The Informatics Institute (IvI) of the Faculty of Science invites applications for 2 PhD candidates on Data-Efficient Deep Learning for Video Surveillance, for a period of four years.

Deep learning has advanced video understanding significantly, especially when striving to recognize simple concepts like cats or boats in mainstream video content. When the footage is more sensitive or specialized, like video from surveillance cameras or self-driving cars, and semantics of interest are more demanding, like actions involving people and their interactions, deep learning solutions suffer from their limited ability in learning multimodal and temporal-aware video representations, especially when labeled examples are scarce. To address these challenges, we are looking for two PhD candidates on data-efficient action recognition and multimodal person-re-identification. The candidates will be part of the Efficient Deep Learning program conducted in close collaboration with industry. The results of these PhD projects will be validated at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and TNO (partners of the project). The use cases involve automating the manual monitoring of streaming surveillance cameras for events involving people and their activities.

The following PhD positions are available for you to choose from:

1. The PhD candidate on data-efficient action recognition will be supervised by Prof. Cees Snoek, and will work part-time at Schiphol;
2. The PhD candidate on multimodal person-re-identification will be supervised by Prof. Cees Snoek and dr. Gertjan Burghouts (TNO), and will work part-time at TNO.

The Efficient Deep Learning (EDL) program combines the fields of machine learning and computing. Both disciplines are strongly represented in the Netherlands and are now connected by seven Dutch academic institutes and more than 35 other (industrial) partners in- and outside the Netherlands. The EDL program contains seven use-case driven EDL research projects: P1) Deep Learning as a service, P2) Reconstruction, matching and recognition, P3) Video analyses and surveillance, P4) High tech systems and materials, P5) Human and animal health, P6) Mobile robotics, and P7) Deep Learning platforms. The common goal for all seven EDL projects is to significantly improve the applicability of Deep Learning among others by creating data efficient training, and improving computational efficiency, both for training and inference.

• Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, or related field;
• preferably with a specialization in computer vision and/or machine learning;
• excellent programming skills (the project is in Python and C/C++);
• solid mathematics foundations, especially statistics and linear algebra;
• highly motivated;
• fluent in English, both written and spoken.

Preferred starting date: between January 2019 and March 2019.

The appointment will be full-time (38 hours per week) on a temporary basis for a period of 4 years (initial employment is 18 months). Periodic evaluations will be held after 9 and 14 months, and upon positive evaluation, the appointment will be extended to a total of 48 months. The appointment must lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). An educational plan that includes attendance of courses, summer and/or winter schools, and national and international meetings will be drafted. We also expect you to assist in teaching of undergraduate students.

The salary is in accordance with the university regulations for academic personnel and will range from €2.266 (first year) up to a maximum of €2.897 (last year) before tax per month (scale P). There are also secondary benefits, such as 8% holiday allowance per year and the end of year allowance of 8.3%. The Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities is applicable.

Some of the things we have to offer:

• competitive pay and excellent benefits;
• top-50 University worldwide;
• one of the best AI ecosystems in the world;
• excellent computing facilities.
• interactive, open-minded and a very international city;

English is the working language in the Informatics Institute. As in Amsterdam almost everybody speaks and understands English, candidates need not be afraid of the language barrier.

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.

http://www.uva.nl/en/home

Informatics Institute

The mission of the Informatics Institute is to perform curiosity-driven and use-inspired fundamental research in Computer Science. 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.

We prefer to select specific topics and pursue them from methods in informatics and engineering, rather than make a choice for fundamental versus engineering science. As part of our research mission, we maintain strategic multi-disciplinary research links inside and outside the University of Amsterdam.

These positions are part of the Dutch Efficient Deep Learning program. You will be based in the Intelligent Sensory Information Systems Lab led by Prof. Cees Snoek within the Informatics Institute. You will also cooperate with Prof. Henry Bal in the High Performance Distributed Computing group at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Furthermore, you will spend part of your time at either Royal Schiphol Group or TNO.

http://ivi.uva.nl/