About the position

For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree.

The Department of Information Security and Communication Technology has a vacancy for a position as a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (IE), in the cross-disciplinary field of AI, video analytics and object identification and fingerprinting. This is a researcher training position aimed at providing promising researcher recruits the opportunity of academic development in the form of a doctoral degree inside areas where there are high demands for candidates with deep knowledge and insight. 

AI4Citizens is an international and interdisciplinary research collaboration between The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), The University of Agder (UiA), BI Norwegian Business School, and public safety departments from Norway, Germany, The Netherlands, and The United Kingdom. The project and workplace will be located close to NORCICS Center of Excellence in research-based innovation - The Norwegian Center for Cybersecurity for Critical Sector - hosted by NTNU and opportunities exist for close collaboration with the NORCICS consortium.

The positions working place is in on NTNUs campus in Gjøvik. 

Your immediate leader is Head of Department. Research responsible are Professor Katrin Franke and Associate Professor Lasse Øverlier.

Duties of the position

The appointment is for 4 years including 25% duty work.

Police organizations around the world routinely collect large amounts of digital data to fulfill their mandate of maintaining public safety. There is an urgent need for research and development of novel non-intrusive security solutions that overcome the growing volume and complexity of the collected surveillance data. Artificial intelligence offers the opportunity to simultaneously address the imperatives of improved security, privacy protection, and promotion and safeguarding of human rights. Our aim is the creation of a balanced and responsible socio-technical approach and solution to smart-city policing that helps diminish sociocultural biases and achieve public acceptance.

The successful candidates will contribute with novel research in three main areas: 

• Video analytics, 
• object fingerprinting, and 
• object tracking and identification with context in videos. 

The PhD will work closely with Police and the other project partners with requirements for safety improvements, and follow a path of research to extract context from video together with object segmentation, extracting features from objects in order to build a more descriptive object model, and creating object fingerprints from this model. In addition indexing and search algorithms is an essential part of making the results available.

Required selection criteria

You must have a professionally relevant background in in at least two or more of the following fields: 

• Computer vision for video analysis, 
• AI/machine learning for video analytics, 
• Tracking of multiple objects through video, 
• Object segmentation in videos, 
• Video context analysis.
• Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree program, where 120 credits are obtained at master's level.
• You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master's degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU's grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education.
• As Master's students you may apply for integrated PhD, if your planned master’s thesis is related to these topics. 
• You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty's doctoral program.

The appointment is to be made in accordance with  Regulations concerning the degrees of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) and Philosodophiae Doctor (PhD) in artistic research national guidelines for appointment as PhD, post doctor and research assistant  

Preferred selection criteria

• Publication activities in the aforementioned disciplines will be considered an advantage.
• High motivation for research work and ability to work independently.
• Good organization and communication skills with interest in wider context of own research and ability to engage in cross-disciplinary teams.
• Eager to disseminate research results through publications and presentations at international conferences.
• Good written and oral English and Norwegian language skills. Applicants who do not master a Scandinavian language must provide evidence of good English language skills, written and spoken. The following tests can be used as such documentation: TOEFL, IELTS or Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) or Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE). Minimum scores are:
  • TOEFL: 600 (paper-based test), 92 (Internet-based test)
  •  IELTS: 6.5, with no section lower than 5.5 (only Academic IELTS test accepted)
  •  CAE/CPE: grade B or A.

Personal characteristics

• Highly motivated by fundamental scientific research of practical relevance
• Highly motivated by deep technical research
• Highly comfortable picking apart bits and bytes to extract knowledge about the data
• Able to work independently
• Well organized and have interests beyond their own research and ability
• Eager to disseminate research results through publications and presentations at international conferences

Emphasis will be placed on personal and interpersonal qualities.

We offer

• exciting and stimulating tasks in a strong international academic environment
• an open and inclusive work environment with dedicated colleagues
• favourable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• employee benefits

Salary and conditions

As a PhD candidate (code 1017) you are normally paid from gross NOK 491 200 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

The period of employment is 4 years with 25 % teaching duties.

Appointment to a PhD position requires that you are admitted to the PhD programme in Information Security within three months of employment, and that you participate in an organized PhD programme during the employment period. 

The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants, and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU.

After the appointment you must assume that there may be changes in the area of work.

The position is subject to external funding.

It is a prerequisite you can be present at and accessible to the institution daily.

About the application

The application and supporting documentation to be used as the basis for the assessment must be in English.

Publications and other scientific work must follow the application. Please note that your application will be considered based solely on information submitted by the application deadline. You must therefore ensure that your application clearly demonstrates how your skills and experience fulfil the criteria specified above.

The application must include:

• Cover letter (1 page) explaining your motivation and how your skills and experience relate to the research associated with the position.
• CV with list of publications and GRE scores or other supporting documents (as proof of the candidates’ study and language abilities).
• Transcripts and diplomas for bachelor's and master's degrees. If you have not completed the master's degree, you must submit a confirmation that the master's thesis has been submitted. The documents must be translated to English unless they are in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, German or English.
• A copy of the master's thesis. If you recently have submitted your master's thesis, you can attach a draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed master's degree must be presented before taking up the position.
• A draft research proposal.
• Name and contact information of three references.
• If you have publications or other relevant research work

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both bachelor's and master's education, in addition to other higher education. Description of the documentation required can be found here. If you already have a statement from NOKUT, please attach this as well.

We will take joint work into account. If it is difficult to identify your efforts in the joint work, you must enclose a short description of your participation.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates. 

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment - DORA.

General information

Working at NTNU

NTNU believes that inclusion and diversity is our strength. We want to recruit people with different competencies, educational backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives to contribute to solving our social responsibilities within education and research. We will facilitate for our employees’ needs.

NTNU is working actively to increase the number of women employed in scientific positions and has a number of resources to promote equality. 

The city of Gjøvik has a population of 30 000 and is a town known for its rich music and cultural life. The beautiful nature surrounding the city is ideal for an active outdoor life! The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is probably the best of its kind in the world.

As an employee at NTNU, you must at all times adhere to the changes that the development in the subject entails and the organizational changes that are adopted.

A public list of applicants with name, age, job title and municipality of residence is prepared after the application deadline. If you want to reserve yourself from entry on the public applicant list, this must be justified. Assessment will be made in accordance with current legislation. You will be notified if the reservation is not accepted.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Associate Professor Lasse Øverlier, email lasse.overlier@ntnu.no. If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact HR, Katrine.rennan@ntnu.no.

If you think this looks interesting and in line with your qualifications, please submit your application electronically via jobbnorge.no with your CV, diplomas and certificates attached. Applications submitted elsewhere will not be considered. Upon request, you must be able to obtain certified copies of your documentation.  

Application deadline: 29.08.22

NTNU - knowledge for a better world

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) creates knowledge for a better world and solutions that can change everyday life.

Department of Information Security and Communication Technology

Research is vital to the security of our society. We teach and conduct research in cyber security, information security, communications networks and networked services. Our areas of expertise include biometrics, cyber defence, cryptography, digital forensics, security in e-health and welfare technology, intelligent transportation systems and malware. The Department of Information Security and Communication Technology is one of seven departments in the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering .

Deadline 29th August 2022
Employer NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Municipality Gjøvik Trondheim
Scope Fulltime
Duration Temporary
Place of service Campus Gjøvik