Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Machine Learning at UiT The Arctic University of Norway

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The position

An exciting postdoctoral position is available in the UiT Machine Learning Group at the Department of Physics and Technology.

  • Goal: Develop new deep learning algorithms for learning from limited labelled data and/or learning from multi-modal data.
  • Start date: Spring/Fall 2024.
  • Duration: The appointment is for 3 years.
  • Salary: approximately 594 500 NOK per year as a minimum

The workplace is at UiT in Tromsø. You must be able to start in the position in Tromsø within 6 months after receiving the offer.

The position is funded by The Research Council of Norway (RCN). If you receive a personal overseas research grant from RCN it is possible to apply RCN for an extension of the fellowship period corresponding to the length of the stay abroad (minimum three months, maximum 12 months).


The position's field of research

The position is offered in the context of a Research Council of Norway (RCN) FRIPRO grant that focuses on learning from limited labeled data. FRIPRO is the RCN’s funding for basic research and ground-breaking projects and supports the most talented researchers in Norway. The successful candidate will be a part of the UiT Machine Learning Group and will also be affiliated with the Research Center Visual Intelligence. 

In this context, we are seeking a candidate to take an active role in the group's research on developing novel machine learning/computer vision methodology. Special focus in this project will be on the development of deep learning methodology for learning from limited labeled data (few-shot/self-supervised/metric learning and/or deep clustering). The position will be part of the already ongoing effort to design approaches that explore geometric properties of the embedding spaces [1] and the alignment of multiple modalities [2,3,4].

[1] Trosten, D. J., Chakraborty, R., Løkse, S., Wickstrøm, K. K., Jenssen, R., & Kampffmeyer, M. (2023). Hubs and Hyperspheres: Reducing Hubness and Improving Transductive Few-shot Learning with Hyperspherical Embeddings. In Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2023.

[2] Trosten, D. J., Løkse, S., Jenssen, R., & Kampffmeyer, M. (2021). Reconsidering Representation Alignment for Multi-view Clustering. In Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2021.

[3] Trosten, D. J., Løkse, S., Jenssen, R., & Kampffmeyer, M. (2021). On the Effects of Selfsupervision and Contrastive Alignment in Deep Multi-view Clustering. In Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2023.

[4] Dong, X., Zhan, X., Wu, Y., Wei, Y., Kampffmeyer, M., Wei, X., Lu, M., Wang, Y., & Liang, X. (2022). M5product: Self-harmonized contrastive learning for e-commercial multi-modal pretraining. In Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2022.


Contact

Further information about the position and UiT is available by contacting the principal supervisor and FRIPRO project leader Associate Professor Michael Kampffmeyer:


Qualifications

We are looking for a motivated candidate who is independent thinking and enjoys working in a team. The suitable candidate should have expertise in deep learning and a strong documented background in mathematics is needed. Special emphasis will be given to candidates with prior experience in the above-mentioned topics as well as the quality of prior publications.

For appointment as Postdoctoral Research Fellow, the applicant is required to have a Norwegian doctoral degree in the subject area concerned or a corresponding foreign doctoral degree recognized as equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree. Qualification with a PhD is required before commencement in the position. If you’re at the final stages of your PhD, you may still apply if you have submitted your PhD thesis for doctoral degree evaluation within the application deadline. You must submit the thesis with your application. You must have dissertated before the start-up date of the position.

The main purpose of postdoctoral research fellowships is to qualify researchers for work in top academic positions within their discipline and this requires a strong commitment from the candidate. The candidate should be motivated for scientific work, and have excellent analytical and collaborative features. A good command of English and excellent communication skills are required. Emphasis is attached to personal suitability.

No person may hold more than one fixed term position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the same institution.

At UiT we put emphasis on the quality, relevance and significance of the research work and not on where the work is published, in accordance with the principles of The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).


Inclusion and diversity  

UiT The Arctic University i Norway is working actively to promote equality, gender balance and diversity among employees and students, and to create an inclusive and safe working environment. We believe that inclusion and diversity is a strength, and we want employees with different competencies, professional experience, life experience and perspectives.  

If you have a disability, a gap in your CV or immigrant background, we encourage you to tick the box for this in your application. If there are qualified applicants, we invite least one in each group for an interview. If you get the job, we will adapt the working conditions if you need it. Apart from selecting the right candidates, we will only use the information for anonymous statistics. 


We offer

  • Involvement in an interesting research project 
  • Good career opportunities 
  • A good academic environment with dedicated colleagues  
  • Flexible working hours and a state collective pay agreement  
  • Good pension scheme through the state pension fund  

Norwegian health policy aims to ensure that everyone, irrespective of their personal finances and where they live, has access to good health and care services of equal standard. As an employee you will become member of the National Insurance Scheme which also include health care services.

More practical information for working and living in Norway can be found here: https://uit.no/staffmobility 


Location

The UiT Machine Learning Group is located in Tromsø, a lively town with approximately 78.000 inhabitants. It is known for its beautiful scenery, northern lights, midnight sun, as well as the northernmost university in the world and well connected to the rest of Europe. Located on an island surrounded by fjords and mountains, Tromsø is a major cultural hub within the Arctic Circle and a great spot for outdoor activities (hiking, skiing, etc.)


Application

Your application must include:

  • Application letter
  • CV
  • Diplomas and transcripts (all degrees)
  • Documentation of English proficiency
  • References with contact information
  • A list of your academic production
  • List of works and description of these:
    - author(s), the work's title
    - the journal's/conference's/book's name and year of publication
  • The works (published or unpublished) which the applicant wishes to be taken into consideration during the assessment process must be submitted. The applicant may submit up to 10 works that are central to his/her production. The applicant’s doctoral thesis is regarded in this context as one work.
  • The applicant shall provide a description of his/her scientific production stating which works he/she considers the most important and shall therefore be the main emphasis of the assessment. A brief description of the other listed works shall also be included to demonstrate depth of production. These descriptions shall be an attachment to the application.

All documentation to be considered must be in a Scandinavian language or English. We only accept applications and documentation sent via Jobbnorge within the application deadline.


Assessment

The applicants will be assessed by an expert committee. The committee's mandate is to undertake an assessment of the applicants' qualifications based on the written material presented by the applicants, and the detailed description draw up for the position.

The applicants who are assessed as best qualified will be called to an interview. The interview should among other things, aim to clarify the applicant’s motivation and personal suitability for the position. A trial lecture may also be held.


General information

Appointment to the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow is mainly intended to provide qualification for work in top academic positions. It is a prerequisite that the applicant can carry out the project over the full course of the employment period.

The appointment is made in accordance with State regulations and guidelines at UiT. At our website, you will find more information for applicants. 

The remuneration for Postdoctoral research fellow is in accordance with the State salary scale code 1352. A compulsory contribution of 2 % to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund will be deducted. You will become a member of the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, which gives you many benefits in addition to a lifelong pension. Read more about your employee benefits at: spk.no.

The successful candidate must be willing to get involved in the ongoing development of their department and the university as a whole.

UiT wishes to increase the proportion of females in academic positions. In cases where two or more applicants are found to be approximately equally qualified, female applicants will be given priority. 

According to the Norwegian Freedom and Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.