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Postdoctoral Research Assistant

Job number:

SCH00690

School/Service:

Faculty of Natural Sciences

Location:

Stirling Campus

Contract Type:

Fixed Term Contract

Working Pattern:

Full Time

Salary:

Grade 7 £32,004 - £38,183 p.a.

Closing date:

13-Nov-2016
Post Details

Fixed term contract from November 2016 – November 2018 
The closing date for applications is midnight on Sunday 13 November 2016.

The Post

The CHORDS (Computational Heuristics, Operational Research and Decision Support) research group within the Division of Computing Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling, wishes to appoint a Postdoctoral Research Assistant to work on the Dynamic Adaptive Automated Software Engineering (DAASE) project, supervised by Dr John Woodward. http://daase.cs.ucl.ac.uk/about/ 

DAASE is a four site project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) involving University College London, Birmingham, Stirling and York. This 6 years programme started June 2012, with a total of £6.8m of EPSRC funding. The aim of the project is to automate large parts of the software development process using computational search, and to embed adaptivity to software processes and products. The project provides wide opportunities to collaborate with researchers on all the sites, and with industrial research laboratories.

The University

Stirling was the first new university to be established in Scotland for nearly 400 years, created by Royal Charter in 1967. Since its foundation, the University has embraced its role as an innovative, intellectual and cultural institution with an established reputation for blending arts and science.

Stirling is a University of distinction, home to leading researchers and scholars attracted by the unique learning environment, exceptional facilities and student-centred approach, where ability, not background, is recognised and valued.

The essence of the University of Stirling is its people: graduates, staff and students are helping to shape the world by making a direct and positive contribution to the development of prosperous, healthy and sustainable communities around the globe.

The University population has grown from 164 undergraduate students and 31 postgraduates in 1967 to 8,000 undergraduates and 3,105 postgraduates in 2015. With over 125 nationalities represented at Stirling, around one in five students come from overseas.

A truly Scottish university, Stirling’s reach extends to campuses in the Highland capital of Inverness and to Stornoway, gateway to the Western Isles.

Stirling’s main campus is located at the historic heart of Scotland, with convenient links to the rest of the UK and beyond. The University is within easy reach of Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh, and its largest city, Glasgow. Scotland’s two main international airports are less than an hour away, with direct flights to Europe and beyond.

Equality and diversity are central to our activities at the University of Stirling. We believe everyone should be treated with respect and we deal with people as equals. We promote equality and celebrate diversity through a variety of initiatives. We have been awarded the Athena SWAN Bronze award, the national charter for women in science, which recognises and promotes good practice in advancing women's careers in STEMM academia (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine). Further details can be found here:

http://www.stir.ac.uk/equalityanddiversity/athenaswan/    

About Us

The School of Natural Sciences www.stir.ac.uk/natural-sciences was formed in January 2011, bringing together Computing Science and Mathematics, Biological and Environmental Sciences, Psychology and the Institute of Aquaculture.

The School offers a unique academic environment where new ideas are explored in the complex and challenging relationships between human behaviours and social, biological and environmental systems. The approach is explicitly inter-disciplinary, rigorous and problem-focused. The School is internationally recognised for the quality and relevance of its research

The School works with business and public service organisations, both at home and overseas, to develop research with direct and positive outcomes for society across a range of critical problems. Teaching programmes focus on real-life issues and offer strong theoretical frameworks with rigorous training in field, laboratory and numerical skills.

The School has active research and teaching partnerships at Stirling with the Schools of Health, Management, Applied Social Sciences , Arts and Humanities, and Sports. The School participates in four major Scottish Funding Council research pooling initiatives. The School also has formal international research and teaching collaborations with the EU, USA, Canada, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, South Asia and China.

Description of Duties

The main activities of the postholder will include:

  • Innovative research investigation under the DAASE project
  • Contribution to design and implementation of a range of experiments related to the research work
  • Organisation of dissemination activities
  • Collaborative activities with DAASE partners and organisation of associated events
  • Preparation of research journal papers
  • Preparation and presentation of conference papers
  • To help supervise PhD project students if requested and deemed relevant
  • Other duties associated with the DAASE project
Essential Criteria
  • PhD in Computer Science, Operational Research or a related discipline.
  • Strong background in computational search and modelling complex systems.
  • A proven track record in conducting and publishing high quality research.
  • Excellent skills in computer programming.
  • The ability and desire to collaborate effectively with other researchers at various stages of career.
Desirable Criteria

Research experience on one or more of the following topics:

  • search based software engineering
  • information and/or coding theory
  • fitness landscape analysis and visualisation 
  • hyper-heuristics, performance prediction in optimisation
Additional Information

For informal enquires, or to discuss how you might fit into our project, please contact, Dr John R. Woodward [log in to unmask] 

The University offers great benefits such as generous annual leave and membership of the Universities Superannuation Scheme with employer contributions of 18%. Additionally staff can benefit from a reduced membership rate at the University's excellent Sport Centre facilities and the option of childcare vouchers through a salary sacrifice scheme.

An applicant guide can be found at the following address, we recommend you read this before making your application http://tinyurl.com/UoSAppguide 

Please ensure that you check your email account junk folder as your email provider may flag emails sent to you as suspected spam.

Terms and conditions of this post can be found at http://www.stir.ac.uk/hr-od/workingatstirling/yourcontract 

After the closing date, this job advert will no longer be available on the University of Stirling website therefore please keep a copy for your records.

http://www.stir.ac.uk/about/jobs/details/index.html?id=QUUFK026203F3VBQB7V79V7NE&nPostingID=1279&nPostingTargetID=1211&mask=extstirling&lg=UK