[DL] Post Doc Position available at DKM research unit at Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Trento, Italy

[Luciano Serafini]

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		     A POST-DOC RESEARCH POSITION

			 is available in the

	  Data and Knowledge Management (DKM) Research Unit
		     at Fondazione Bruno Kessler
			    Trento, Italy
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online: https://altamira.fbk.eu/Annunci/Jobs_A_Post_Doc_research_position_is_available_in_the_Data_and_Knowledge_Management_DKM_Research_Unit_47097464.htm
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** Workplace **

The FBK Center for Information and Communication technologies (FBK-ICT) focuses research on key areas of Information Technology with the aim to produce added value for the market, cultural growth, and social welfare. FBK-ICT research aims to push innovation through the construction of a networked system that involves companies, other research institutions, universities, public bodies, and end-users. FBK-ICT research activities focus on three main areas: Engineering, Content and Interaction.
More information about FBK ICT is available at http://ict.fbk.eu.
The Data & Knowledge Management (DKM) research unit is part of center for Information and communication technologies of FBK. The DKM unit goal is to develop foundational, experimental and applied research in the field of knowledge elicitation and extraction, knowledge representation and integration, and automatic inference. For knowledge acquisition in DKM we develop machine learning methods for the automatic extraction of knowledge from big-data, ontology engineering methods based on NLP techniques that perform deep-analyses of (semi-structured) inputs provided by domain experts. The extracted knowledge is encoded in computer interpretable formats based on logical formalisms, statistical models, or a mixture of the two. Contextual knowledge representation and reasoning, schema and ontology matching, semantic web and linked open data are the most important approaches adopted for integration of heterogeneous data and knowledge. Knowledge services constitute efficient and scalable reasoning algorithms capable to perform logical, statistical and mixed inference starting from an integrated knowledge base. These services are embedded into applications that support knowledge-intensive tasks, like: decision support, interpretation of texts and images, and prediction and explanation of observable data.
The DKM research unit is an international research environment where about twelve people (three researchers, one post-doc, a research assistant, five Ph.D. Students, and two Ms students) tightly collaborate to reach top-level state-of-the-art research results, and to develop innovative projects. The group has performed consistently well in several international scientific evaluations, and is currently engaged in international projects. People of the unit are key-players of many international semantic technology initiatives. The unit also provides technological support and high-level services in order to optimize the internal research activities, namely a shared and efficient computing environment, software tools, up to the creation and management of large-scale knowledge resources. DKM has collaborations with the University of Trento, as well as European and Worldwide research groups in the area of knowledge acquisition, representation, integration and reasoning.
DKM exploits its research results in concrete applications. DKM is currently participating to two European projects, one in the area of big-data integration (PlanetData) and one in the area of information extraction from text (NewsReader), and several industrial projects with local and national companies.
Additional informations about the DKM Unit are available at https://dkm.fbk.eu
The DKM Research Unit is looking for candidates to carry out research activities in the field of Big semantic data management and integration in the framework of information extraction from text. The research position will be funded through the European research project NewsReader: http://www.newsreader-project.eu
 
** Job Description **

The candidate is expected to contribute original research results inside a leading edge international project. The aim is to advance the state-of-the-art in the field of formal representation of event, reasoning about a large amount of semantic noisy event information automatically extracted form textual and multimedia documents, and it's complementation with additional information available in the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud. Reasoning services should support tasks like: event co-reference, and detection of relations among events, and automatic generation of event story-lines.

** Job requirements **

Applicants should have:
- PhD in Computer Science, Mathematics, engineering or related fields
- Deep knowledge and skills in managing big-data storage and server architectures (e.g., Hadoop/HBase, NoSQL DBs), semantic web and linked open data technologies, large (semantic) data repositories (e.g., RDF triple stores), and related reasoning techniques
- Deep knowledge in Semantic Web technologies and languages (e.g., RDF, OWL, SPARQL, NamedGraphs)
- Skills and experience in developing Java applications
- Good publication records in semantic web, linked open (big) data, and related fields
- Ability to work and deliver in funded research projects, possibly EU projects
- Oral and written proficiency in English
- Good communication skills
- Strong team attitude
 
The position is flexible and strong applications fitting any of the group's present interests will be considered. She/He should have interest in conducting original highly competitive scientific research, publishing the results in top conferences and scientific journals and, in case, participating in teaching duties.
 
FBK is an Italian speaking center. However, it is also an International center where many researchers from around the world are employed. Therefore, candidates are required to be able to read and write in English, to present their work in English, to interface with International scientists and researchers and to participate in International Conferences and Workshops.
 
Due to FBK's attempt to promote equal opportunity and gender balance, in case of equal applications, female candidates will be given preference.

** Employment **

Type of contract: Research position
Duration: about 24 months – until April  2016
Work time: full time
Number of positions: 1
Gross salary: about € 33.300,00 per year
Benefit: 28 vacation days per year, flexi-time, work canteen (meals at FBK’s expense) or meal vouchers, internal car park, welcome office support for visa formalities, accommodation, social security, etc., reduction on banks, public transportation, sport, accommodation and language courses.
Start date: Spring 2014
Place: Povo, Trento (Italy)
 
** Application **
Candidates must submit their applications to https://hr.fbk.eu/en/jobs and complete the online form including the CV and a cover letter (pdf format).
Please include as well a complete list of publications and names of at least 2 referees and indicate also 3 publications that you deem representative of your way of contributing to the scientific community, with brief statements of your contribution to each of the three selected publications.
 
Application deadline:  31st May 2014
 
Those candidates who will pass the preliminary curricula screening will be contacted shortly for an interview. Those applicants who will not be selected, will be notified of the exclusion at the end of the selection process. 
 
During the selection process, in addition to job interviews, candidates may be asked to fill in questionnaires, tests or take part in assessment centers.
 
Please note that FBK may contact those candidates admitted to evaluation within a period of 12 months for selection of similar vacancies.
 
For transparency purposes, the names of the selected candidates, if they have accepted the position, will be published on the FBK website at the bottom of the selection notice.