09 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Durham University, England

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Machine Learning and AI with a particular emphasis on edge efficiency and explainable AI. The research project is led by the Project Lead/Principal Investigator Dr Yang Long and aims to develop innovative solutions for data analysis, optimisation algorithms, and data security against adversarial attacks.

The successful applicant will be expected to conduct high-quality research in machine learning and AI, focusing on developing and implementing efficient edge computing solutions, creating interpretable machine learning models to advance explainable AI, applying and enhancing optimization algorithms to improve model performance, and addressing data security challenges, including understanding and mitigating adversarial attacks. Additionally, they will collaborate with interdisciplinary teams, lead and contribute to research publications, participate in conferences, assist in securing external research funding, and supervise and mentor junior researchers and students.

This is a great opportunity to work as part of a friendly team on a cutting-edge project which has both a clear theoretical focus and an applied angle. The PDRA will have access to outstanding resources including equipment, dedicated technical support, a large developmental database and related resources, and travel funding for conferences and collaboration. You may have some support in collecting data but must be prepared to personally collect data.

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to support a research project entitled “Sweating it out for a good purpose: Scaling up mass participation sports events in sustainable ways”. The project has two main goals. First, it aims to examine key antecedents of participation in running events, such as runners’ motivations, differences between younger and older runners, between junior employees and senior leaders as well as between men and women. It also aims to examine the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and career-related effects of physical activity at the workplace and beyond, such as its effects on wellbeing, leaders’ resilience, careers, and social judgements or biased evaluations of others. Second, this project also has a sustainability focus, and its findings aim to (1) encourage the building and nurturing of partnerships between organisations in support of sustainability aims, and (2) to prompt runners make specific changes in behaviours in order to achieve sustainability goals. We aim to understand the environmental impact of running events, capturing the complex interactions among the organising company, its partners, and runners, with the aim of improving sustainable practices. You will work alongside a local organisation that organizes mass running events to help answer these research questions and inspire and scale their activities. This will involve bringing your expertise into the role to help shape the underlying research agenda and how it translates into real world impact.  

The successful applicant will work alongside the project PI, Dr Maria Kakarika, and the project partner as well as the rest of the academic project team. The role is funded by Durham University Business School’s Smart & Scale initiative which is an interdisciplinary impact-driven research programme in smart and scale-up activities, focusing on innovation and business development of SMEs in the North-East of England.

The successful applicant will be responsible for the design, development, and implementation of deep learning, computer vision, image processing and data analysis frameworks for the BioDiMoBot system as well as some lower-level programming for the user interface and robotic integration. The primary tasks will include developing and training large deep learning models for automated species identification and environmental stress assessment, as well as integrating these models into the robotic system. Additionally, the role involves processing and analysing large datasets of images and underwater sounds and deploying AI solutions for real-time data collection and interpretation.

Collaboration with our European partners is anticipated, and the successful candidate will be encouraged to adopt a creative approach to problem-solving, exploring various deep learning techniques. Verification of these models and algorithms will be conducted using benchmark datasets and real-world tests in diverse aquatic environments, necessitating a willingness to engage in experimental work for real-world verification with biologists and other stakeholders.

The project is a HORIZON funded collaboration between the University of Durham in the UK, the University of Graz in Austria, Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy, SYRION in Austria, Oesterreichische Bundesforste in Austria and Carbon Kapture (Mulroy Bay) Ltd in the UK. This role will involve close collaboration with these external partners. You will be expected to visit several of these institutions in the course of your work and will be based in the Department of Computer Science at Durham University.

The BioDiMoBot project will deliver a system for autonomous, long-term robotic assessments of aquatic biodiversity and ecology. This project will develop an innovative measurement system to monitor biodiversity and provide insight into the drivers of ecosystem degradation. Additionally, it will assess organismic and environmental stress levels by using novel biohybrid sensors. With the BioDiMoBots’ ability to perform autonomous and automated multimodal long-term data collection, the project will create a user-friendly robotic tool that provides detailed insights into the ecological health of aquatic environments. The project will be driven by the needs of potential stakeholders such as researchers, small and medium-sized enterprises in water-related industries and policy-makers. Field operations will demonstrate the transformative power of the BioDiMoBot systems by monitoring aquatic ecosystems over a long period of time.

