, concurrent with the specific research and educational profiles of the Faculty of Engineering Technology.
Qualified candidates:
have experience in experimental research;
have experience in AI and embedded hardware or the competence to do so;
have teaching experience;
have international research experience and/or industrial experience;
have experience in project applications and implementation in cooperation with industry;
have the ability to establish a network of industrial partners;
have experience in valorization of research towards industrial applications;
have experience in teamworking or the competence to do so.

At KU Leuven, the main teaching language is Dutch. The successful candidate who is not proficient in Dutch will be provided language training. Proficiency in English is expected for all applicants.
The appointee must accept the necessary mobility required to fulfill his/her teaching and research assignments.

Offer
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The selected applicant will be made at the rank of post-doctoral researcher for one year (salary scale 44).

Interested?
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For more information please contact Prof. dr. ir. Toon Goedemé, tel.: +32 15 68 82 34, mail: toon.goedeme@kuleuven.be.
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