Are you interested in doing cutting-edge artificial intelligence research for applications to culture and films? We are looking for a PhD candidate to investigate creative and domain-knowledge rich AI for film analysis and production.

This PhD position is part of the AI4FILM project, a collaboration between the UvA Informatics Institute and Kaspar AI. The goal of the PhD project is to support film analysis and production with the help of AI, using the language and concepts from cinematography. This includes but is not limited to narrative structure analysis, stylistic analysis and manipulation, and film editing. To make use of the rich and diverse domain knowledge in the film industry, the PhD student will develop new algorithms by building on developments such as Graph Neural Networks, Hyperbolic Networks, and Transformers. In addition, we will explore Human-in-the-Loop and generative approaches to support film production.

The position is at the Informatics Institute of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), in the Multimedia Analytics (MultiX) lab in collaboration with Kaspar AI and the Video & Image Sense (VIS) lab. For this position you will be supervised by Dr Nanne van Noord (MultiX) and Dr Pascal Mettes (VIS).

We strongly encourage applications coming from a unique perspective. Tell us how your background fits with the aims of the lab.

What are you going to do

You will carry out research in the areas of Computer Vision and Deep learning in the MultiX lab. Through this research you will develop new methods for analysing films and supporting the creative production of films.

Tasks and responsibilities:

• develop AI methods for film analysis and production;
• collaborate with researchers in the MultiX and VIS labs;
• present intermediate research results at conferences and workshops, and publishing in proceedings and journals;
• pursue and complete a PhD thesis within the appointment duration of four years;
• assist in teaching activities.

What do we require

Your experience and profile:

• a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, or a closely related field;
• a strong background in computer vision, multimedia and/or machine learning;
• strong analytical and technical skills;
• excellent programming skills and proficiency with deep learning frameworks;
• proficiency in spoken and written English.

Affinity with films and film research and an interest in working in an interdisciplinary environment is a plus.

Fixed-term contract: 48 months.

Our offer

A temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 4 years (the initial contract will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of 4 years). The preferred starting date is September 2022. This should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. We also expect you to assist in teaching undergraduates and master students.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between €2,443 to €3,122 (scale P). This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile PhD Candidate (Promovendus) is applicable. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

Besides the salary and a vibrant and challenging environment at Science Park we offer you multiple fringe benefits:

• 232 holiday hours per year (based on fulltime) and extra holidays between Christmas and 1 January.
• Multiple courses to follow from our Teaching and Learning Centre.
• A complete educational program for PhD students.
• Multiple courses on topics such as leadership for academic staff.
• Multiple courses on topics such as time management, handling stress and an online learning platform with 100+ different courses.
• 7 weeks birth leave (partner leave) with 100% salary.
• Partly paid parental leave.
• The possibility to set up a workplace at home.
• A pension at ABP for which UvA pays two third part of the contribution.
• The possibility to follow courses to learn Dutch.
• Help with housing for a studio or small apartment when you’re moving from abroad.

Are you curious to read more about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits, take a look here.

University of Amsterdam

The University of Amsterdam is the Netherlands' largest university, offering the widest range of academic programmes. At the UvA, 30,000 students, 6,000 staff members and 3,000 PhD candidates study and work in a diverse range of fields, connected by a culture of curiosity.

Faculty of Science

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 8,000, as well as 1,800 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 (IvI) 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 Multimedia Analytics Lab Amsterdam (MultiX) is a research group within the Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam. Its mission is ‘Tackling multimedia data with AI techniques’. The group develops artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that help people understand large collections of multimedia data. Multimedia data can be imagery, text, video, graphs, but also other informational context like geocoordinates. The predominant questions the group tries to answer: How can you bring together all this information in a way that users get a better understanding of it? How do you combine them in a proper way? And how can you improve machine intelligence by learning from the user? MultiX positions itself in the Data Science and AI research themes of the Informatics Institute. It participates in the AIMlab and Police Lab AI of the Innovation Centre for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI).

Want to know more about our organisation? Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.