Vision, Learning and Control

Location:  Highfield Campus
Salary:   £32,344 per annum
Full Time Fixed Term for two years
Closing Date:  Sunday 12 September 2021
Interview Date:   To be confirmed
Reference:  1468621FP

The post is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), under a project titled “Immersive Audio-Visual 3D Scene Reproduction Using a Single 360 Camera” with academic and industrial project partners in the UK including Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) at the University of Surrey, Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) at the University of Southampton, BBC R&D and AudioScenic.

The focus of the research will be to develop signal processing algorithms and systems for acoustic property analysis and modelling from audio-visual inputs, and interactive rendering of synchronised audio-visual content in Virtual Reality (VR) platforms. This work is built on the recent contributions of the principal investigator in the area of 3D scene reconstruction, 3D acoustic room modelling, and spatial audio-visual contents rendering. The algorithms developed will be integrated into a VR system.

To be successful you will have a PhD degree (or equivalent professional qualifications and experience) in the area of acoustic signal processing or audio engineering with the ambition to extend the area into audio-visual processing, multimedia contents and VR. In addition, you will have demonstrable analytical skills, and programming skills in Python and/or Matlab and/or C++. Ideally, you will have experience on 3D audio acquisition (microphone array), analysis and rendering (binaural rendering, speaker array).  We also welcome applications from those who have experience in machine learning and audio engineering.

You will be based in the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) (http://ecs.soton.ac.uk), and work under the direction of the Principal Investigator Dr Hansung Kim, with co-supervision by Prof Filippo Maria Fazi, leading the Virtual Acoustics and Audio Engineering Team at ISVR.

The University of Southampton, ranked in the top 1% percent of universities globally, possesses outstanding infrastructures and facilities relevant to this project, and ECS has an international reputation for world-renowned research, bringing together over 550 researchers from many different subject backgrounds. ECS provides a unique, friendly and supportive environment that facilitates use-inspired and multi-disciplinary research, education, training and outreach. ECS also holds an Athena SWAN bronze award in recognition of its’ continued commitment to improving equality for women in science and engineering. The University has a range of staff development programmes and a unique mentoring and wellbeing scheme. There is a great range of benefits that includes a contributory pension scheme; generous holiday entitlement; subsidised health and fitness facilities; cycle to work scheme; a range of discounts. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and being a globally responsible university and has recently been awarded the Platinum EcoAward.

This position is initially funded for a period of 2 years due to funding restrictions and with a start date in November 2021 or shortly thereafter. 

Applications for Research Fellow positions will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification.  The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon successful completion of the PhD.  Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given.

For informal inquiries, please contact Dr Hansung Kim (Email: h.kim@soton.ac.uk Web: https://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/people/hk1f20 ).

Application Procedure  

You should submit your completed online application form at https://jobs.soton.ac.uk. The application deadline will be midnight on the closing date stated above. If you need any assistance, please call Kate Pounds (Recruitment Team) on +44 (0) 23 8059 2750 or email recruitment@soton.ac.uk. Please quote reference 1468621FP on all correspondence.