Three vacancies at the University of Amsterdam

The Informatics Institute of the University of Amsterdam has three vacancies in the area of information retrieval.

1. Assistant professor information retrieval (permanent position)

The selected colleague will join the team led by Maarten de Rijke and join the core faculty members in the Informatics Institute. The successful candidate is expected to strengthen and/or complement existing research strengths in information retrieval. The successful candidate is expected to start  in the 2014-2015 academic year. For details and applications, please visit http://www.uva.nl/en/about-the-uva/working-at-the-uva/vacancies/item/14-154.html

2. Postdoc in online text and images search and analytics (32 months)

The successful candidate will conduct research in the area of online text and image search and analytics in the context of the VOX-Pol project, an EU Network of Excellence on researching the prevalence, contours, functions, and impacts of Violent Online Political Extremism and responses to it. The selected candidate will join the teams led by Maarten de Rijke and Arnold Smeulders. For details and applications, please visit http://www.uva.nl/en/about-the-uva/working-at-the-uva/vacancies/item/14-147.html

3. Postdoc in text and image search for heritage data (18 months)

The successful candidate will conduct research in the area of cultural heritage text and image search and analytics in the context of a digital humanities project on archaeological data that is jointly funded by funding bodies from Europe and North-America within the 'Digging into Data' program.  The selected candidate will join the teams led by Maarten de Rijke and Arnold Smeulders. For details and applications, please visit http://www.uva.nl/en/about-the-uva/working-at-the-uva/vacancies/item/14-146.html

Things we have to offer include top performing research groups, extensive industrial collaborations, competitive pay and excellent benefits, high-level of interaction with neighboring institutes and universities and other disciplines, location near the city center (10 minutes by bicycle) of one Europe's most beautiful and lively cities, international environment (10+ nationalities in the group), access to high-end computing facilities (clusters with 5,000+ cores), brand-new building (2010).

Since Amsterdam is a very international city where almost everybody speaks and understands English, candidates need not be afraid of the language barrier.

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University of Amsterdam
http://isla.science.uva.nl
http://ccct.uva.nl

Job Posting: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Multiple Faculty Positions in Health Informatics

Multiple Faculty Positions in Health Informatics – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – Carolina Health Informatics Program

Several academic units at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are actively seeking candidates in the broadly defined area of health informatics.  The selected colleagues will become core faculty members in the Carolina Health Informatics Program.  The successful candidates are expected to start in the 2014-2015 academic year and their tenure home will be located in one of the CHIP partner units currently recruiting candidates. 

Five cross-cutting health informatics areas have been identified as important to all seven academic partners: 1) health data access and management (e.g., data warehouses), 2) ontologies and data standards, 3) analytics, 4) systems modeling and simulations, and 5) clinical decision support systems.  At UNC, we are particularly interested in candidates with a strong record of research in one or more of these cross-cutting areas.  For general queries regarding the positions, please contact Dr. Javed Mostafa: jm@unc.edu.  More details can be found here: chip.unc.edu/faculty-search. 

Post-doctoral position in Visual Analytics - University of Montpellier 2, France

Post-doctoral position in Visual Analytics 

============

Location: LIRMM Lab (http://www.lirmm.fr/lirmm_eng/contact-us), Montpellier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montpellier), France

Title: Visual Analytics for heterogeneous text streams.

Abstract: 

The heterogeneity of data is an important issue in Big Data area. Data is not only large in volume and produced at a high speed (velocity), but also holds many kinds of input (technical heterogeneity), structures (data model heterogeneity), and meanings (semantic heterogeneity). We would like to recruit a postdoctoral researcher for one year to address this specific issue from a visual analytics approach.

Context:

A lot of documents (web pages, scientific publications, reports, and so forth) contain much useful information. Mining heterogeneous data, according to their structure and to their content, becomes a major issue in data mining area. A key problem consists of sharing these various data and/or information and integrating them in order to discover new knowledge. In addition, microbloggings contain crucial information to take into account in a global system that mines heterogeneous data. For instance, people participating in on-line forums, microblogging or discussing on social networks leave behind them digital traces of information on a variety of topics. The analysis of individual messages and their aggregation represent a considerable challenge for currently existing methods, as user-written texts present a special type of stream setting. In this project we plan to investigate the epidemiology issue of farmed animals in collaboration with UMR CMAEE. The aim is to detect weak signals concerning the beginning of epidemics (e.g., African swine fever, foot and mouth disease, bluetongue, avian influenza).

