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AI Faculty Members and Doctoral Students sought

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cr...@minster.york.ac.uk

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Apr 13, 1995, 3:00:00 AM4/13/95

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF YORK

The Department of Computer Science at The University of York
Seeks New Faculty Members and Doctoral Students

The Computer Science Department at the University of York, UK, has
positions available for four new Lecturers (equivalent to rank of
Assistant Prof) and funding for approximately 12 funded doctoral
students.

The Intelligent Systems Group is particularly interested in recruiting
new faculty and students with interests in Artificial Intelligence.

Information on all of the positions appears below, followed by a short
description of the Intelligent Systems Group. Further information on
the Group, as well as the Department, can be be accessed on the World
Wide Web via URL http://dcpu1.cs.york.ac.uk:9876/isg/home.html.

Applications for the lectureships are due on April 21. If this
presents a problem, please contact Alan Frisch
(fri...@minster.york.ac) about the possibility of submitting your
application electronically.

Applications for doctoral study are due by mid June, but earlier
submission is strongly recommended. Please note that we have been
allocated fellowships that, unlike usual EPSRC fellowships, can
provide a stipend to nationals of any EC country.

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

UNIVERSITY OF YORK

Department of Computer Science

Vacancies for FOUR lectureships and
an IGDS coordinator in Computer Science

Applications are invited for two permanent lectureships in the
Department of Computer Science (awarded the top grade--Grade 5--for
research in the 1992 Research Assessment Exercise, and the top
grade--Excellent--for teaching in the 1994 Teaching Quality Assessment
Exercise).

Applicants must have a proven research record in one of the
Department's main research interests, which include High Integrity
Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, Real-time Systems, Advanced
Computer Architectures (including Neural Networks and Computer Vision)
and Intelligent Systems. At least one of the appointments will be
made in the area of Human-Computer Interaction. Experience of
university teaching would be an additional advantage.

The Department has recently awarded a contract by the EPSRC for the
delivery of an MSc course in Safety Critical Systems Engineering under
the EPSRC's Integrated Graduate Development Scheme. The contract
allows for appointments to a further two lectureships to support the
course; these appointments will be made for three years in the first
instance. Applicants must have a proven research record in an aspect
of Safety Critical Systems Engineering; experience of the application
of Safety Critical Systems Engineering techniques in an industrial
context would be an additional advantage.

The Department also wishes to recruit an IGDS Coordinator to market
and administer the programme. The coordinator will be a key person in
the recruitment of students to the programme. Applicants should have
proven administrative skills, the ability to interact effectively with
industry and an appreciation of the joint academic/industrial nature
of the programme. The post will be available for three years in the
first instance.

The lectureships are available from 1 October 1995 (or possibly
earlier in the case of the IGDS lectureships) on the Lecturer Scale
Grade A (13,941 to 19,326 pounds per annum) or Grade B (20,133 to
25,735 pounds per annum). The Coordinator's post is available from 1
April 1995 on the Administrative Scale Grade 3 (21,786 to 25,735
pounds) or Grade 5 (27,018 to 30,533).s per annum). The Coordinator's post is available from 1
April 1995 on the Administrative Scale Grade 3 (21,786 to 25,735
pounds) or Grade 5 (27,018 to 30,533).

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Keith Mander (Head of Dept of
Computer Science, +44 1904 432727, man...@minster.york.ac.uk) or
Professor Ian Wand (+44 1904 1432725, i...@minster.york.ac.uk).

Six copies of applications with full curriculum vitae and the names of
three referees should be sent by Friday, 21 April 1995 to the
Personnel Officer, University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD.
Further particulars are available (telephone +44 1904 432051).
Applicants should quote the relevant advertisement numbers: for the
permanent lectureships (1/3408), for the IGDS lecturers (1/3409) and
for the IGDS Coordinator (1/5135).

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Keith Mander (Head of Dept of
Computer Science, +44 1904 432727, man...@minster.york.ac.uk) or
Professor Ian Wand (+44 1904 1432725, i...@minster.york.ac.uk).

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

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF YORK

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS GROUP

OPPORTUNITIES FOR

POSTGRADUATE STUDY IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The Intelligent Systems Group in the Department of Computer Science at
the University of York would like to hear from exceptional candidates
interested in pursuing a postgraduate research degree (MSc, MPhil,
PhD) in areas related to the Group's research interests as outlined on
the following pages.

This year we have an unusually high number of funded fellowships for
doctoral candidates. In particular, we have been allocated
fellowships that, unlike usual EPSRC fellowships, can provide a
stipend to nationals of any EC country.

The Department of Computer Science at the University of York provides
an outstanding environment for research and postgraduate study. The
Department is one of the few computer science departments in the UK
whose research has been awarded the top rating of "5" in the most
recent Research Assessment Exercise and whose teaching has been
awarded the top rating of "excellent" in the HEFCE Teaching Quality
Assessment. Based on its evaluation of the Department's research
programme, the EPSRC has increased the Department's allocation of
research studentships over the past few years, while nationally the
total number of studentships has declined. The Department's doctoral
program has maintained an extremely high graduation rate: in recent
years almost all EPSRC-supported students have submitted a thesis
within four years and earned a doctoral degree.

