[visionlist] Postdoc & PhD openings in Natural & Artificial Intelligence

[Angela Yu]

After 14 years as faculty at the University of California (San Diego), Prof. Angela Yu has recently joined TU Darmstadt as an Alexander von Humboldt AI Professor. Immediately available, and for the foreseeable future, are multiple positions for:
- Postdocs
- PhD students
- Master’s students
- Interns
- Research assistants

Prof. Yu’s group conducts research at the intersection of natural and artificial intelligence. Her group uses mathematically rigorous and algorithmically diverse tools to understand the nature of representation and computations that give rise to intelligent behavior, with particular regard to the challenges posed by inferential uncertainty and the opportunities afforded by volitional control. Using diverse machine learning and statistical tools, e.g. Bayesian statistical modeling, control theory, reinforcement learning, and information theory, theoretical frameworks and mathematical models are developed to explain disparate aspects of cognition importation for intelligence: perception, attention, decision-making, learning, cognitive control, active sensing, economic behavior, and social interactions.

Some example research questions currently pursued in the group include:
- How does the ability to move and interact with the world facilitate perception, decision making, and representation learning?
- Are human attention and working memory capacity limitation bugs or features?
- How do humans represent and process faces?
- How does the brain learn a general-purpose representation with so little labeled data and in the absence of concrete tasks?
- How are humans so good at problem solving and logical reasoning, and yet also prone to certain fallacies and illusion in cognition & perception?
- What do IQ tests actually measure and what light can they shed on AI research?
- What roles do intrinsic motivations such as curiosity and emotions play in intelligence?

With her expertise in computational neuroscience and cognitive science, as well as her previous experience in computational modeling and collaborations with psychologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, and mathematicians, Dr. Yu will strengthen and complement research at the Centre for Cognitive Science at TU Darmstadt and at hessian.AI, the Centre for Artificial Intelligence of Hesse based in Darmstadt. Her group members are encouraged and expected to collaborate extensively with preeminent researchers in cognitive science, AI, neuroscience, and related fields in Darmstadt and nearby research centers (Frankfurt, Mainz, Marburg, Gießen, Heidelberg, Tübingen, etc.).

Positions are available immediately, and will remain open until filled. Salaries are commensurate with experience and expertise, and highly competitive with U.S. and European standards. Written and spoken fluency in English is required. Fluency in German is not.

Interested candidates should send to Prof. Yu (angela at angelayu.org) a CV, transcript(s), contact info for 2-4 references, as well as a statement of research detailing why the candidate and Prof. Yu’s group are a particularly good fit for each other.