This position will ideally suit applicants with an interest in developing robotic systems. The successful applicant will be responsible for hardware (electronics) design, low-level programming and developing controllers, as well as implementation and testing the robotic system and its appropriate frameworks. In addition, some hands on data collection in the bio-hybrid ecosystem must be performed and so applicants must be willing to get involved in experimental work in the field.

Collaboration with our European partners is anticipated, and the successful candidate will be encouraged to adopt a creative approach to problem-solving, exploring various deep learning techniques. Verification of these models and algorithms will be conducted using benchmark datasets and real-world tests in diverse aquatic environments, necessitating a willingness to engage in experimental work for real-world verification with biologists and other stakeholders.

The project is a HORIZON funded collaboration between the University of Durham in the UK, the University of Graz in Austria, Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy, SYRION in Austria, Oesterreichische Bundesforste in Austria and Carbon Kapture (Mulroy Bay) Ltd in the UK. This role will involve close collaboration with these external partners. You will be expected to visit several of these institutions in the course of your work and will be based in the Department of Computer Science at Durham University.

Applications are invited for this Postdoctoral Research Associate post. Funded by UKRI EPSRC, the project “CHEDDAR: Communications Hub For Empowering Distributed ClouD Computing Applications And Research” aims to empower distributed cloud computing applications and develop innovative research ideas to drive research and networking across the UK academic community. The role will involve working on the green AI, with a particular interest in (but not limited to) AutoML and Digital Twins for future 6G paradigm. To conduct this research project, you will:

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Microbial Metal Sensing. The research project is lead by Dr. Peter Chivers, as part of the BBSRC-funded ELEMENTAL Engineering Biology Hub (https://affiliated.onpressidium.com/elementalhub/). The project will focus on engineering bacterial strains with altered cytosolic metal availabilities (see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1367593121001253 for a recent review), with applications ranging from improved metallation of heterologously expressed metalloenzymes and metallocofactors to improved metal tolerance in strains used in the circular economy of metals. The work at Durham will link directly with Hub partner activities at the University of Manchester and Quadram Institute. 

The project will involve a range of experimental methods including assays of native and engineering bacterial strains for growth, gene expression (qPCR), and metal content (ICP-MS). Protein overexpression and purification (using untagged constructs) will be used to enable biophysical analysis of metal-protein interactions (e.g. affinity determination by competition assays). Regular joint meetings between academic partners will be a key part of meeting project goals and outcomes, along with presentations at annual Hub research meetings.

The partnership covers more than 500 members of staff and more than 2,500 students spread across TEIs from Exeter to Edinburgh. Students at these TEIs are training for a variety of forms of Christian ministry, lay and ordained, formal and informal, in a number of churches (Anglican, Methodist, URC, Baptist, Pentecostal, etc.).

In 2019, the University and the Archbishops’ Council signed a renewed contract for Common Awards, for the period from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2024, and that was subsequently extended to 31 August 2027. The provision of the present post is one of the commitments included in that renewed contract.

The first two holders of this post, Dr Eve Parker and Dr Selina Stone, focused on the Common Awards Diversity and Inclusion strategy, working with TEIs to create and strengthen learning environments that celebrate diversity and inclusion in theological education. The aim of this strategy is to advance equality through inclusive practice and pedagogy and to encourage a culture of learning where students from a wide variety of backgrounds can feel as though they are not only included but that they truly belong within their TEIs.

The Common Awards team includes an academic support team led by Alyson Bird (the Quality Assurance Manager) based in the University’s Curriculum, Learning and Assessment service, and an academic team currently comprising Prof Mike Higton (Professor of Theology and Ministry) and Dr Emily Kempson (Lecturer in Theology and Ministry), based in the Department of Theology and Religion.