PhD Candidate Within Multimodal and Multilingual Malicious Behavior Detection

About the position

We have a vacancy for a PhD student  to be affiliated with the newly funded project 'Violence-inducing Behavior Prevention in Social-Cyber Space of Local Communities' funded by the Researcher Council of Norway where Vestland forskning is the lead of the project. NTNU is leading a work package related to understanding and implementing strategies and scientific methods for real-time violence-inducing behavior detection.

For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree. 

The position reports to Head of Department. 

Duties of the position

• Develop Artificial Intelligence methods to infer violence-inducing behaviours from multimodal, multilingual posts on social media.
• Design multitask learning techniques for multimodal data sources to detect violence-inducing behaviors in English and\or Norwegian language. 
• Develop novel multilingual, multimodal malicious behavior detection framework. 
• Find or develop an annotated dataset for the scientific research community for the novel multilingual, multimodal malicious social behavior task.
• Develop important conceptual, technical and user requirements for addressing the multi-task learning problem of multimodal, multilingual malicious behavior detection. 
• Understanding privacy and data protection aspects of malicious behavior detection.

Required selection criteria

• You must have a professionally relevant background in computer science and preferably in Information Security.
• Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree program, where 120 credits are obtained at master's level.
• You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master's degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU's grading scale . If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education.
• You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty's doctoral program .
• Proficiency in English.

The appointment is to be made in accordance with  Regulations concerning the degrees of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) and Philosodophiae Doctor (PhD) in artistic research national guidelines for appointment as PhD, post doctor and research assistant  

Preferred selection criteria

• A good understanding of Artificial Intelligence
• Experience in Machine Learning and deep learning
• Experience in Natural Language processing and understanding
• Experience in analysis using Online social networks
• Understanding of privacy and data protection
• Good written and oral English and preferably also Norwegian language skills

Personal characteristics

• A team player
• Initiative taker
• Able to work in a consortium, have good communication skills

We offer

Salary and conditions

As a PhD candidate (code 1017) you are normally paid from gross NOK 491 200 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

The period of employment is 4 years including 25% teaching duties.

Appointment to a PhD position requires that you are admitted to the PhD programme in Information Security and Communication Technology  within three months of employment, and that you participate in an organized PhD programme during the employment period. 

The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants , and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU. After the appointment you must assume that there may be changes in the area of work.

The position is subject to external funding.

It is a prerequisite you can be present at and accessible to the institution daily.

About the application

The application and supporting documentation to be used as the basis for the assessment must be in English.

Publications and other scientific work must follow the application. Please note that applications are only evaluated based on the information available on the application deadline. You should ensure that your application shows clearly how your skills and experience meet the criteria which are set out above. 

The application must include:

• CV, certificates and diplomas.
• Transcripts and diplomas for bachelor's and master's degrees. If you have not completed the master's degree, you must submit a confirmation that the master's thesis has been submitted.
• A copy of the master's thesis. If you recently have submitted your master's thesis, you can attach a draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed master's degree must be presented before taking up the position.
• Name and address of three references.
• If you have publications or other relevant research work.

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both bachelor's and master's education, in addition to other higher education. Description of the documentation required can be found here . If you already have a statement from NOKUT, please attach this as well.

We will take joint work into account. If it is difficult to identify your efforts in the joint work, you must enclose a short description of your participation.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates. 

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment - DORA.

General information

Working at NTNU

A good work environment is characterized by diversity. We encourage qualified candidates to apply, regardless of their gender, functional capacity or cultural background.

The city of Gjøvik has a population of 30 000 and is a town known for its rich music and cultural life. The beautiful nature surrounding the city is ideal for an active outdoor life! The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is probably the best of its kind in the world.

As an employee at NTNU, you must at all times adhere to the changes that the development in the subject entails and the organizational changes that are adopted.

Information Act (Offentleglova), your name, age, position and municipality may be made public even if you have requested not to have your name entered on the list of applicants.

If you have any questions about the position, please Sule Yildirim Yayilgan, telephone: 46623172, email : [email protected] . If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Katrine Rennan, e-mail: [email protected] .

Please submit your application electronically via jobbnorge.no with your CV, diplomas and certificates. Applications submitted elsewhere will not be considered. Diploma Supplement is required to attach for European Master Diplomas outside Norway. Chinese applicants are required to provide confirmation of Master Diploma from China Credentials Verification (CHSI) . 

If you are invited for interview you must include certified copies of transcripts and reference letters. Please refer to the application number 2022/22055 when applying. 

Application deadline: 20.08.22

NTNU - knowledge for a better world

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) creates knowledge for a better world and solutions that can change everyday life.

Department of Information Security and Communication Technology

Research is vital to the security of our society. We teach and conduct research in cyber security, information security, communications networks and networked services. Our areas of expertise include biometrics, cyber defence, cryptography, digital forensics, security in e-health and welfare technology, intelligent transportation systems and malware. The Department of Information Security and Communication Technology is one of seven departments in the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering  .

Deadline 20th August 2022
Employer NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Municipality Gjøvik
Scope Fulltime
Duration Temporary
Place of service Campus Gjøvik