at University of Helsinki
Full TimeThe Department of Computer Science of the Faculty of Science is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to work on a Business Finland co-innovation project “Untangling People Flow for Smart and Sustainable Urban Environments”.
People flow is the way people move in and between buildings. Good people flow means people moving smoothly, safely, comfortably, and without waiting. The Untangling People Flow consortium vision is to productize the data relations between people-flow and optimal use of the built environment. Utilizing building digital twins, agent-based modelling, IoT detection devices, and edge /cloud real-time services to identify the value of people-flow data characteristics. Creating an AI people-flow demand forecasting system to monetarize people-flow data. The insights gained will be crucial for the development of future smart campuses. smart airports, and real estate in export settings.
The position will require the postdoctoral researcher to advance research in specific technological areas, such as distributed computing architectures, data stream analytics, machine learning for data fusion, computational social science, and application of large language models. The researcher will engage in joint efforts with the consortium co-innovation partners: Kone, Granlund, Elisa Supersight, Workspace, and MetaTavu, University of Lapland, University of Oulu, and VTT, contributing to the development and direction of their research agenda to reflect cutting-edge industry innovation.
The successful candidates will be primarily supervised by Dr Andrew Rebeiro-Hargrave and Prof. Sasu Tarkoma (University of Helsinki) and will be offered a fully funded contract for two years, with the extension for one more year. Research activities will be conducted at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Helsinki (Pietari Kalmin katu 5, 00014).
The University of Helsinki is committed to fostering an equitable and inclusive working environment and encourages applications from individuals of diverse genders, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds.
A successful candidate should have a PhD (or equivalent title) in computer science, electrical engineering, or a related field. The project will adopt an agile development methodology and the candidate must possess scientific curiosity, a meticulous work ethic, and the flexibility to work effectively in both academia and industry setups. The candidate must demonstrate good organizational and time management skills, be capable of working both independently and collaboratively within a team and be ready at adjusting to the iterative evaluation and potential directional shifts after each sprint. Excellent communication skills in English, both verbal and written, are essential.
The starting salary of the postdoctoral researcher will be 3700–3900 euros/month, depending on the appointee's previous qualifications and experience. A trial period of 6 months will be applied.
The University of Helsinki offers comprehensive services to its employees, including occupational health care and health insurance, sports facilities, and opportunities for professional development. The University provides support for internationally recruited employees with their transition to work and life in Finland. For more on the University of Helsinki as an employer, please see https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/careers.
Please submit your application in a single PDF file in English, which should include the following documents:
• A motivation letter explaining why you are the ideal candidate for this role, given the context and objectives of the position (max. 2 pages).
• A curriculum vitae (max. 5 pages), complete with a list of publications, especially emphasizing those relevant to the research subject of the position (max. 5 publications).
• Names and contact information of at least two referees who are willing to provide reference letters upon request or may be contacted directly for further information regarding the candidate's qualifications and experience.
Applications must be submitted through the University of Helsinki´s recruitment portal. Please note that applications or any related materials sent via email will not be considered.
We aim to fill the position as soon as possible and therefore encourage early applications. However, the latest deadline for submitting applications is March 10th, 2024.
For project and position related questions, please contact:
• Andrew Rebeiro-Hargrave, andrew.rebeiro-hargrave@helsinki.fi
For support with the recruitment system, please contact:
• HR Specialist Jussi Hartikainen, jussi.a.hartikainen@helsinki.fi
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The University of Helsinki (https://www.helsinki.fi/en) is an international scientific community of 40,000 students and researchers. It is one of the leading multidisciplinary research universities in Europe and ranks among the top 100 international universities in the world. We are an equal opportunity employer and offer an attractive and diverse workplace in an inspiring environment with a variety of development opportunities and benefits.
As a part of the Faculty of Science, the Department of Computer Science (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/computer-science) is a leading unit in Finland in its area and responsible for the teaching and research in computer science at the University of Helsinki. The number of professors at the department has grown in recent years and there are now 32 professorships. The main research fields at the department are artificial intelligence, big data frameworks, bioinformatics, data analysis, data science, discrete and machine learning algorithms, distributed, intelligent, and interactive systems, networks, security, and software and database systems. The department has extensive international collaboration with companies and universities. Within teaching, the department’s professors and staff are in charge of the Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral Programmes in Computer Science, as well as the separate Master’s Programme in Data Science, in which other departments also participate.
