[alife] [jobs] Post-doc -- Robotics / Machine Learning @ Inria Nancy (France)

Jean-Baptiste Mouret mouret at isir.upmc.fr
Fri Sep 25 10:29:13 PDT 2015


Urgent ! Post-doc positions: Robotics / Machine Learning / Evolutionary Computation
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IMPORTANT: If you are attending the IROS conference and , please contact Jean-Baptiste Mouret (jean-baptiste.mouret at inria.fr) to arrange an interview in Hamburg and/or to talk about the position.


Inria is seeking for a highly qualified postdoctoral researcher with strong interests in one or more of the following research topics:
- online adaptation & damage recovery;
- machine learning for robotics (especially, policy search in reinforcement learning);
- evolutionary robotics.

Please relate clearly to at least one or more of these topics in the Research Statement. The candidates are expected to contribute to the ResiBots ERC project (see below).


ABOUT THE PROJECT (ERC RESIBOTS)
A major obstacle to the widespread adoption of robots is their fragility. The traditional approach to damage recovery is  to diagnose the damage, then plan a response; a promising alternative involves having robots learn by trial-and-error appropriate behaviors in response to damage. In the ResiBots ERC project, we design novel learning algorithms that allow autonomous robots to adapt to damage in a few minutes, and without requiring self-diagnosis or pre-specified contingency plans. 

The first result have been published on the cover of Nature in May 2015:
Cully, A., J. Clune, D. Tarapore, and J.-B. Mouret. "Robots that can adapt like animals." Nature 521, no. 7553 (2015): 503-507. [free pdf: http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.3501]

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-c17RKh3uE

The project started in May 2015 and is amply funded for the next 5 years. The team is made a full-time researcher (PI, Jean-Baptiste Mouret), 1 full-time engineer dedicated to the project, 2 PhD students, 1 engineer, and 1-2 post-docs. The official language of the team is English (several members of the team do not speak French at all).

ABOUT THE APPLICANT
A successful Post-doc applicant should have a strong robotics and/or machine learning and/or evolutionary computation background with a track record of top-tier research publications, including relevant conferences (e.g., RSS, ICRA, IROS or ICML, IJCAI, AAAI, NIPS, GECCO, ALIFE) and journals (e.g., AURO, TRo, IJRR or JMLR, MLJ, Neural Computation, ECJ, TEC). 

A Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, or another field clearly related to robotics and/or machine learning is a must.

Expertise (and strong interest) in working with real robot systems is a big plus for all applicants. A robotics engineer is dedicated to the project, but strong C++ & ROS programming skills will be very useful.

Successful candidates can furthermore be given the opportunity to work with undergraduate, M.Sc. and Ph.D. students.

ABOUT THE POSITION
The position is for 24 months. The ``raw salary'' (French "brut") will start at 2621 euros (2115 euros ``net''), depending on experience and qualifications. French medical insurance is included.

Speaking French is not required.

ABOUT INRIA NANCY-GRAND-EST 
Inria is a French national research institution that focuses on computer science and applied mathematics. Inria employs about 600 permanent researchers, 1000 engineers/technicians, 600 Ph.D. students, and 200 post-docs. Inria Nancy - Grand-Est centre is one of the eight research centre; it is situated near Nancy, a 1-million inhabitants (with a lot of students) in the East of France (1.5 hours from Paris by fast train).

Inria can provide help for housing and visa applications (scientific resident card and help for husband/wife).

HOW TO APPLY
Please apply online here: http://t.co/hLzJtepfOZ
[Applications that are not submitted on the submission website will be ignored].

Applicants will be asked to provide:
- a research statement / cover letter;
- a detailed CV;
- your top 3 publications;
- 3 references.

Please ensure to include a link to your research web-site as well as your date of availability. There is no fixed deadline: the positions will be filled as soon as possible.

Security and defense procedure : In the interests of protecting its scientific and technological assets, Inria is a restricted-access establishment. Consequently, it follows special regulations for welcoming any person who whishes to work with the institute. The final acceptance of each candidate thus depends on applying this security and defense procedure.

INTERVIEWS
Interviews will be conducted at IROS 2015 (Hamburg, 1st of October), by video-conferencing (e.g. Skype), and in our offices in Nancy.

MORE INFORMATION
- http://www.resibots.eu
- http://pages.isir.upmc.fr/~mouret


— Jean-Baptiste Mouret
http://pages.isir.upmc.fr/~mouret/




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