Agents, Interaction & Complexity

Location:  Highfield Campus
Salary:   £34,314 to £54,421 per annum
Full Time Fixed Term until 31/08/2024
Closing Date:  Monday 29 May 2023
Interview Date:   To be confirmed
Reference:  2261923FP-R

You will be part of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub, a large £13.5m programme looking to establish the best practices for the development of socially beneficial autonomous systems that are trustworthy and trusted by society, industry, and government.

At Southampton, you will join an internationally renowned and multi-disciplinary team led by Professor Gopal Ramchurn. You will be based in the Agents, Interaction, and Complexity Research group, which is home to the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub   (TAS Hub) and part of the School of Electronics and Computer Science. 

The role will involve carrying out research in the design of multi-agent coordination and task allocation algorithms for various applications with strong potential for industrial applications such as healthcare, transportation, defence and security, and creative industries among others. The research will also consider legal, social, and ethical considerations of autonomous systems, towards building responsible and trustworthy AI systems.

You will work as part of or lead multi-disciplinary teams from across the TAS Hub and other research groups working on TAS. 

To be successful you will have:

• PhD in a field related to one of the following:- multi-agent systems, machine learning, AI, human-machine teaming.
• A strong publication record AI and multi agent systems venues (AAMAS, IJCAI, AAAI, JAAMAS).
• Demonstrable ability to present work clearly both in written form and orally.

Ideally, you will also have:-

• Experience developing or evaluating autonomous systems with the public or industry.

Equality, diversity and Inclusion is central to the ethos in the School of Electronics and Computer Science. We particularly encourage women, Black, Asian and minority ethnic, LGBT and disabled applicants to apply for this position. We are committed to improving equality for women in science and have been successful in achieving an Athena SWAN bronze award in April 2020.   We give full consideration to applicants that wish to work flexibly including part-time and due consideration will be given to applicants who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy*, onsite childcare facilities

The University of Southampton is in the top 1% of world universities and in the top 10 of the UK’s research-intensive universities. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and being a globally responsible university and has recently been awarded the Platinum EcoAward.  This commits all of our staff and students to take responsibility for managing their activities to minimise harm to the environment, whether this through switching off non-essential electrical equipment or using the recycling facilities.

*subject to qualifying criteria

The post is full time fixed term until 31 August 2024.

Applications for Research Fellow positions will be considered from candidates who are within six months 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.