Postdoctoral Research Associate

Contact: Oya Celiktutan; oya.celiktutan@kcl.ac.uk  

Job description

About the Role

A Postdoctoral Research Associate position is available in the Social AI & Robotics (SAIR) Lab, Centre for Robotics Research, Department of Engineering to work with Dr Oya Celiktutan and her collaborators on the project titled “LISI - Learning to Imitate Nonverbal Communication Dynamics for Human-Robot Social Interaction” awarded by EPSRC. The main objective of the LISI project is to set the basis for the next generation of robots that will be able to learn how to interact with humans purely from visual observations. The candidate will perform research in the areas of machine learning and human-robot interaction. For more information about the project, please refer to https://sairlab.github.io/projects/grants/lisi/index.html .

About the Candidate  

The candidate should be motivated, creative and ambitious. They should be enthusiastic about collaborating with partners from multiple disciplines/industry as well as PhD students in the SAIR Lab. Key requirements include:

• PhD degree (or shortly expect to receive) in Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or related field;
• Strong background in machine learning, with specialisation in one or more of the following areas: human-robot interaction, computer vision, human behaviour analysis, weakly supervised/unsupervised/self-supervised learning, spatio-temporal graphs, deep reinforcement learning.;
• Excellent publication record in high-quality journals and/or conference proceedings;
• Excellent programming skills, particularly, Python and/or C/C++. Hands-on experience with deep learning libraries (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch) and/or physical robots will be a plus;
• Ability to organise and prioritise work to meet deadlines with minimal supervision;
• Excellent interpersonal / teamwork skills.

About the Research Centre

The Centre for Robotics Research (CORE) brings together expertise in sensing, high-precision manipulation, machine learning, intelligent control and human-robot interaction to develop creative robotics approaches to society’s most critical challenges. The candidate will be a member of the SAIR Lab (https://sairlab.github.io) and will contribute to ongoing research activities in the areas of computer vision, machine learning and human-robot interaction, while benefiting from a strong network of researchers working in allied areas at CORE. For information about the department, please see https://www.kcl.ac.uk/engineering . 

In addition to completing the online application, candidates should attach:

• Curriculum vitae with a full list of publications;
• Contact details of two referees;
• Two-page summary of research background, interests, and how they aim to contribute to the LISI project;
• Two papers (either published, accepted for publication, or in-preparation) demonstrating expertise in one or more of the areas mentioned above;
• The expected date of graduation (if currently pursuing a Ph.D).

This post will be offered on a fixed-term contract for 2 years (24 months).

This is a full-time post.

Key responsibilities

• Work closely with the Principal Investigator (PI) to ensure that the aims and objectives of the project are achieved in a timely and effective way;
• Attend regular meetings with project collaborators and industrial partner;
• Develop new concepts and ideas to extend intellectual understanding in the areas of the project;
• Maintain an outstanding track record of published research at a level of international excellence;
• Present research outcomes in conferences, project meetings, and other relevant scientific and industrial events.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.