The University of Amsterdam (UvA) is hiring an assistant professor in Computer Vision by Machine Learning for their QUVA Lab, a research collaboration with Qualcomm AI research. You are expected to work on fundamental aspects of computer vision by machine learning, deep learning models, and algorithms.

What are you going to do?

You will be appointed as the manager of the QUVA Lab and will be responsible for executing the daily activities in the lab and co-supervising the lab’s PhD students, most of whom are expected to start between April and September 2021. The PhD projects cover: video action recognition, multi-task multi-modal learning, video representation and efficiency, hardware-aware learning, federated learning, combinatorial optimization, unsupervised learning for source compression, temporal causality learning and continuous learning. Your emphasis will be on the vision projects.

In terms of teaching, you are expected to contribute to strengthening the curriculum in computer vision and deep learning of the Bachelor and Master AI and related programmess such as the Bachelor and Master Information Systems. The total teaching load will be around 30%. You should have a broad interest in computer vision by machine learning which means that you must be able to teach a wide variety of AI, vision and learning courses in both BSc and MSc.

You are going to carry out AI research in association with the projects mentioned above, as part of the QUVA lab at the UvA. You will be appointed as the QUVA Lab manager and will be responsible for daily activities in close cooperation with the directors prof. Snoek, prof. Welling and dr Gavves. There will be regular visits to and interactions with the researchers at Qualcomm AI Research, who have an office on campus.

Your tasks will be to:

• develop new computer vision by machine learning methods within the context of the lab’s research projects and develop your own independent research line;
• acquire independent funding from sources such as the national funding agency NWO (e.g. VIDI), EU funding via H2020 (e.g. ERC starting grant) and industry.
• function as the lab manager responsible for daily activities in close cooperation with the directors;
• collaborate with the PhD students within the QUVA Lab and researchers of Qualcomm AI Research. This includes helping Qualcomm write patent applications to protect inventions from the lab when requested;
• regularly present intermediate research results at top-tier international conferences and workshops, and publish them in proceedings and journals;
• organize and execute relevant teaching activities.

What do we require?

• A PhD in a relevant discipline (AI, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics) and a proven record of high quality and diverse academic teaching, preferably at the Bachelor's-, Master's- and PhD-levels;
• a solid publication record in fields related to computer vision, deep learning and machine learning, including top-tier international conferences (CVPR, ICCV, ICLR, NeurIPS, etc.) and/or journals published by internationally recognized press;
• the ability to obtain research funding in a competitive environment;
• management skills required for general academic administration, organisation and coordination tasks in order to contribute to the organization of the QUVA lab, the institute, and the faculty, when requested;
• demonstrated ability to promote outstanding and innovative research and foster research collaborations (with faculty, postdoctoral researchers and PhD candidates); demonstrated or academic leadership;
• excellent teaching skills and a clear vision on education, as well as the ability to supervise MSc and PhD candidates;
• at least two years of postdoctoral experience is expected but not strictly necessary. International research experience is also preferred;
• in possession of the Dutch Basic Teaching Qualification (or foreign equivalent), or willingness to acquire such a qualification within two years.

Fixed-term contract: 5 years.

Our offer

We offer a temporary contract for 38 hours per week with a tenure track agreement for the duration of five years. You will be offered a permanent position after positive assessment and evaluation.

The type of contract is negotiable and depends on experience and scientific profile of the selected candidate. The committee will make an offer pending the vacancy and your experience and track record.

The full-time gross monthly salary of the assistant professor position (UD 2/UD 1) will range from €3,746 to €5,826 (salary scale 11-12), depending on qualifications and on the number of years of professional experience. The annual salary will be increased by an 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% end-of-year bonus, under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO) . A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants.

Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits like our excellent opportunities for study and development? Take a look here.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

To work at the University of Amsterdam is to work in a discerning, independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterized by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society. Here you can read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.

Faculty of Science - Informatics Institute

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 7,000, as well as 1,600 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The mission of the Informatics Institute is to perform curiosity-driven and use-inspired fundamental research in Computer Science. The main research themes are Artificial Intelligence, Computational Science and Systems and Network Engineering. Our research involves complex information systems at large, with a focus on collaborative, data driven, computational and intelligent systems, all with a strong interactive component.

The QUVA Lab is embedded in the Video & Image Sense lab and the Amsterdam Machine Learning lab, two groups within the Informatics Institute working on advanced artificial intelligence. Each project will be done in collaboration with experts from Qualcomm AI Research. The lab is part of the Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence, a Netherlands initiative focused on joint technology development between academia, industry and government in the area of artificial intelligence. QUVA Lab and its members participate in ELLIS, the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems.