Research Fellowship in Social Network Mining

The University of Porto is advertising a research grant for potential PhD candidates with a strong background in Computer Science, Informatics Engineering or related areas.

The grant duration is 12-months and the selected candidate will be working in the "REACTION: Retrieval, Extraction, and Aggregation Computing Technology for Integrating and Organizing News" project ( xldb.fc.ul.pt/wiki/Reaction ), funded the FCT - UT Austin | Portugal International Collaboraboratory for Emerging Technologies (www.utaustinportugal.org/ ).

The successful candidate will be encouraged to apply to the CMU-Portugal dual-degree PhD program (www.cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=546 ).

JOB DESCRIPTION

1. Summary:
The research activities involve the development of methods for automatic analysis of social media (e.g. blogs, micro-blogs, etc.), to identify and rank credible and influential information sources, experts on a given topic and reliable opinions about news themes. This will include exploring probabilistic graphical models for topic-based influence analysis and expert finding in a social network. Further information about the context of this work, see the project web page: xldb.fc.ul.pt/wiki/Reaction.

2. Salary:
The grant amount is 980 Euros per month (tax free), according to the BI scholarship stipends defined by FCT (alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores.phtml.en).

3. Start date:
The expected start date is January 2011, and the work will be carried out at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, under an exclusivity contract according to the FCT "Regulations for Advanced Training and Qualification of Human Resources" (alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/bolsas/regulamento.phtml).

4. How to apply:
Interested candidates should send their Curriculum Vitae and a motivation letter by email to Prof. Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues at eduarda@fe.up.pt, until November 30th, 2010.