Research professor in Programming and Modeling Languages for Artificial Intelligence (BOFZAP) (ref. BZI-2023-3)

24 May 2023
Job Information

Organisation/Company

KU Leuven

Research Field

Computer science » Other

Researcher Profile

Recognised Researcher (R2)
Established Researcher (R3)
Leading Researcher (R4)

Country

Belgium

Application Deadline

14 Sep 2023 - 21:54 (Africa/Abidjan)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

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

No

Offer Description

The Science, Engineering, and Technology Group, Faculty of Engineering Science of KU Leuven invites scholars to apply for a full time research professorship in the Department of Computer Science, Section DTAI (Declarative Languages and Artificial Intelligence). This position is funded by the Special Research Fund (BOFZAP), established by the Flemish Government. We are looking for motivated and internationally oriented candidates with an excellent research record and with educational competence in the field of programming and modeling languages for artificial intelligence. The appointment is expected to start on September 1, 2024. Applications will be evaluated in parallel and independently by 1) the KU Leuven Research Council in a competitive process across academic domains and 2) the faculty advisory committee. During the first 10 years, the teaching obligations as a research professor will be limited. Afterwards, the position will be transformed into a regular professorship. The domain of the research professorship is Programming and Modeling Languages for Artificial Intelligence. With the recent explosion of interest in AI, it has become increasingly clear AI is not a one-size-fits-all magic solution: successful adoption of AI techniques requires adaptation of systems and methods to a specific context. Thus, there is great demand for context-specific AI systems. The development of such intelligent systems is a challenge in itself, but can be greatly boosted by using advanced programming languages that support efficient development of industrial-strength implementations. This motivates academic research on specialized languages for AI. Of particular interest in this context is research on domain-specific languages for AI (which includes languages for programming, modeling, specification, and user interaction), and research on efficient execution of programs (performant data structures and inference algorithms, compilation strategies, code generation). KU Leuven's Department of Computer Science hosts over 300 researchers, working in many areas of computer science, including software architecture, cybersecurity, theory of programming languages, human computer interaction, numerical computation, and artificial intelligence. The Section DTAI (Declarative Languages and Artificial Intelligence) has over 100 researchers. They conduct fundamental research with high application potential, largely centered around the topics of machine learning and automated inference ( learning and reasoning ). Specific subjects include neurosymbolic AI, probabilistic programming, automating data science, certification and verification of machine-learned models, responsible AI, flexible supervision in machine learning, constraint-based reasoning and optimization, relational machine learning, logic-based modeling languages, functional programming languages, cognitive robotics, machine learning in resource-constrained settings, and applications of AI in sports analytics, manufacturing, engineering, health, and other domains. DTAI professors take up leading roles in the international research community (e.g., program chair of IJCAI 2022) and are actively involved in national and international networks. In balancing fundamental and more applied research, DTAI exploits the fact that it extends across two faculties: the Faculty of Engineering Science and the Faculty of Engineering Technology. DTAI actively facilitate synergies between both parts. DTAI is also a founding member of Leuven.AI, the interdisciplinary KU Leuven Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

Website unit

Duties
Research

It is part of the assignment of the appointed candidate to develop, within the domain of programming and modeling languages for artificial intelligence, an international, competitive research programme, to pursue excellent scientific results at an international level and to support and promote national and international research partnerships. The candidate must have a strong research profile. In addition, the candidate is expected to have a multidisciplinary attitude and a willingness to collaborate intensively with other researchers and research units at KU Leuven (e.g., in Leuven.AI).

The candidate:

• Is an excellent, internationally oriented researcher and develops a research programme at the forefront in the intersection of programming/modeling languages and artificial intelligence.
• Strengthens existing research lines and brings complementary and/or additionally new expertise by working closely with the members of the research unit.
• Publishes at the highest scientific level (conferences such as IJCAI, AAAI, POPL, PLDI, ICFP, & ; journals such as JAIR, Artificial Intelligence, Journal of Functional Programming, TOPLAS, ...
• Develops an own research group.
• Supervises master students, PhD students and postdocs at a high international level.
• Aims to acquire competitive research funding from national and/or international agencies and submits effective research project proposals for this purpose.
• Establishes both within KU Leuven, national and international partnerships in the context of the research programme.
• Strives for excellence in research and provides a contribution to the international research reputation of DTAI, the Department of Computer Science, and KU Leuven.
• Has a pronounced interest in fundamental research, but also pays attention to the valorization and applications of the research (possibly in collaboration with other researchers, and supported by valorization managers)

Education

Although the position regards a research professorship at the start of employment, the candidate is expected to gradually contribute to state-of-the-art teaching.