Description: 

Visual exploration of textual data is an active area of research. Most of the methods proposed deal with static texts like discourses, books or, more generally, string data. Most of these methods require well-formatted data and are not adapted to streams and/or heterogeneous data. The candidate will be in charge of discovering efficient text mining techniques for extracting structured data, and designing visual interfaces to interact with these structures and explore the data. He/She will process following the steps of the Munzner's nested model for visualization design. (1) Domain problem characterization: the candidate will learn about the tasks and the data of the target domain (2) Data/operation abstraction design: he/she will design the text mining techniques that transform the raw data into the data types that visualization techniques can address. (3) Encoding/interaction technique design: he/she will design the visual encodings and interactions. (4) Algorithm Design: he/she will create algorithms to carry out the visual encodings and interactions designs automatically. The candidate will also be in charge of organizing the validation process included in the Munzner's model.

Qualifications:

- A PhD degree in Computer Science on the domain of Information Visualization or Visual Analytics with interest in Text Mining.

- An excellent publication record, including papers in high-impact journals and conference proceedings.

- Strong experience in programming languages.

- Knowledge of visualization libraries (e.g. D3, GraphViz, ...) is an asset. 

- Must be proficient in English.

Supervision:

- The project will be formally jointly supervised by Dr. Arnaud Sallaberry at LIRMM (http://www.lirmm.fr/~sallaberry/) and Dr. Mathieu Roche at TETIS (http://www.lirmm.fr/~mroche).

Starting date:

- September/October 2014 (some flexibility is possible)

Conditions of employment:

- Net salary: ~ 2200 euros / month

- Interested candidates are requested to send an application by e-mail to Dr. Arnaud Sallaberry (arnaud.sallaberry@lirmm.fr) and Dr. Mathieu Roche (mathieu.roche@cirad.fr) with the subject field: 'LABEX: Post-Doc visualization position'. 

- The application should consist of a motivation letter and a curriculum vitae with a list of publications and description of any previous research. Furthermore, names and contact information for three references are required (with two letters of recommendation). 

- Applications will be reviewed immediately and the review process will continue until the position is filled.

--
Mathieu Roche
Research Scientist (PhD, HDR)
CIRAD - Environments and Societies Department
UMR TETIS
Web (in English): www.lirmm.fr/~mroche
Web (in French): http://agents.cirad.fr/index.php/Mathieu+ROCHE

EMC launches EMC Academic Associate recognition in India to endorse students’ cloud computing and storage management skills

EMC today launched the new EMC Academic Associate recognition that would validate skills of EMC Academic Alliance (EAA) students in the high demand areas of Information Storage Management and Cloud Computing. The recognition which involves evaluation by EMC shall prove their skills and industry readiness to potential employers in the industry. It also endorses the students’ skills to be at par with their global counterparts. The recognition will be rolled out to all EAA Partner institutes across the country over the year.  

EAA has educated over 250,000 students since 2006, providing the industry with a ready-made pipeline of IT knowledgeable candidates. To achieve EMC Academic Associate recognition, students will have to take a highly technical online test, which is at zero cost. The globally standardized test provides objective validation to the EMC Academic Associate of his/her knowledge. The EMC Academic Associate recognition would also enable the students to join a large and diverse EMC technical community, where they can network, seek and give advice, and learn more through online forums such as the EMC Proven Professional community. The recognition can be promoted by students through the use of Academic Associate logo and credential on resumes, email signatures, and in social media. To know complete story see here

CSA Research Newsletter, CCSK at Infosecurity Europe, CSA EMEA Congress CFP, and Times special report