Those wishing to discuss opportunities for postgraduate studies within
the Intelligent Systems Group should contact either Alan Frisch
(fri...@minster.york.ac.uk, +44 1904 432745), Derek Bridge
(d...@minster.york.ac.uk), or Craig MacNish (cr...@minster.york.ac.uk)
by email or at the Department of Computer Science, University of York,
York YO1 5DD, UK.

General enquiries about the postgraduate programmes of the Department
of Computer Science should be made to Maggie Burton
(mag...@minster.york.ac.uk) by email or at the above postal address.

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

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF YORK

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS GROUP

The research of the Intelligent Systems Group is concerned with the
theoretical principles of artificial intelligence and their application
to real-world domains. The Group's research focuses on two core areas of
artificial intelligence: knowledge representation and reasoning, and
machine learning.

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION AND REASONING is the area of study concerned
with determining what knowledge a system requires to produce a certain
behaviour, how this knowledge can be encoded and structured for rapid
access, and how a system can reason with what it knows.
We have developed a framework for enhancing general-purpose
deductive systems by embedding into them powerful, special purpose
constraint-solving methods. Using this framework, we have developed and
studied reasoning systems for knowledge retrieval, constraint logic
programming, modal logic deduction, parsing feature-based grammars,
inductive learning and planning. In addition to furthering this
research, we are investigating constraint-solving algorithms.
We have developed nonmonotonic temporal logics for reasoning about
causal interactions and for reasoning with incomplete
information. Applications of this work have included predicting the
behaviour of discrete-event dynamic systems, such as assembly processes,
and automatically analysing system requirements.
We also are concerned with the complex knowledge representation
problems that arise in understanding and generating natural language.
One application of this work is in automatically interpreting system
requirements expressed in natural language.

MACHINE LEARNING is the area of study concerned with how a computational
system can acquire knowledge by learning from its experiences and
observations.
Intuition tells us that a system can learn by generalising what it
knows or observes. We have been studying this intuition and its
computational consequences in a mathematically rigorous manner. We have
formalised the notion of generalisation, studied algorithms for
computing generalisations, and identified conditions under which
generalisation is an effective mechanism for learning.
A major challenge of artificial intelligence is the construction of
systems that can find efficient plans of action for accomplishing given
tasks. We are developing, and studying the complexity of, algorithms
that learn to plan efficiently from examples of optimal plans.
We have shown how inductive and deductive techniques can be combined
to give a system that can learn parts of a high quality, wide-coverage
natural language grammar. We are investigating how extensions to the
inductive component can improve grammar quality.
Case-based reasoning systems, which solve new problems by analogy to
past problems, are seeing increased commercial use. Prudent knowledge
engineers need to answer questions such as whether the accuracy of the
systems necessarily improves as more problems are encountered. The
theoretical framework we are developing answers such questions.

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

The members of the Intelligent Systems Group have been highly active,
supervising the completion of six PhD students--all of whom now hold
university positions--patenting an architecture for generating
navigation directions in natural language, and currently producing their
third book. The members of the group also hold two major research
grants, one studying changing requirements and the other studying
architectures for case-based reasoning.

The ISG maintains close contacts with leading researchers and research
groups, both nationally and internationally. During 1994 the group
hosted ten guest speakers from the UK, US, Germany, Australia and the
Netherlands. The ISG has recently been awarded membership in ESPRIT's
COMPULOG NET, the Network of Excellence in Computational Logic. In
April 1994 the ISG co-sponsored the AISB Workshop on Automated
Reasoning, and in September 1994 it hosted the Fourth European Workshop
on Logics in Artificial Intelligence.

The ISG has particularly good links with the nearby Division of
Artificial Intelligence at the University of Leeds. In addition to
conducting collaborative research, the two groups co-sponsor a number of
events including the Annual Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
Distinguished Lecturer, inviting a leading international AI researcher
to visit and speak at the two universities.

At York, the ISG collaborates with researchers in the Deptartment of
Linguistics and in other groups in the Dept. of Computer Science,
including the High-Integrity Systems Engineering Group, the Human
Computer Interaction Group, and the Advanced Computer Architectures
Group.

ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH STAFF

Derek Bridge, Lecturer. (d...@minster.york.ac.uk) Natural language
processing, case-based reasoning.
David Duffy, Research Associate. (d...@minster.york.ac.uk) Automated
reasoning and requirements analysis, proof by induction.
Alan Frisch, Reader in Intelligent Systems. (fri...@minster.york.ac.uk)
Automated reasoning, constraint solving, constraint logic
programming, knowledge representation.
Craig MacNish, Lecturer. (cr...@minster.york.ac.uk) Non-classical
logics, nonmonotonic and temporal reasoning, learning to plan,
automated requirements analysis.
Hugh Osborne, Research Associate. (hu...@minster.york.ac.uk) Novel
applications of formal methods, especially to case-based
reasoning.
Miles Osborne, Research Associate. (mi...@minster.york.ac.uk) Natural
language understanding and grammar learning.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Further information and research papers can be accessed on the World
Wide Web at URL http://dcpu1.cs.york.ac.uk:9876/isg/home.html. To
discuss educational and research opportunities contact Alan Frisch
(phone: +44 1904 432745) or any members of the group at either the email
address listed above or at The Department of Computer Science,
University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD, United Kingdom.

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