The candidate also contributes to the pedagogic project of the faculty/university. They develop teaching in accordance with KU Leuven s vision on activating and research based education and make use of the possibilities for the educational professionalization offered by the faculty and the university.
 

The assignment of the candidate to be appointed includes a limited teaching assignment.

Service

Scientific, societal and internal services (administrative and/or institutional) are also part of the assignment.

Requirements

• You have a PhD degree in Computer Science, typically obtained at least 3 years before applying. If you have recently obtained your PhD, it is important that you support your research and growth potential with academic references (multiple publications in top-tier conferences or journals, academic references, promising research projects and articles in preparation).
• You have a strong research profile in the field and an indisputable research integrity.
• The quality of your research is proven by publications in leading international conferences and journals, such as IJCAI, AAAI, POPL, PLDI, ICFP, JAIR, Artificial Intelligence, Journal of Functional Programming, TOPLAS, ...
• International research experience is considered as an important advantage.
• You have demonstrable qualities related to academic education. Teaching experience is a plus.
• You possess organizational skills and have a cooperative attitude. You also have leadership skills within a university context.
• Your spoken and written English is excellent. The official administrative language used at KU Leuven is Dutch. If you do not speak Dutch (or do not speak it well) at the start of employment, KU Leuven will provide language training to enable you to take part in administrative meetings. Before teaching courses in Dutch or English, you will be given the opportunity to learn Dutch resp. English to the required standard.

Offer

• We offer full-time employment in an intellectually challenging environment. KU Leuven is an research-intensive, internationally oriented university that carries out both fundamental and applied scientific research. Our university is highly inter- and multidisciplinary focused and strives for international excellence. In this regard, we actively collaborate with research partners in Belgium and abroad. We provide our students with an academic education that is based on high-quality scientific research.
• Depending on your qualifications and academic experience, you will be appointed to or tenured in one of the grades of the senior academic staff: assistant professor, associate professor, professor or full professor. In principle, junior researchers are appointed as assistant professor on the tenure track for a period of 5 years; after this period and a positive evaluation, they are permanently appointed as an associate professor.
• You will work in Leuven, a historic and dynamic and vibrant city located in the heart of Belgium, within twenty minutes from Brussels, the capital of the European Union, and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam.
• KU Leuven is well set to welcome foreign professors and their family and provides practical support with regard to immigration and administration, housing, childcare, learning Dutch, partner career coaching, ...
• In order to facilitate scientific onboarding and accelerate research in the first phase a starting grant of 110.000 euro is offered to new professors without substantial other funding and appointed for at least 50%.

More information

Full application and selection prodedure
 

Interested?

More information on the content of the job can be obtained from the academic contact person Prof. dr. Hendrik Blockeel ([email protected] , tel. +32 16 32 76 43).

 

More information on the guidelines, regulations and application file is available from Ms. Kristin Vermeylen ([email protected] , tel. +32 16 32 09 07), Ms. Martine Van Nierop ([email protected] , tel. +32 16 32 76 98) or Ms. Christelle Maeyaert ([email protected] , tel. +32 16 31 41 94).

You can apply for this job no later than September 14, 2023 via the online application tool

KU Leuven seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, nationality or impairments. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us at [email protected] .

Requirements

Research Field

Computer science » Other

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Additional Information
Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

KU Leuven

Country

Belgium

City

Leuven

Postal Code

3000

Street

Parijsstraat 72b

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/jobs/60205799

Contact

City

Leuven

Website

http://www.kuleuvencareers.be

Street

Parijsstraat 72b Leuven

E-Mail

[email protected]

STATUS: EXPIRED