Job Opportunity
University of Sussex
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
Lectureship in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Grade A or B
(Ref 076)

Applicants should have an interest in the area of evolutionary and adaptive systems, and be able to show evidence of significant research achievement in any aspect of adaptive robotics, artificial life, evolutionary computing or related fields. Applicants with a commitment to interdisciplinary research at the interface between AI and the biological sciences are particularly encouraged.

Informal inquiries can be made to Dr P Husbands, tel (+44 (0)1273) 678556, email philh@cogs.susx.ac.uk, or Professor H Buxton, tel (+44 (0)1273) 678569, email hilaryb@cogs.susx.ac.uk. Details of the School are available at COGS , or from the School Office.
Salary scales:

Lecturer Grade A: 16,655 pounds to 21,815 pounds per annum. Lecturer Grade B: 22,726 pounds to 29,048 pounds per annum.

Application packs for the above posts are available from and should be returned to Staffing Services, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 9RH, tel (+44 (0)1273) 877324, and details are also available via Sussex Vacancies . Requests for application packs may also be sent via email to S.Jenks@sussex.ac.uk. Links to school web sites and further information about the University may be seen at The University of Sussex . WHEN REQUESTING DETAILS, PLEASE QUOTE THE RELEVANT REFERENCE NUMBER.

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: Friday 16 April 1999.

Further Particulars

The University of Sussex

The University opened in 1961, and has its own 230-acre campus at Falmer in the South Downs, roughly halfway between the town centres of Brighton and Lewes. In 1997-98 there were 6804 registered undergraduates and 2281 registered postgraduate students, making up a total student body of over 9000. With accommodation for over 2400 students on the campus, there is also a large range of shopping and social facilities on the University site, which is within a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Lewes is a town of great historical interest, with its castle, Martyrs Memorial, and mediaeval cobbled streets. Brighton has the famous Royal Pavilion, outstanding Regency architecture, a modern Marina and Conference Centre, and is the business and cultural centre of Sussex.

The School and the Subject Group

Sussex University is divided, not into faculties and departments, but into Schools of Study, each of which seeks to bring together a variety of disciplines. Academic disciplines are represented by Subject Groups, which may be spread across more than one School, in order to encourage collaborative research and teaching. A Subject Group is responsible for research and the content and organization of courses in its discipline; its chairperson is normally appointed from among the senior staff in the Group for a three-year term.

COGS is a multidisciplinary school embracing Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Psychology. Its present Dean is Professor Richard Coates, who is a member of the Linguistics Subject Group. The Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAI) Subject Group is entirely within COGS and its current chair is Professor H Buxton.

Research Interests in the CSAI Group

Historically, the Sussex Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAI) Subject Group is the result of the merger, nearly a decade ago, of the AI and Computing Science Subject Groups in the context of the newly established School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences.

The Subject Group in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence is large and expanding and highly rated (awarded the grade 5 in the last three research-assessment exercises); its current strengths lie predominantly in research groups in HCI, artificial intelligence, evolutionary and adaptive systems, computer vision and theoretical computer science.

There are many regular seminar series for the subject in general and for research in individual areas, including ALERGIC (artificial life reading group). There are also shared seminars with other Subject Groups, and with the Information Technology Research Institute at the University of Brighton.

In 1996 The Sussex Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) , was created as a joint research venture between the neuroscience group in the school of Biological Sciences (BIOLS) and the CSAI group in COGS. Its remit was to explore and exploit the interfaces between biological and computational sciences.

Degree Courses

The Computer Science Artificial Intelligence subject group offers BSc degrees in Computer Science and in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, a BA degree in Artificial Intelligence, Masters degrees in Knowledge-Based Systems, Human-Centred Computer Systems, Evolutionary Adaptive Systems, Research Methods and research supervision for MPhil or DPhil degrees in Computer Science AI and in Cognitive Science. There are also a number of joint first degrees, such as BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science, BSc in Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, and a BEng in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. There are four-year degrees in Computer Science with European Studies and in Artificial Intelligence with European Studies, which involve students spending an additional year studying computer science or artificial intelligence in continental Europe; and new pairings of these subjects with Management Studies.

