PhD studentships in Complex and Disordered Systems

King’s College London
Department of Mathematics

The Disordered Systems group at King’s College London expects to have several openings for entry into the PhD programme in autumn 2012. The group (see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/nms/maths/research/dissys) has broad-ranging research interests in the application of tools from statistical mechanics to complex and disordered systems, including

– physics: soft matter (phase behaviour and flow), fracture and packing, non-equilibrium and glassy systems
– mathematics: sparse random matrix spectra, localization
– biology: metabolic and protein interaction networks, random graph ensembles, DNA stretching, survival statistics
– econophysics: collective effects in operational risk, time series analysis
– machine learning: learning and statistical inference on graphs

Funding is available through various sources (see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/funding/sources/index.aspx), including competitive departmental (DTA) studentships which cover a stipend and fees for UK residents or fees for EU residents, and a range of funding schemes provided by King’s Graduate School (see
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/school/index.aspx). Most funding application deadlines are on 1 Feb 2012 or shortly thereafter, and supporting references need to be received by the deadline, so interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

All applications for PhD study should be made online at https://myapplication.kcl.ac.uk/
Further information on admissions can be found at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/admissions/TypesofProgrammes.aspx
Note that Graduate School funding requires a separate funding application form and case for support (see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/school/index.aspx).

Interested candidates are welcome to contact Prof Peter Sollich (peter.sollich@kcl.ac.uk) or any other member of the research group with questions regarding research interests, application procedures etc.

Post-doc in machine learning for semantic composition at the University of Trento

One (RENEWABLE) 2-YEAR POST-DOC POSITION IN MACHINE LEARNING AVAILABLE

The CIMeC-CLIC laboratory of the University of Trento, an
interdisciplinary group of researchers studying language and
conceptualization using both computational and cognitive methods
(clic.cimec.unitn.it) announces the availability of a 2-year Post-Doc
position in machine learning, renewable up to a maximum of 4 years.

The scholarship is funded by a 5-year European Research Council
Starting Grant awarded to the COMPOSES (COMPositional Operations in
SEmantic SPACE) project (clic.cimec.unitn.it/composes), that aims to
model the meaning of phrases and sentences with computational methods.

* Research Goals and Desired Profile *

Distributional semantics is a general framework to induce vector-based
meaning representations of words from collections of naturally
occurring text (corpora) on a large scale. The successful candidate
will develop, in collaboration with the COMPOSES project team, novel
machine learning techniques to derive distributional semantic
representations of phrases and sentences from distributional
representations of words and other corpus data (e.g., deriving “red
dog” from corpus-based representations of “red” and “dog”). To achieve
this goal, we face the hard challenge to learn output representations
that are very high-dimensional vectors from inputs that are also
high-dimensional vectors, that might in turn be the output of other
empirically-learned functions.

The successful candidate should have experience in one or more of the
following areas: regularization methods, hierarchical regression,
dimensionality reduction and/or feature selection for multidimensional
multiple regression learning, scaling machine learning to large
multivariate and multi-level problems, dealing with very sparse data,
efficient large-scale implementation of regression methods, learning
algorithms for deep architectures. The research fellow must also have
a strong interest in working in an interdisciplinary environment.

* The Research Environment *

The CLIC lab (clic.cimec.unitn.it) is a unit of the University of
Trento’s Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC,
www.unitn.it/en/cimec), an English-speaking, interdisciplinary center
for research on brain and cognition whose staff includes
neuroscientists, psychologists, (computational) linguists, computer
scientists and physicists.

CLIC consists of researchers from the Departments of Computer Science
(DISI) and Cognitive Science (DISCoF) carrying out research on a range
of topics including concept acquisition, corpus-based computational
semantics, combining NLP and computer vision, combining brain and
corpus data to study cognition, formal semantics and theoretical
linguistics. Modeling composition in distributional semantics is
increasingly a focus point of CLIC, and activity in this area will
grow considerably thanks to COMPOSES funds.

CLIC is part of the larger network of research labs focusing on
Natural Language Processing and related domains in the Trento region,
that is quickly becoming one of the areas with the highest
concentration of researchers in NLP and related fields anywhere in
Europe.

The CLIC/CIMeC laboratories are located in beautiful Rovereto, a
lively town in the middle of the Alps, famous for its contemporary art
museum, the quality of its wine, and the range of outdoors sport and
relax opportunities it offers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rovereto

* Application Information *

For further information, please send an expression of interest to
marco.baroni@unitn.it, attaching a CV. The position is available
immediately and open until filled.

CALL FOR PAPERS (INDUSTRY & GOVERNMENT TRACK)

CALL FOR PAPERS (INDUSTRY & GOVERNMENT TRACK)
18th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD-2012)
August 12-16, 2012
Beijing, China

http://www.kdd.org/kdd2012/

Key Dates:
Papers due: February 10, 2012
Acceptance notification: May 4, 2012

Paper submission and reviewing will be handled electronically. Authors should consult the conference Web site for full details regarding paper preparation and submission guidelines.

Papers submitted to KDD 2012 should be original work and substantively different from papers that have been previously published or are under review in a journal or another conference/workshop.
As per KDD tradition, reviews are not double-blind, and author names and affiliations should be listed.

INDUSTRY & GOVERNMENT TRACK

The Industrial/Government Applications Track solicits papers describing implementations of KDD solutions relevant to industrial or government settings. The primary emphasis is on papers that advance the understanding of practical, applied, or pragmatic issues related to the use of KDD technologies in industry and government and highlight new research challenges arising from attempts to create such real KDD applications. Applications can be in any field including, but not limited to: e-commerce, medical and pharmaceutical, defense, public policy, finance, engineering, manufacturing, telecommunications, and government.

The Industrial/Government Applications Track will consist of competitively-selected contributed papers. Submitters must clearly identify in which of the following three sub-areas their paper should be evaluated as distinct review criteria will be used to evaluate each category of submission.

– Deployed KDD systems that are providing real value to industry, Government, or other organizations or professions. These deployed systems could support ongoing knowledge discovery or could be applications that employ discovered knowledge, or some combination of the two.

– Discoveries of knowledge with demonstrable value to Industry, Government, or other users (e.g., scientific or medical professions). This knowledge must be “externally validated” as interesting and useful; it can not simply be a model that has better performance on some traditional KDD metric such as accuracy or area under the curve.

– Emerging applications and technology that provide insight relevant to the above value propositions. These emerging applications must have clear user interest and support to distinguish them from KDD research papers, or they must provide insight into issues and factors that affect the successful use of KDD technology and methods. Papers that describe infrastructure that enables the large-scale deployment of KDD techniques also are in this area.

MACHINE LEARNING SUMMER SCHOOL, LA PALMA, SPAIN, APRIL 11-20, 2012

The 19th Machine Learning Summer School will be held in La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, from April 11 till April 20 2012 and will be collocated with AISTATS 2012.

The school will provide tutorials and lectures on basic and advanced core topics of machine learning by leading researchers in the field. The summer school is intended for students, researchers and industry practitioners with an interest in machine learning.

The school will address the following topics: Learning Theory, Kernel Methods, Bayesian Machine Learning, Monte Carlo Methods, Bayesian Nonparametrics, Optimization, Graphical Models, Information theory and Dimensionality Reduction.

Key Information
————–
URL: http://mlss2012.tsc.uc3m.es
Dates: Wednesday 11 April to Friday 20 April, 2012
Application deadline: 31 January 2012
Location: La Palma, Spain
Email contact: mlss2012[at]tsc.uc3m.es

Confirmed Speakers
—————–
– Zoubin Ghahramani (University of Cambridge)
– Mark Girolami (University College London)
– Neil Lawrence (University of Sheffield)
– Gabor Lugosi (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
– Peter Orbanz (University of Cambridge)
– Fernando Perez-Cruz (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)
– Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Plank Institute Tübingen)
– Robert Vanderbei (Princeton University)

Organizers
———
Fernando Perez-Cruz, Bernhard Schölkopf, Neil Lawrence and Emilio Parrado-Hernandez

MLSS La Palma is co-organized by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, University of Sheffield, Max Plank Institute Tübingen and PASCAL2.

See http://mlss2012.tsc.uc3m.es for details.

SLDS2012 – Registration now open

Symposium on Learning and Data Science

For registrations and submissions:

http://www.ceremade.dauphine.fr/SLDS2012

The Symposium will be held at Villa Finaly, Florence, Italy, on 7-9 May 2012.

Aims

Great progress has been made in the past 20 years in Machine Learning and Statistical Learning, Data Analysis and Data Mining. From the statistical analysis of data to data mining, from machine learning to knowledge discovery, the development of data exploration and modeling has overcome numerous challenges and has benefited greatly from varied, often overlapping, paradigms. By uniting specialists with different expertise and from different disciplines, the objectives of this conference are to compare approaches to data, to deepen understanding of different methodologies, and to focus on the Grand Challenges that must be addressed in the coming years.

The previous edition of the symposium, SLDS2009, presented the most noteworthy foundations of these domains from the past century: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439867631. The SLDS2012 symposium focuses on contemporary and future theoretical problems as well as on efficient practical solutions for applied domains which involve Data Analysis, Data Mining, Machine Learning and Statistical Learning contributions. This Symposium is important for researchers and all who want to keep abreast of future developments in data handling and of the consequent results that can be imagined in various applied domains.

