Request to advertise fully funded PhD in University of York

[Soumya Banerjee]

Dear Sir or Madam
I am a senior lecturer at the University of York, UK and I have a
fully funded PhD in my group.
Can you please advertise it in your mailing list?
Thank you so much!

Here is an ad:

# 🚀 Fully Funded PhD Studentship in AI – University of York, UK

**Are you passionate about the future of Artificial Intelligence?
Looking for the freedom to pursue groundbreaking ideas on broad
generalization, reasoning, and safety?**

We are seeking a motivated, curious, and independent PhD student to
join our research group at the **University of York**. This is a fully
funded position open to **UK Home students (EU students are also
highly welcome to apply).**

### 🧠 Complete Intellectual Freedom (With High-Impact Projects)

The best part about this studentship? **You shape your own journey.**
You will have complete freedom to define your research direction
within the broader AI landscape—from core methods to applications, and
from theory to systems.

To give you an idea of the cutting-edge directions we are actively
exploring, you will have the opportunity to dive deep into major
projects like:

* **Infusing Reasoning into LLMs (The ARC Challenge):** It has been
widely suggested that large language models cannot truly reason. We
are changing that. This project involves infusing reasoning and priors
into LLMs, LLMs/LVMs, and multimodal systems, applying them to
François Chollet's **Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus (ARC)**.
* **Generative & Intelligent Agents:** Building advanced, autonomous
agents to solve the ultra-ambitious **ARC-AGI 3.0 challenge**, as well
as leveraging databases of human problem-solving to augment human
performance with LLMs.
* **AI Safety & The Bigger Questions:** Tackling robust AI safety
frameworks, evaluating ideological encoding, and addressing vital
questions around AI and society.

### 📈 Proven Track Record & Publication Opportunities

We don't just aim high; we deliver. A previous version of our work on
these topics has been published in top-tier venues (including *Nature
Scientific Reports* and a *NeurIPS* workshop).

This project is built to lead to **major, high-impact publications**.
As a student in our group, you will be fully supported and **provided
with funding to travel to top international conferences** to present
your work. If you are looking to get excellent papers under your belt
in a highly supportive setting, this is the place to be.

### 🌟 This is the Perfect Fit If You Want:

* **Full Funding:** Focus entirely on your research without financial stress.
* **Intellectual Independence:** Step away from rigid, pre-defined
projects and build a visionary agenda from the ground up.
* **Ambitious Impact:** The space, resources, and mentorship to tackle
broad machine generalization (AGI).
* **A Supportive Environment:** Active collaboration, dedicated
mentorship, and an established pipeline to top venues.

### 🏰 Where You’ll Be Based

University of York is a **Russell Group, Top 10 UK university**
located in one of the most beautiful, vibrant, and historic medieval
cities in England. You will get world-class academic resources
combined with an incredible quality of life.

### 📩 How to Apply

If you are a creative thinker excited by the prospect of bridging the
gap between deep learning and true abstract reasoning, please get in
touch!

Please email me directly (soumya....@york.ac.uk) with:

1. Your **CV**
2. A brief outline of **what you would like to work on**
3. A short note on **why you have applied for a PhD**

*For more technical background on our research direction, feel free to
explore our group's [Project Ideas
Repository](https://github.com/complexsystemslab/project_ideas/blob/main/project_ideas.md)
and read our foundational preprint on [Neural Networks for Abstraction
and Reasoning](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.03507).*

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*Feel free to share or retweet this opportunity with anyone in your
network who fits the bill!*

--
Research Scientist

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/neelsoumya/