Robots/Distributed computing/Cognitive modelling researchers required  for EU FP7 project LIREC
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MACS, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
X3 researchers needed for EU LIREC project, RA1 54 month contract,  RA2, RA3 12 month contracts in the first instance

DEADLINE: Feb 18th
INTERVIEWS: Feb 25th

The LIREC project - Living with Robots and interactive Characters -  was funded by the EU Framework 7 programme for 54 months from March  2008. It has has 10 partners - three in the UK, two in Portugal, and  one each in Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Poland, and Hungary. Its aim is  to establish a multi-faceted (memory, emotions, cognition,  communication, learning, etc.) theory of artificial long-term  companions, embody this in robust and innovative technology - robots,  social toys or graphical and mobile synthetic characters - verify the  theory and technology experimentally in real social environments, and  provide resulting guidelines for designing such companions. It  focuses on long-lasting interaction. Heriot-Watt will contribute  specifically to mobility of a given character between platforms/ embodiments and the impact of this on long-term interaction and on  the development of an emotional memory supporting long-term  interaction. The team will also take responsibility for delivering a  demonstration long-term companion: 'Spirit of the Building'.


Researchers needed
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1. RA1 - . up to spine point 27 (£25,889) for 54 months from Mar 1st  2008
Required: experience and degree-level or higher qualification  containing a substantial element of robotics and extensive  programming in C++, Csharp or Java. Experience in feature extraction  from sensor data, especially the development and use of classifier  systems. Desirably, experience of independent research and  publication, an interest in artificial intelligence, human-robot  interaction and experience of programming composite symbolic-non- symbolic systems.

2. RA2 - up to spine point 26 (£25,134) for 12 months starting as  soon as possible
Required: experience and degree-level or higher qualification that  includes extensive programming in C++, Csharp or Java and agent-based  distributed/mobile computing. Desirably, experience of independent  research and publication and an interest in artificial intelligence  and human-robot interaction or synthetic graphical characters.

3. RA3 - up to spine point 26 (£25,134) for 12 months starting as  soon as possible
Required: experience and degree-level or higher qualification that  includes extensive programming in C++, Csharp or Java; experience of  implementing cognitive modeling approaches to interaction with human  users. Desirably, experience of independent research and publication,  of user-based evaluation of systems and an interest in artificial  intelligence and affective computing.

Computer Science at Heriot-Watt is a strong research based division  of the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, graded at 4A in  the 2001 UK RAE, and with active research groups in dependable  systems, data and knowledge-based systems, vision, interactive  systems and graphics environments (http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/visage/),  and logic. A VR lab equipped with a large-screen passive stereo  system and motion tracking will be used by the research team.

For further information contact Prof Ruth Aylett, ruth@macs.hw.ac.uk,  http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth/, 0131-451-4189

HOW TO APPLY:
Application forms will be available shortly via http://www.hw.ac.uk/ hr/v_research.php