The focus of the Symposium includes, but is not limited to, the following themes: Knowledge Discovery by Modeling, Performance Guaranteed Machine Learning Algorithms, Challenges in Text Mining, Social Networks, Complex/Symbolic Data Analysis, Geometric Data Analysis towards Sociology Challenges, Visual Decision Aids, Challenges in Astronomy, Data Mining, Mining and Learning for Neuroscience Challenges, Mining and Learning for Omics Challenges, Open Data

Important Dates

February 6, 2012 Paper Submission

February 15, 2012 Poster & Demo Submission

March 1, 2012 Paper Notification of Acceptance

March 8, 2012 Poster & Demo Notification of Acceptance

19 Mars 2012 Standard Registration Deadline

Opening Plenary Lectures

Professor Giuseppe LONGO (Italy)
Professor Vladimir VAPNIK (USA)

All accepted presentations will be distributed through USB keys to all participants. At least one author of accepted papers/posters/software demonstrations is required to register. Authors of selected papers from the SLDS 2012 conference will be invited to submit an extended version of their papers for possible inclusion in a special issue of a journal.

Special registration rate for Classification Society members.

The Scientific Committee and Local Organising Committee of SLDS2012

Call for Demonstrations & Call for NECTAR-track submissions – ECML PKDD 2012

ECML PKDD 2012 solicits submissions for demos. Submissions must describe working systems and be based on state-of-the-art machine learning and data mining technology. These systems may be innovative prototype implementations or mature systems that use machine learning techniques and knowledge discovery processes in a real setting. We particularly welcome demos that use open-source software. For more information, please check http://www.ecmlpkdd2012.net/calls/call-for-demos/

Submission deadline: Friday, May 18, 2012

All aspects of the submission and notification process will be handled online via the CMT conference management toolkit at https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/ECMLPKDD2012/

For inquiries please contact us at ECMLPKDD2012demos@cs.bris.ac.uk

Bettina Berendt & Myra Spiliopoulou
ECML PKDD 2012 Demo Track Chairs

————————————————–
Call for NECTAR-track submissions
————————————————–

For the first time, ECML PKDD 2012 will have a NECTAR-track, featuring significant machine learning and data mining results published or disseminated no earlier than 2010 at a different conference or in a journal. One goal of this track is to offer conference attendees the opportunity to learn about machine learning and/or data mining related results published in other communities. Papers describing innovative applications of state-of-the-art machine learning and/or data mining algorithms are also welcome, but should be different from demonstration papers; the latter are to be submitted to the demos track. We also invite submissions presenting compactly well-founded results which appeared in a series of publications that advanced a single novel influential idea or vision. For more information, please check: http://www.ecmlpkdd2012.net/calls/call-for-nectar-talks/

Submission deadline: Friday, May 18, 2012

All aspects of the submission and notification process will be handled online via the CMT conference management toolkit at https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/ECMLPKDD2012/

For inquiries please contact us at ECMLPKDD2012nectar@cs.bris.ac.uk

Thomas Gaertner & Gemma Garriga
ECML PKDD 2012 NECTAR Track Chairs

————————————-
Follow ECML PKDD 2012
————————————-

– Twitter: @ECMLPKDD2012
– LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4257980
– Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ECML-PKDD-2012/298600073514446

Machine Learning Competiton – Aspiring Minds (www.aspiringminds.in)

Aspiring Minds (www.aspiringminds.in) has launched a Machine Learning Competiton. This is an attempt to collaboratively solving socially-relevant problems using computer science. It is also a means to expose young engineers to machine learning and encourage them to apply it to various problems around us.

We pitch a real-world labour-market prediction problem, for which applicants need to learn a model based on known inputs. One key differentiator of the competition is the preference for interpretable models. The goal is not only to have a model with high accuracy, but to also learn about the problem space through the model. Another interesting feature is that the competition asks for multiple models, which are solutions for different cost functions, as informed by real world requirements. See details here: http://www.aspiringminds.in/mlCompetition/

The competition has attractive prizes, the first prize being $2000 (INR 100K), two second prizes of $1000 (INR 50K) and some others.

Pascal2 VISIT TO INDUSTRY: REMINDER!

Deadline for expressions of interest: JANUARY 31ST, 2012

Dear Pascal2 Researchers,

in order to facilitate placement and technology transfer activities, the Pascal2
Internal Visiting Program is now inviting applications for student internships
at industry organizations. This is specifically devoted to PhD and PostDoc students
who are members of Pascal2.

The internship should last 3 to 6 months, while the host organization can in
principle be any enterprise located anywhere in the world.
See http://pascallin2.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Programmes/VP/
(VISIT TO INDUSTRY section) for details.

It is anticipated that the main use of funds under the Pascal2 Visit to Industry
stream will be to partially support travel and subsistence for the visit. The program
is not intended to cover salaries. Applications should be made by the visitor.

