[alife] Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence: European Space Agency's Advanced Concepts Team

[Christos Ampatzis]

http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/opportunities/RF/ACT-2010-Research%20Fellow%20in%20Artificial%20Intelligence.pdf

VACANCY
Internal Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence

The European Space Agency's Advanced Concepts Team (www.esa.int/act) is 
looking
for highly motivated young researchers in the field of artificial 
intelligence, with good
analytical and communicational skills and an excellent aptitude for 
teamwork.

The Team
The Advanced Concepts Team (ACT) is a group of research fellows 
(post-docs) and
young graduates who originate from a broad variety of academic fields 
and aim at an
academic career. The team’s task is to monitor, perform and foster 
research on
advanced space systems, innovative concepts and working methods. It 
interacts
externally almost exclusively with academia and operates as a truly 
interdisciplinary
team bound to high scientific standards. Via its research, the team acts 
as a crossdepartmental
pathfinder to explore novel, potentially promising areas for ESA and the
space sector, ranging from applied to basic fundamental topics. The team 
is in constant
evolution and attempts to lead and embrace changes and new trends. Each 
member is
therefore encouraged and expected to contribute and suggest changes.
Internally, the Advanced Concepts Team acts as the technical think-tank 
within the
Director General's Policy Office. Thus, an important task of the team is 
to communicate
scientific trends and results, as input to the strategic planning of the 
Agency.
The team has been active in the field of artificial intelligence since 
several years and
interested candidates are invited to get familiar with these projects, 
while being
encouraged to expand the domain to new interesting fields not yet covered.

Duties and tasks
Successful candidates will perform research in artificial intelligence 
and will in
particular carry out the following tasks:
• Propose and perform high-level research in the field of artificial 
intelligence
together with universities of ESA member States and cooperating States (in
particular through the Ariadna programme).
• Assess and investigate concepts and novel theoretical methods in 
artificial
intelligence for synergies with space systems.
• Lead and assist interdisciplinary projects with other ACT Research 
Fellows in
topics where the above-mentioned areas of artificial intelligence play a 
role.
• Participate, with the rest of the team, in the assessment of proposed 
space
system concepts - these not being restricted only to the artificial 
intelligence area
- and propose new concepts and assessment studies.
• Perform and participate in small studies on subjects of strategic 
interest to
provide in-house expertise to ESA’s Director General's Policy Office and its
General Studies Programme.
• Follow and monitor the progress of research in areas of artificial 
intelligence of
interest to the team in order to derive and report strategic trends.
• Propose and follow stage topics in areas of artificial intelligence of 
interest to
the space sector.
• Actively communicate topics, problems, projects, trends and results in 
the field
of artificial intelligence to expert and non-expert audiences.

Areas of research are partly chosen by the successful candidate based on 
his/her own
expert judgements and insight into trends and developments in artificial 
intelligence,
partly chosen by the team as to follow strategic directions of the 
Agency. Based on
current assessments, ACT areas of research in artificial intelligence 
include swarm
intelligence, multi-agent systems and agent-based simulations, 
evolutionary neural
networks, adaptive control, probabilistic modelling, global 
optimisation, machine
learning, dynamical systems, bio-inspired sensors and control mechanisms 
and brain
machine interfaces, but these can be extended to other areas of interest 
to the space
sector.

Qualifications
The candidate should hold a degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or 
Engineering.
He or she should also have completed (or be about to complete) a PhD in 
Computer
Science, Mathematics or Engineering, with the subject of the thesis 
being highly
relevant to the description of the tasks outlined above, and should aim 
at an
academic/research career. Good programming skills and experience with 
simulated
environments or dedicated software are assets.
The candidate is expected to bring to the team functioning links to 
universities and
research institutes. The candidate should demonstrate an interest in 
space science and /
or technology as well as the ability and interest to get actively 
involved in prospective
interdisciplinary research.

Successful candidates are expected to show an aptitude to contextualise 
specialised
areas of research and to quickly assess their potential with respect to 
other domains and
applications. An avid, natural curiosity and a passion for new subjects 
and research
areas are essential. As member of an interdisciplinary, multicultural 
team of peers, the
candidate should have a natural aptitude to teamwork, while being able 
to set-up,
follow, monitor and be responsible for his/her own personal research 
plans and
directions. Good methodological and organisation skills are therefore a 
valuable asset.

Application
Information on the ESA Research Fellowship Programme and the application 
form are
available at: www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Careers_at_ESA/SEM19DXO4HD_0.html.
Applicants should send their CV, a cover letter stating their research 
interests and the
filled-out RF application form to: act at esa.int as well as 
temp.htr at esa.int. (if not
possible by email, the four reference letters can also be sent via 
normal mail to: ESTEC
HR Division, RES-HTR, ESA/ESTEC; Keplerlaan 1, PO Box 299, 2200AG Noordwijk
ZH, The Netherlands).
The general eligibility criteria of the ESA Research (Internal) 
Fellowship Programme
apply.

All applications will be considered until the available post is filled. 
Application deadline
for this round of interviews: no later than May 17, 2010.
All applicants are encouraged to visit the website of ESA: www.esa.int, 
and of the the
Advanced Concepts Team: www.esa.int/act. In case of clarification needs 
please send
us an email to: act at esa.int