Discover how to optimise cloud security within your organisation Cloud computing is being aggressively adopted by organisations as they seek to reduce costs and improve efficiency and agility. However, with increased flexibility and IT capabilities comes a myriad of new risks and security challenges. The courses will provide you with the skills and knowledge to ensure that cloud computing is implemented responsibly and with the appropriate security controls within your organisation. Students will work towards passing the CCSK Exam by gaining the skills and knowledge required. The exam is online at the student's convenience after the course (token included in course fee). Upon successful completion of the course(s), students will be able to: • Understand the cloud computing architectural framework • Identify the key cloud computing security challenges Identify appropriate cloud computing security controls __________________________________________________________ Call for Presentations CSA EMEA Congress 2014 The Cloud Security Alliance and MIS Training Institute are delighted to announce that the 2014 EMEA Congress will be held on 19-20 November at the Parco dei Principi in Rome. The CSA is now focused on developing an outstanding programme for 2014 maintaining its position as Europe's premier cloud security event as a gathering and information-hub for end-users and industry players alike. If you have an idea for a paper that you would like to present and you think it would fit well into the conference programme then we would be delighted to hear from you. Papers can be submitted online at http://www.cloudsecuritycongress.com/call-for-papers.html . The call for papers closes May 16th, and speakers will be notified by May 30th. What do we look for in a paper? We are looking for examples of cutting-edge practice or research in or more of the areas above. Papers should clearly demonstrate transferable, practical learning for delegates to take away and implement in their workplace, and showcase new innovations and ideas. ______________________________ 'Cloud for Business' special interest report to be published in The Times newspaper May 13th 2014. The purpose of the report is to create a clear dialogue between the industry thought leaders and business decision makers who are increasingly under pressure to respond to their customers needs by delivering innovative products more efficiently. Many in the boardroom still lack the wider understanding about what cloud offers to sign off the right purchasing decisions, or more importantly, to set the transformative strategy for the business with cloud at its heart; a significant knowledge gap still remains. This content will empower businesses and individuals to make more informed decisions about the cloud systems they use. For relevant solution providers there are a few commercial sponsorship opportunities available. For more information contact lead publisher Mike Kershaw at: mk@raconteur.net Raconteur Media has produced over 250 special reports for The Times & The Sunday Times. (Example report - Financial Services Technology published February 2014). With a readership of 1.26 million and an unrivalled business audience (over 150,000 C-Suite Executives), The Times is the ideal communications platform for such a report, which is set to be the definitive report on the industry in the national press in 2014.

Where are the programmers?

More than ever before in history, business needs people who can program. Software is becoming a large part of ordinary life, so much so that entire industries and job descriptions are being supplanted by code. Or, as a Netscape founder put it, "software is eating the world". But there is a problem with our ever increasing reliance on software: a shortage of people who can write it.

Learning to program is "notoriously difficult", noted Saeed Dehnadi and Richard Bornat from the School of Computing at Middlesex University, in a famous 2006 paper of theirs, "The Camel Has Two Humps".

"A substantial minority of students fails in every introductory programming course in every UK university. Despite heroic academic effort, the proportion has increased rather than decreased over the years. Despite a great deal of research into teaching methods and student responses, we have no idea of the cause."

This austere requirement has been known for as long as there have been programs and programmers to write them.

"Human beings are not accustomed to being perfect, and few areas of human activity demand it," wrote Fred Brooks in his classic book on systems software development, "The Mythical Man Month". For complete post see here

3 PhD Studentships in IR etc. at Birkbeck College, University of London

PhD studentships in Computer Science & Information Systems, Birkbeck
College, University of London
http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/about/phds.php

Applications are invited for full-time PhD studentships in the
Department of Computer Science & Information Systems in the academic
year 2014/15.
Three studentships are available:

- one full-time studentship covering fees at Home/EU rate, plus an
annual stipend.
- a further fully funded Anniversary Scholarship to mark the 190th
anniversary of Birkbeck's foundation, covering fees at Home/EU rate,
plus an annual stipend.
- a full-time studentship covering fees only at Home/EU rate

Closing date for applications: 25 April 2014

The studentships are open to full-time home, EU and international
students. Candidates must submit both a college application form for a
place in the MPhil/PhD programme and the application for a
studentship. Candidates will be considered for admission first, and
for the award only after they have been offered a place in the
programme.

