Postdoctoral position in Inclusive Artificial Intelligence for Accessible Medical Imaging Across Resource-Limited Settings – AIMIX

15 Mar 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Universitat de Barcelona

Department

OPIR- International Research Projects office

Research Field

Computer science

Researcher Profile

Recognised Researcher (R2)

Country

Spain

Application Deadline

3 Apr 2024 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

37,5

Offer Starting Date

22 Apr 2024

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

HE / ERC

Reference Number

Nº GA 101044779

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

We are offering an exciting postdoctoral position at the University of Barcelona, within the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine lab (www.bcn-aim.org ). The selected researchers will focus on the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions to provide access to antenatal screenings in developing countries, where access to data and specialists is often not possible. Moreover, integrative-adaptive learning methods will be implemented, to train inclusive AI algorithms, by combining big data from existing repositories with small-size imaging studies from low-resource settings. These positions offer the opportunity to take part in the emerging fields of both AI and medical imaging, by being part of AIMIX, which is an ERC-funded project.

We offer:

• A research position in beautiful Barcelona and its Mediterranean climate.
• Research experience within a prestigious university (1st position in Spain).
• Cutting-edge research in AI for healthcare in one of the most dynamic research groups in Europe (12 active projects including an ERC grant).
• An international research environment by joining a multi-cultural team representing all continents.
• Opportunities to collaborate with international and inter-disciplinary collaborators as part of the European projects.
• Support in career development (e.g. grant applications, supervision of PhD students).
• Travelling opportunities to scientific events, project meetings and international stays.
• Freedom to independently conduct research and contribute with own ideas.
• Flexible working hours, with possibility to telework.
• Competitive salary equivalent to Assistant or Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona, depending on experience.
• The contract duration is 12 months, extendable until the end of the project in 2027, with the possibility of further extensions as part of other grants within the lab.

We are thus seeking candidates with a PhD degree and expertise in an area pertinent to the project and experience in:

• Machine/deep learning algorithms
• Biomedical informatics
• Computer Science
• Expertise on the implementation and deployment of Machine Learning application programming interfaces (APIs) as part of user interfaces for medical image analysis
• Digital health and/or programming
• Excellent programming skills in Python and/or C++.
• Proficient English, both oral and written.
• Enthusiasm about research and medical applications of AI.
• Aptitude to work independently, lead project deliverables and meet deadlines.
• Good team spirit and participation to the lab’s scientific life.
• Aptitude to collaborate with local and international project partners (including technical and clinical collaborators).

Furthermore, knowledge in any of the following areas are desirable (but optional):

• Probability and statistics.
• Mathematics and/or applied mathematics.
• Bias detection and correction.
• Transfer learning and domain adaptation.
• Uncertainty estimation.
• Federated learning.
• Bioinformatics and/or Biomedical informatics.
• Biomedical engineering.
• Personalised and/or precision medicine.
• Digital health.

The research project:

You will join our AI for maternal health team, as part of the ongoing project

AIMIX, funded by the European Commission. In the AIMIX project we will develop an inclusive AI framework that will leverage and combine existing high-quality ultrasound clinical samples that can be obtained from standard ultrasound machines, with new low-cost ultrasound datasets that can be affordably used in resource-limited healthcare centres. To this end, the project will generate the first scan-rescan, multi-centre and multi-device database for building deep neural networks from both high-end and low-cost ultrasound images.

The group:

The successful candidate will join the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Lab (www.bcn-aim.org ), which is an integral part of the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. It is a young and dynamic research lab, highly active in international projects, and composed of >25 enthusiastic academics, researchers, students and research managers, with expertise in data science, machine/deep learning, biomedical informatics, trustworthy AI, and health-related applications. The research group has an established track record in coordination and participation in European and international projects (> 10 million Euros over the last 5 years) in biomedical data science and medical AI (e.g. EuCanImage, euCanSHare, EarlyCause, LongITools, HealthyCloud, RadioVal, DataTools4Heart, Youth-GEMs, HappyMums, AIMIX, AI4HF).

The institution:

The University of Barcelona (UB), founded in 1450, is one of the oldest universities in Spain. It comprises a student body of 84,370 and 4,548 research staff members. With 73 undergraduate programs, 273 graduate programs and 48 doctorate programs, UB is the largest university in Barcelona and Catalonia. The UB is ranked the first Spanish university according to several rankings (QS World University Rankings 2022, Shanghai Ranking 2022). It is particularly interested in fostering international relations and, for many years, has managed an average of 150 European projects per year. The University of Barcelona is part of the prestigious League of European Universities Research (LERU).

Gross salary per year: 40.000 €.

Requirements

Research Field

Computer science

Education Level

PhD or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

- Federated learning

- Machine/deep learning

- Medical image analysis

- Multi-source data integration

- Interpretability and visualisation

- Excellent programming skills in Python and/or C++, Matlab

- Excellent English, both oral and written

Specific Requirements

- Good team spirit and participation to the scientific life of the lab

- Aptitude to work independently, to lead on project deliverables to co-supervise students, and

to represent the lab at meetings and events

- Aptitude to collaborate with both technical and clinical collaborators

- Passion for applications of artificial intelligence to biomedicine

- Strong writing and speaking skills

- Highly motivated for research

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Research Field

Computer science

Years of Research Experience

4 - 10

Additional Information
Eligibility criteria

- PhD in computer science, data science, mathematics, applied mathematics, physics,

statistics, biomedical informatics, computer vision, medical image computing,

biomedical engineering, or equivalent.

- A publication record in relevant peer-reviewed journals and/or conferences.

• Adequacy of the CV (maximum 60)

          - Specialised doctorate (40), generic doctorate (20)

• Letter of motivation (max. 10)

• Experience in the field (max. 30)

Minimum score to pass the selection process: 60/100 points.

Selection process

- First selection based on CV and letter.

- Interviews by a panel composed of Karim Lekadir, team members and Academics from the University of Barcelona.

Additional comments

Duration of the contract of employment:12 months, renewable up to 31/12/2027 (end of the project).

The candidate proposed for hiring must accept the job offer within 5 working days from the date of notification of the selection.

Priority will be given to people with disabilities (Law 89/2015 of June 2, reserve of quota 2% in favour of people with disabilities in companies of 50 or more people).

Be aware that the starting date sets in this offer is an estimate date. The official starting date will depend on the bureaucratic time that will take the preparation of the labour contract and presentation of the necessary documents to be hired by the selected candidate.

For additional information regards this offer, please, contact: [email protected]

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Universitat de Barcelona

Country

Spain

State/Province

Barcelona

City

Barcelona

Postal Code

08007

Street

Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://t.ly/vvxyQ

Contact

State/Province

Barcelona

City

Barcelona

Website

http://www.ub.edu/opir

Street

Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585

Postal Code

08007

E-Mail

[email protected]

STATUS: EXPIRED