The University of Luxembourg is an international research university with a distinctly multilingual and interdisciplinary character. The University was founded in 2003 and counts more than 6,700 students and more than 2,000 employees from around the world. The University’s faculties and interdisciplinary centres focus on research in the areas of Computer Science and ICT Security, Materials Science, European and International Law, Finance and Financial Innovation, Education, Contemporary and Digital History. In addition, the University focuses on cross-disciplinary research in the areas of Data Modelling and Simulation as well as Health and System Biomedicine. Times Higher Education ranks the University of Luxembourg #3 worldwide for its “international outlook,” #20 in the Young University Ranking 2021 and among the top 250 universities worldwide.
The Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM) contributes multidisciplinary expertise in the fields of ;Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, Life Sciences and Medicine. Through its dual mission of teaching and research, the FSTM seeks to generate and disseminate knowledge and train new generations of responsible citizens, in order to better understand, explain and advance society and environment we live in.
The Department of Computer Science (DCS) in collaboration with the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) of the University of Luxembourg invites applications for a Ph.D. position in the context of a new Doctoral Training Unit “Deep Data Science of Digital History” (D4U). The successful candidate will conduct basic research and develop respective software prototypes for the analysis of digitized contemporary document collections provided by the C2DH.
Your Role…
The successful candidate will join the “Big Data” group led by Prof. Dr. Martin Theobald at the Belval Campus of the University of Luxembourg. You will actively contribute to a research project on the large-scale extraction, indexing and querying of semantic data obtained from contemporary document collections such as digitized news archives. Specifically, the work is intended to focus on combining existing approaches for the Latent Semantic Analysis of text documents with recent approaches for Word Embeddings and Large Language Models (LLMs). We intend to closely collaborate with the C2DH (Prof. Dr. Marten During) for this project. The Ph.D. position is part of a larger doctoral school with a total of 18 Ph.D. positions funded by the National Research Foundation (FNR) in Luxembourg, for which we will also organize joint workshops and frequent knowledge exchanges among the students.
Specifically, your roles will include:
- conducting basic research and contributing to publications in the area of Natural-Language Processing and Contemporary Digital History
- developing software prototypes and experimentally comparing your developed approaches against the various baselines
- assisting in Bachelor/Master projects and courses
What we expect from you…
- M.Sc. degree in Computer Science or closely related field
- Strong mathematical and algorithmic background with an interest for historical data collections
- Solid programming skills in Java and Python
- Good communication skills, commitment, team working, and a critical mind
Fluent written and verbal communication skills in English are mandatory. The communication in the research groups is in English, while teaching is conducted in English, French and German. You will work in an exciting international environment and will have the opportunity to participate in a state-of-the-art research topic at the intersection of Natural-Language Processing, Data Mining/Machine Learning and Contemporary History.
In Short…
- Contract Type: Fixed Term Contract 36 Month (extendable up to 48 months if required)
- Work Hours: Full Time 40.0 Hours per Week
- Start: The Ph.D. project will start in late 2023
- Employee and student status
- Location: Belval
- Job Reference: UOL05842
The yearly gross salary for every PhD at the UL is EUR 39953 (full time)
How to apply…
Applications should include:
- Curriculum vitae, including your current contact address, photo, transcript of certificates and grades (with a detailed list of university courses taken) and your previous publications (if any)
- Cover letter and research statement indicating your topics-of-interest and motivation to apply for the position (max 1 page)
- Contact information for 2 referees at your current and/or previous affiliations
Early application is highly encouraged, as the applications will be processed upon reception. Please apply ONLINE formally through the HR system. Applications by email will not be considered.
The University of Luxembourg embraces inclusion and diversity as key values. We are fully committed to removing any discriminatory barrier related to gender, and not only, in recruitment and career progression of our staff.
In return you will get…
- Multilingual and international character. Modern institution with a personal atmosphere. Staff coming from 90 countries. Member of the “University of the Greater Region” (UniGR).
- A modern and dynamic university. High-quality equipment. Close ties to the business world and to the Luxembourg labour market. A unique urban site with excellent infrastructure.
- A partner for society and industry. Cooperation with European institutions, innovative companies, the Financial Centre and with numerous non-academic partners such as ministries, local governments, associations, NGOs …
Further information…
For further information, please feel to directly contact: martin.theobald@uni.lu