Details on the application process are at:
http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/research/degrees-apply.php

Given that this is a research focused programme, we do consider an
applicant's proposed area of research when considering an application.
 To this end, applicant should provide a 500 words (or longer if they
wish) statement outlining the area of research that they wish to
pursue during their studies. Potential applicants might like to look
at our webpages linked from
http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/research/degrees-info.php
for more information about the PhD programme and
http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/research/
for information about current research activities within the Department.

2 PhD Research Positions at L3S, Hannover, Germany

           Ph.D. Positions at L3S Research Center, Germany

           ===============================================

The L3S Research Center, Hannover, Germany, invites applications for

                     two Ph.D. research positions

in the area of Temporal Retrieval, Exploration and Analytics in Web
Archives, in the context of my ERC Advanced Grant ALEXANDRIA,
http://www.alexandria-project.eu/.

Within ALEXANDRIA, we will significantly advance semantic and
time-based indexing for Web archives using human-compiled knowledge
available on the Web, to efficiently index, retrieve and explore
information about entities and events from the past. In doing so, we
will focus on the concurrent evolution of this knowledge and the Web
content to be indexed, and take into account diversity and
incompleteness of this knowledge. We will further investigate mixed
crowd- and machine-based Web analytics to support long-running and
collaborative retrieval and analysis processes on Web archives.

ERC Advanced Grants allow exceptional established research leaders to
pursue ground-breaking, high-risk projects that open new directions in
their respective research fields or other domains, and thus provide an
optimal environment for challenging and unique research for PhD
students and PostDoc researchers.

You should possess very good knowledge in one or several areas
relevant for the topics specified in this announcement. Good
proficiency in English is expected, as well as an outstanding M.Sc.
in computer science. German language skills are useful, but not
mandatory.  International experience during your studies or
afterwards, as well as good social and communication skills are
helpful.

The salary amounts to German TV-L E13, which is roughly 40.000 to
45.000 Euro gross income per year.

Please submit your application including the usual documents as well
as a list of references, preferrably by email, to

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Nejdl
L3S Research Center
Appelstrasse 4
30167 Hannover, Germany
http://www.L3S.de/
http://www.kbs.uni-hannover.de/~nejdl/
E-Mail: nejdl@L3S.de

Pandora Job Openings: Recommender Systems Engineers & Data Scientists (Oakland, CA - USA)

Hi, 

I recently joined Pandora to lead the research group. We're looking to grow our team, and hire a few talented scientists and engineers to help design and build the next playlist innovations that will delight millions of listeners!

This role is about impact and you'll have the opportunity to directly influence the way hundreds of millions of listeners discover music. You'll interact regularly with senior leadership to directly guide and shape Pandora's playlist products and services.

Successful candidates will have significant experience designing and building recommender systems, strong machine learning background, solid programming skills, outstanding communication skills, demonstrated ability to work effectively in a small team, and a desire to work at Pandora HQ in Oakland, California (Relocation and visa programs available).

Interested? Feel free to apply here:

- Senior Data Scientist, Recommender Systems http://pandora.com/careers/position?id=o6bCXfwA

- Sr. Software Engineer, Playlist

http://pandora.com/careers/position?id=o7PuYfw8

If you want to learn more, feel free to contact me and I would be happy to give you an overview of our work and the team.

Thanks!

----------------------------------------

Oscar Celma

Director of Research

ocelma at pandora dot com

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Crossing the Mid-Career Chasm

Ashish is 40 and a talented apparel designer. He has many interests, including cars, good food and music. He enjoys his job but, like many 40-year-old professionals, is feeling restless. Should he be more ambitious and aspire to a senior management role? Or should he pursue his dream of opening a restaurant? Why not simply take a year off and travel around the world? But how would he keep up payments on his SUV?

Helen, 45, is a mid-level employee in a large American company. She hates the stifling bureaucracy, the long hours, the politics, stress, her uninspiring boss. Helen would like to leave but doesn't know what else to do. She fears all others are jobs just like this. She has monthly payments to make and needs the salary. But she wants to have more time for her kids and for her own hobbies. Helen knows she should be grateful to have a stable and reasonably wellpaying job. However, given half a chance, she would love do something else. But what? For complete article see here