Academic

UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO

RESEARCH GRANT
The Rank! Project (http://www.liaad.up.pt/csoares/rank) is looking for researchers in Artificial Intelligence/Data Mining to do work in Machine Learning methods for predicting rankings.

Description
The Rank! Project (PTDC/EIA/81178/2006) is funded by the Portuguese Government (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia). The main goal is to develop of a methodology for predicting rankings.

The problem of learning to predict rankings is similar to the problem of supervised classification in Machine Learning/Data Mining. However, the goal is not to predict which class each example belong to but to rank the classes for each example. There are several applications that involve predicting rankings (e.g., recommender systems on the web, stock trading, medical diagnosis, marketing and sales), thus, the amount of research dedicated to this problem is increasing.

The grantees will work on one or more of the tasks involved in developing a methodology for predicting rankings, namely:

• formalization of the problem
• development/adaptation of Machine Learning methods for the problem of predicting rankings
• development of evaluation measures for the problem of predicting rankings
• application of the methodology developed on practical problems

More information:

http://www.liaad.up.pt/csoares/rank

contact Carlos Soares (+351-223392095 or csoares@fep.up.pt)

Profile

• Eligible academic levels include undergraduate, B.Sc., Lic. and M.Sc. from any nationality.

• Good knowledge of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• Knowledge of programming
• Knowledge of Statistics
• Strong motivation to work in research
• Interest in pursuing studies (Ph.D.)
• Desirable abilities:
• Programming in R
• Experience in the problem of learning to predict rankings
• Selection criteria:
• Analysis of curriculum vitae
• Suitability of the candidate's profile for the position

The Faculdade de Economia do Porto may not hire any candidate, in case none of the applicants has a suitable profile.

Conditions
The grant is predicted to start in 29 September 2008 and has a duration of 6 or 12 months, depending on the profile of the selected applicant, and may be extended up to 3 years. Full time dedication is required, according to Portuguese Law (Lei nº 40/2004).

The salary is defined in the corresponding FCT regulations, with current approximate values of (http://www.fct.mctes.pt/pt/apoios/bolsas/valores/):

385 Euro per month for undergraduate and B.Sc.

745 Euro per month for Lic.

980 Euro per month for M.Sc.

The funding organization will be in charge of costs with social welfare, according to the Portuguese Law (Lei nº 40/2004) and an insurance for personal injuries, according to the regulation for grants of the Universidade do Porto (http://sigarra.up.pt/rscup/noticias_geral.ver_noticia?p_nr=168).

Application
Submit via email to D. Lídia Soares (lidia@fep.up.pt) until 15 September 2008, the following documents:

• application letter
• curriculum vitae
• copy of certificate of academic level or courses completed in current level