[alife] PhD studentships in Adaptive Systems Research Group

[Kerstin Dautenhahn]

Dear colleagues,

please find below an advert for PhD studentships in our research group. I 
would appreciate if you could forward the advert to students who might be 
interested.

best regards, Kerstin Dautenhahn

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ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS RESEARCH GROUP (http://adapsys.feis.herts.ac.uk/)
Science and Technology Research Institute (STRI)
University of Hertfordshire (http://perseus.herts.ac.uk/)
United Kingdom

RESEARCH STUDENTSHIPS AVAILABLE

Shortlisting will begin on 5th September 2005

The PhD studentships offer the opportunity to work within the Adaptive 
Systems Research Group, a proactive and dynamic research team with an 
excellent international research profile. The group was founded and is 
co-organized by Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn and Prof. Chrystopher Nehaniv. 
Other core faculty members of the group include Dr. René te Boekhorst, Dr. 
Lola Cañamero, and Dr. Daniel Polani.  Current projects within the Adaptive 
Systems Research Group are funded by FP6-IST, EPSRC, the Wellcome Trust and 
the British Academy. We are currently involved in the following FP6 
European projects: Euron-II, Humaine (both European Networks of 
Excellence), Cogniron and RobotCub (Integrated Projects). We hosted the 
AISB’05 convention “Social Intelligence and Interaction in Biological and 
Artificial Systems” that attracted an international audience of 300 
participants. Research in the group is highly interdisciplinary and 
strongly biologically inspired, but also has a strong theoretical foundation.

Adaptive Systems are computational, software, robotic, or biological 
systems that are able to deal with and “survive” in a dynamically changing 
environment. We pursue a bottom-up approach to Artificial Intelligence that 
emphasizes the embodied and situated nature of biological or artificial 
systems that have evolved and are adapted to a particular environmental 
context. The Adaptive Systems Research Group has excellent research 
facilities for research staff, including numerous robotic platforms, 
covering the spectrum from miniature Khepera robots to human-sized robots 
(PeopleBots), as well as humanoid robots developed in our group. We are 
dedicated to excellence in research, and, while providing a collaborative 
and supportive working environment, expect PhD students to show great 
enthusiasm and determination for their work. Candidates need to provide 
evidence of excellent research potential that can lead to significant 
contributions to knowledge as part of a PhD thesis.

Applicants are required to have a very strong first degree or (preferably) 
a specialist Master’s degree in Computer Science, Cybernetics or a related 
area relevant to the research theme. Candidates should be highly motivated 
and have an excellent background in Artificial Life, Artificial 
Intelligence and (where relevant to the research theme) Behaviour-Based 
Robotics. Very strong programming skills are an essential requirement, as 
well as general interest in interdisciplinary research and willingness to 
collaborate with researchers from other disciplines.

This year, the Adaptive Systems Research Group advertises PhD studentships 
associated to five proposed themes that can lay the foundation for a 
concrete PhD project. Applicants interested in particular themes should use 
the contact emails provided for informal discussions regarding suitability 
for the research themes. All formal applicants must be made through the 
Research Office, see contact information below.

1.Behavioural Analysis and Motivational Modeling of Autonomous Agents 
(contact: R.teBoekhorst AT herts.ac.uk)

2.Evolution of Sensors, Constructive Biology and the Perception-Action Loop 
(contact: D.Polani AT herts.ac.uk)

3.Social Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction (contact: K.Dautenhahn AT 
herts.ac.uk)

4.Biologically-Inspired Affect-Based Regulatory Systems for Robots 
(contact: L.Canamero AT herts.ac.uk)

5.Developmental Genetic Regulatory Networks (DGRNs) (contact: C.L.Nehaniv 
AT herts.ac.uk)

Successful candidates may be eligible for a research studentship award from 
the University in some of these areas (equivalent to about £9000 per annum 
bursary plus the payment of the standard UK student fees). Self-funded 
students might also consider to pursue other research topics that senior 
academic members of the Adaptive Systems research group are active in, 
please consult http://adapsys.feis.herts.ac.uk/ for more information.

A more detailed version of this advert is available at:
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/AS-Studentshipadvert.html

For further information on the individual topics and an application form, 
please contact:

Mrs Lorraine Nicholls,
Research Student Administrator,
STRI, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences,
University of Hertfordshire,
College Lane,
Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9AB
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 1707 286083 Fax: +44 (0) 1707 284185 or email: 
L.Nicholls at herts.ac.uk.

The shortlisting process will begin on 5th September 2005