Research Engineer in Audio-Visual AI

Vision, Speech & Signal Processing

Location: Guildford
Salary: £35,308 to £43,155 per annum
Fixed Term
Post Type: Full Time
Closing Date: 23.59 hours BST on Sunday 25 June 2023
Reference: 027823

Join a new research partnership with the BBC at the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP), University of Surrey.

An exciting opportunity for an outstanding researcher in Computer Vision, Audio and/or Audio-Visual AI to join CVSSP at the University of Surrey as part of a major five-year research partnership with the BBC to realise Future Personalised Media Experiences.

The goal of the partnership is to realise future personalised content creation and delivery at scale for mass-audiences. CVSSP research will address the key challenges for personalised content creation by advancing computer vision and audio-visual AI to transform captured 2D video to object-based media. Research will advance automatic online understanding, reconstruction and neural rendering of complex dynamic real-world scenes and events. This will enable a new generation of personalised media content which adapts to user requirements and interests. The new partnership with the BBC and creative industry partners will position the UK to lead future personalised media experiences.

The Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) at the University of Surrey is ranked first in the UK for computer vision. The centre leads ground-breaking research in audio-visual AI and machine perception for the benefit of people and society through technological innovations in healthcare, security, entertainment, robotics and communications. Over the past two decades, CVSSP has pioneered advances in 3D and 4D computer vision and spatial audio which have enabled award-winning technologies for content production in TV, film, games and immersive entertainment.

BBC R&D (bbc.co.uk/rd) has a worldwide reputation for developments in media technology going back over 90 years and has worked closely with CVSSP for over 20 years. It has pioneered the development of object-based media, working closely with programme-makers and technology teams across the BBC. 

The Research Engineer will hold a Masters and may hold a PhD in computer vision, audio and/or audio-visual AI with a track-record of publication in leading academic forums. The successful candidate will contribute novel machine learning approaches advancing audio-visual AI to transform video of real-world scenes to object-based representation and neural rendering. The post-holder will collaborate with the team and project partners to realise personalised media experiences.

The post is at the core of a research team working together with the BBC, University and industry partners and will advance knowledge in computer vision, audio and machine learning and raise their own academic and research profile by joining Europe’s largest research centre in this field. The post will initially be offered for a fixed term for up 3 years which is extendable for the 5-year duration of the partnership.

How to apply

Informal enquiries are welcomed by Dr Armin Mustafa by email (a.mustafa@surrey.ac.uk) or via the University of Surrey jobs website jobs.surrey.ac.uk/Vacancies.aspx

This is a fixed term contract for up to 3 years.

Please submit your CV and a covering letter with your application.