Postoc opening in my lab @ UT Austin
Matt Lease
URL for this advertisement: http://tiny.cc/ml-postdoc
Matt Lease is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join his research lab at UT Austin. Applications will be considered as they are received, and the position will remain open until filled.
Due to Covid-19, the selected candidate will have the option to work remotely inside the U.S. until UT Austin returns to normal campus operations. International applicants are welcome but work can only be funded for work performed within the US. Once UT Austin returns to normal on campus operations (likely by September 1, 2021), the candidate would be expected to relocate to Austin, TX (if not already there).
Duration and Compensation. This one-year postdoctoral position, with flexible start date, is renewable for up to two additional years. Typically candidates remain for multiple years unless they obtain faculty position sooner. The salary will be $60,000 per year, plus a standard package of benefits.
Responsibilities. The Fellow will be expected to pursue individual research and collaborative research, collecting and analyzing data; writing up results, attending regular meetings, reporting progress to PIs, and helping to supervise and direct GRAs. This position will be a 40 hour per week research appointment, with no obligation to teach, although teaching opportunities may be available if desired. In addition to research, the fellow will assist in project-related administration, events, and public communication of results.
About the Research. My lab’s research spans Crowdsourcing (Human Computation), Information Retrieval, and Natural Language Processing. We do both back-end artificial intelligence (AI) modeling and front-end human-computer interaction (HCI). We build and test predictive models, design ways to better annotate labeled data, and explore human-in-the-loop approaches combining people with AI. We think about building fair and transparent AI: e.g., how to build explainable AI systems that facilitate effective human-AI partnerships, and how to annotate data in ways that mitigate AI bias. We conduct fundamental research and apply it to real-world problems like fighting fake news and hate speech online. See recent publications.
About UT Austin. In addition to joining UT’s top-ranked Information School (iSchool), the selected postdoc will also be invited to participate in Good Systems, UT Austin’s campus-wide Grand Challenge to design responsible AI technologies. UT Austin has fantastic opportunities across campus in Computing Research and our interdisciplinary Machine Learning Lab.
About Austin, TX. Austin is one of the USA's sunniest and most vibrant cities in the U.S. in which to live and work. Our large and growing high-tech hub has further earned it the moniker of being the USA's "Silicon Hills". See https://www.austintexas.org/things-to-do/
How to Apply. Please email Matt Lease (m...@utexas.edu) with subject "postdoc application”. Your email should discuss your interest and fit for the position, and provide a current curriculum vitae (URL is fine). A formal Research Statement document is not required but welcome if available. Interviews will be conducted remotely via zoom.
PI Biosketch. Matt Lease is an Associate Professor in the School of Information at UT Austin. He is also an Amazon Scholar, working in the Human-in-the-loop science team. Lease received early career awards from the NSF, IMLS, and DARPA. Honors include Best Student Paper at the 2019 European Conference for Information Retrieval (ECIR) and Best Paper at the 2016 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Human Computation and Crowdsourcing conference (HCOMP). Lease is a faculty leader of Good Systems, an eight-year, university-wide Grand Challenge at UT Austin to design responsible AI technologies.