PhD students wanted by the Interactive Information Access group for the Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) on the subject of Interface design for heterogeneous user contributed media (2 fte.)

Each candidate is expected to carry out research in the field of public Web data. The European broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg and Dutch cultural heritage institutes such as the Rijksmuseum, Naturalis, Beeld en Geluid and the Royal Library provide the general public with more and more opportunities to interact with their collections online. The user-generated content and metadata (UGC) that results from these interactions enriches the collections, and is considered of high potential value. In parallel, advances in computer vision allow automatic analysis of audio-visual content on a large scale, also resulting in potentially valuable enrichment. Both types of enrichment share the characteristic that their quality can differ from extremely useful to totally useless, or even harmful. In the context of these projects we are interested in how the use of such content affects the design of applications, especially for research tasks in which the quality of the data is important, and where the user contributed media metadata and video-analysis results are used in combination with professionally curated data. Example research questions include:

• How should we support researchers in selecting data subsets of sufficient quality for their study?
• How can we unobtrusively convey the availability of potential enrichments, such as hyperlink interactions in streaming video, or the provenance of data from different sources?

Results are to be published in international journals and major conferences and lead to a PhD thesis within 4 years.

The research will be carried out in the context of the EU FP7 project LinkedTV and the Dutch COMMIT (www.commit-nl.nl/) program.

Requirements
Candidates are required to have a master degree in computer science and have affinity with HCI and/or IR-related research. Candidates are expected to have an excellent command of English, and good academic writing and presentation skills.

Conditions of employment
The terms of employment are in accordance with the Dutch Collective Labour Agreement for Research Institutes ("CAO-onderzoeksinstellingen"). Moreover CWI offers attractive working conditions, including flexible scheduling and help with housing for expat employees.

The gross monthly salary, for an employee on a full time basis, is €2,037 during the first year and increases to €2,610 over a four year period. CWI also offers excellent and flexible terms of employment, including an employee pension fund.

Contract type: Temporary, 4 years.

Organisation
Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI)

Founded in 1946, the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) is the national research institute for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands. It is located at the Science Park Amsterdam and is part of the “Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research” (NWO). The institute is internationally focused and renowned for its high quality research. Over 160 researchers conduct pioneering research and share their acquired knowledge with society. More than 30 researchers are employed as professors at universities. The institute has generated twenty-one spin-off companies.

CWI maintains excellent relations with industry and the academic world, both in the Netherlands as well as abroad. After their research careers at CWI, an increasing number of young staff members find employment in these sectors, for example in spin-off companies that are based on research results from CWI. Of course, library and computing facilities are first-rate. CWI's non-scientific services to its personnel include career planning, training and courses, and assistance in finding housing.

Department
Interactive Information Access group
The Interactive Information Access group performs advanced research in areas combining information retrieval, web data and human computer interaction. We have a strong international track record in experimental computer science research, publishing in such diverse venues as SIGIR, ISWC, JWS, IJHCS, Interact and participating in TREC and INEX. We have a diverse and growing research team with new job openings for PhD candidates funded by European FP7 and the national COMMIT programs.

Additional information
Additional information can be obtained from:
dr. Jacco van Ossenbruggen, email Jacco.van.Ossenbruggen@cwi.nl, telephone +31(0)20 592 4141,
or Prof.dr. Lynda Hardman, email Lynda.Hardman@cwi.nl, telephone +31(0)20 592 4147.

Applications should include a detailed CV, a motivation letter, a list of your M.SC. courses and grades, a copy of your master thesis, and preferably a list of publications.

To apply for this position visit AcademicTransfer for the original posting, and many other scientific vacancies.