A Pascal2 Visit to Industry proposal should address the following main points:

– Activity description: What is the intern supposed to do ? Why is it interesting/relevant
from a scientific and/or technological viewpoint ?
Why is Machine Learning relevant to this activity ? How and to what extent
the internship is facilitating placement of the intern at the host organization ?
– Information on the host organization: Name, legal form, address, country, number
of employees, short description of enterprise activities
– Name and contact details of the person at the host organization (“tutor”) who
will be in charge of advising the intern, and help with him/her integration in the host
environment
– Content of the training (if any) that will be delivered to the intern
– Contribution granted to the intern by the host organization (e.g., accomodation,
small salary)
– Financial contribution requested to Pascal2 Visit to Industry

Proposals will be evaluated in terms of:
– Scientific and/or technological content
– Training content (if any)
– Host environment integration/placement content
– Practical support provided by the host organization to the intern
– Budget requested to Pascal2 Visit to Industry; normally the maximum
allocation will be 1000 euros per month.

Actual submissions should be done through the Pascal2 Internal Visiting Program
at http://pascallin2.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Programmes/VP/
and clicking on the Request tab.

All enquiries should be directed to: claudiogentileuninsubriait

Please send expressions of interest/intentions to submit to Claudio Gentile
(claudiogentileuninsubriait) by January 31st, 2012

Research Group Leaders, Multimodal Computing and Interaction, Saarland University, Germany

Saarland University is seeking to establish several new Junior Research Groups (W1/W2) within the Cluster of Excellence “Multimodal Computing and Interaction” which was established within the framework of the German Excellence Initiative in 2007

The term “multimodal” describes the different types of digital information such as text, speech, images, video, graphics, and high-dimensional data, and the way it is perceived and communicated, particularly through vision, hearing, and human expression. The challenge is now to organize, understand, and search this multimodal information in a robust, efficient and intelligent way, and to create dependable systems that allow natural and intuitive multimodal
interaction. We are looking for highly motivated young researchers with a background in the research areas of the cluster, including algorithmic foundations, secure and autonomous networked systems, open science web, information processing in the life sciences, visual
computing, large-scale virtual environments, synthetic virtual characters, text and speech processing and multimodal dialog systems. Additional information on the Cluster of Excellence is
available on http://www.mmci.uni-saarland.de. Group leaders will receive junior faculty status at Saarland University, including the right to supervise Bachelor, Master and PhD students. Positions are limited to five years.

Saarland University has leading departments in computer science and computational linguistics, with more than 200 PhD students working on topics related to the cluster (see http://www.informatik-saarland.de for additional information), and
the Cluster additionally comprises the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems — all co-located on the same campus.

Job requisites:
===============

Obligatory
———-
Applicants for W1 positions (phase I of the program) must have completed an outstanding PhD. Upon successful evaluation after two years, W1 group leaders are eligible for promotion to W2. Direct applicants for W2 positions (phase II of the program) must have completed a postdoc stay and must have demonstrated outstanding research potential and the ability to successfully lead their own research group. Junior research groups are equipped with a budget of 80k to 100k Euros per year to cover research personnel and other costs.

Candidates should submit their application (curriculum vitae, photograph, list of publications, short research plan, copies of degree certificates, copies of the five most important publications,
list of five references) to the coordinator of the cluster, Prof. Hans-Peter Seidel, MPI for Informatics, Campus E1 4, 66123 Saarbruecken, Germany.

Please, also send your application as a single PDF file to
applications@mmci.uni-saarland.de.

Applications stating the reference number W490 will be accepted until April 30, 2012. Final decisions will be made following a candidate symposium that will be held in the week June 19 – 21, 2012.

Saarland University is an equal opportunity employer. In accordance with its policy of increasing the proportion of women in this type of employment, the University actively encourages applications from women. For candidates with equal qualification, preference will be given to people with physical disabilities.

The official job ad can be found here:
http://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Campus/Service/Stellenausschreibung/Wissenschaftliches_Personal/W490.pdf

ChaLearn Gesture Dataset (CGD2011)

http://gesture.chalearn.org/data

Sponsored by Pascal2

We are pleased to release the complete dataset CGD2011 of gestures recorded as RGB and depth videos with a Kinect(TM) camera:

* 50,000 gestures,
* with image sizes 240 x 320 pixels,
* at 10 frames per second,
* recorded by 20 different users,
* grouped in 500 batches of 100 gestures,
* each batch including 47 sequences of 1 to 5 gestures drawn from various small gesture
vocabularies of 8 to 15 gestures,
* from over 30 different gesture vocabularies.

The data are used in the Pascal2-sponsored gesture challenge presently on-going, for which Microsoft is offering large prizes. Visit http://gesture.chalearn.org.