PhD Position in Computational Social Choice

The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) at the University of Amsterdam invites applications for a fully funded four-year PhD position in the Computational Social Choice Group led by Ulle Endriss.

The ILLC is an interdisciplinary research institute where logicians, mathematicians, computer scientists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers collaborate. It offers an international research environment with world-class faculty in all of its areas of specialisation. The institute is located in the beautiful city of Amsterdam, renown for its historic system of canals, its laid-back cosmopolitan atmosphere, and its excellent connections to the rest of Europe and the world.

Project description

This position is part of the Collective Information Project, which will eventually employ a total of five junior researchers. It is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under the VICI scheme.

The aim of the Collective Information Project is to improve our understanding of how best to aggregate information supplied by several independent agents and how the structural properties of the kind of information we wish to aggregate influences the performance of different aggregation mechanisms. Potential applications range from political elections and recommender systems (aggregation of preferences), to crowdsourcing campaigns (aggregation of expert judgments), to knowledge engineering (aggregation of ontologies).

You will become a member of the Computational Social Choice Group, the research agenda of which is dedicated to the design and analysis of methods for collective decision-making. The group's research is both mathematical and conceptual in nature. Much of it regularly gets published in the leading conference proceedings and journals in Artificial Intelligence. At the same time, the group emphasises interdisciplinarity and often reaches out to other fields, particularly Economics, Political Science, and Philosophy.

You are expected to contribute to this broad research agenda. Specifically, we will ask you to perform the following tasks:

• to complete and defend a PhD thesis within the official appointment duration of four years; 
• to regularly present research results at international workshops and conferences, and to publish them in conference proceedings and journals;
• to participate in and to contribute to the organisation of research activities and events at the Institute, such as workshops and colloquia.

All PhD candidates at the ILLC furthermore are expected to make a small contribution to the institute's educational mission, e.g., by working as teaching assistants for courses in their area of expertise and by assisting with the supervision of student research projects.

This PhD position will be embedded in the ILLC's PhD Programme, which offers training in a range of transferable skills that are relevant for a successful research career.

Requirements

You should hold, or expect to obtain before the start of your appointment, a Master's degree in a relevant discipline, such as Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics, Logic, or Economics. Candidates with an interdisciplinary background are particularly encouraged (over the years, members of the Computational Social Choice Group have included people with first degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, Philosophy, Cognitive Science, and Operations Research). Furthermore, you should possess:

• an excellent academic track record;
• a serious interest in pursuing fundamental research of an interdisciplinary nature;
• good writing and presentation skills;
• good social and organisational skills;
• full professional proficiency in spoken and written English.

Prior exposure to relevant topics at the interface of Economics and Computer Science, particularly Computational Social Choice and Algorithmic Game Theory, is an advantage, but certainly not a requirement. The same holds for relevant topics in Artificial Intelligence, particularly in the areas of Multiagent Systems and Knowledge Representation and Reasoning.

Please note that knowledge of the Dutch language is not required for this position, nor is it required for being able to live in Amsterdam. However, PhD candidates at the ILLC have the opportunity to attend Dutch language classes if they wish.

Further information

Should you have specific questions regarding this position or the application procedure, you are very welcome to contact:

• Ulle Endriss for further information.

Appointment

The successful candidate will be employed by the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam on a fixed-term full-time position (38 hours per week).

The appointment is intended to be for a period of four years. The initial contract will be for 18 months. This will be extended with a further 30 months after a positive evaluation.

The gross monthly salary amounts to €2,266 during the first year, rising to €2,897 during the fourth year, and will be supplemented with an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus. The Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities applies.

Starting date: 1 February 2019 or soon thereafter. 

Job application

The UvA is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. The ILLC strives for a better gender balance in its staff. We therefore strongly encourage women to apply for this position.

Your application should include the following information (in one single PDF file, using your surname as the file name):

• a cover letter, including a description of your research interests and an explanation for why you are applying for this position (at most two pages);
• a detailed curriculum vitae;
• a list of all Master-level modules you have taken, with an official transcript of grades;
• a link to a writing sample available online, such as a Master's thesis, a term paper, or a publication;
• the names, affiliations, and email addresses of two or (at most) three people we can contact for letters of reference for you.

Please quote vacancy number 18-562 in your cover letter.

Please submit your application no later than 5 November 2018 using the link below. You only need to fill in the fields marked as mandatory. Please use the mandatory CV field to upload the PDF file specified above. We will only consider complete applications that have been submitted in this manner. #LI-DNP