Graduate School

The school has a thriving and expanding research centre. It has over 60 graduate students currently studying for DPhils and offers a range of interdisciplinary taught masters courses. These include MScs in Knowledge-Based Systems, Human-Centred Computer Systems, Evolutionary & Adaptive Systems, and an MRes.

Commercial and Industrial Links

A Centre for Advanced Software Applications is established within the School; CASA acts as a focus for interacting with commercial and industrial organizations, offering short courses, consultancy, and collaborative research, and providing opportunities for additional earnings for contributing staff.

Companies including BP, BT, GEC, HP, IBM, Eidos, Cyberlife, Apple Computer Inc, Xilinx, Mathematiques Appliquees, SearchSpace and Sequent Systems have provided studentships, fellowships, research grants or equipment. The Sussex Poplog system is the chief stock in trade of a spinoff company, Integral Solutions Ltd.

A number of the CSAI staff combine their theoretical research interests with industrial or other non-academic research collaboration. These include: Apple Computer Inc (Rogers), AND Software (Watson); BT Labs (Wakeman, Rogers, Husbands); Chapman Hall (Watson); CoGenTex, Inc., Ithaca, NY (Weir); Hitachi (Watson); ISL (du Boulay); Mathematiques Appliquees (Husbands); Newmont Exploration, Denver (Williams); Shakespeare SpeechWriter (UK) Ltd (Sampson); Shell plc (Wakeman); Xilinx Corp. (Thompson).

Computing Resources

Within COGS there is a large and well resourced network of Unix-based computers. The backbone of the service is provided by a cluster of six Sun servers, which support a wide range of workstations and X-terminals. All staff have either a Sun workstation, a powerPC Macintosh or an X-terminal. A Meiko Computing Surface, multi-processor Silicon-Graphics systems, computer vision and multimedia labs, video and computer conferencing facilities available. Recently the school has undergone major building works, with new computer labs available for teaching since October 1998.

CSAI Staff

Professors

H Buxton BSc PhD:
dynamic aspects of visual perception, from parallel computations of visual motion to interpretation and control of vision systems; biological motion understanding; biomedical and surveillance applications.

JBH du Boulay BSc PGCE PhD:
application of AI techniques to education, particularly intelligent tutoring systems.

S Edelman BSEE MSc PhD:
brain theory, human and machine vision, computational neuroscience, natural language processing.

GJM Gazdar BA MA PhD FBA:
computational linguistics, including design of a formal language for lexical knowledge representation, and semantics of natural-language grammar formalisms.

M Hennessy BSc MA PhD:
semantic theories for programming and specification languages; theories of concurrency; development of verification tools.

Readers and Senior Lecturers

R Cox BSc(Hons) DipEd MAppSc PhD
artificial intelligence and education, interactive learning environments, external representations, human reasoning, diagrammatic reasoning, individual differences.

P Husbands BSc MSc PhD:
evolutionary and adaptive robotics; evolutionary computation; artificial life; computational neuroscience

Y Rogers BSc MSc PhD
distributed cognition; human-computer interfaces; computer-supported collaborative work.

GR Sampson MA PhD MBCS:
corpus-based natural language processing using statistical stochastic-optimization techniques; standards definition for natural language computing.

DJ Watson MA PhD:
high-level language compilers, especially code generator design and implementation; medical computing, e.g. computer support for nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy.

PM Williams MA MSc DPhil:
application of neural network techniques to mineral exploration, and of expert systems in pharmacology.

Lecturers

DT Cliff BSc MA DPhil:
evolutionary robotics as a technique for studying the generation of adaptive behaviour. (on leave)
MP Fiore Lic PhD:
axiomatic domain theory, synthetic domain theory, models of concurrency and syntactic aspects of recursive types.
ASA Jeffrey BSc DPhil:
semantics of concurrent programming languages; relationships between concurrent and functional languages. (on leave)
WR Keller BSc MA DPhil:
computational linguistics, constraint- and unification-based grammar formalisms.
RH Luckin BA DPhil:
User centred Design and Interactivity, particularly in relation educational software design; educational uses of Technology; the relationship between Narrative and the design of Multimedia and Virtual Reality learning environments; theoretical perspectives for software design from Vygotskian Psychology, Social Constructivism and Activity Theory.
RK Lutz BSc MSc DPhil:
AI techniques in software engineering; automatic program synthesis; programming environments.
G McCusker BA PhD:
semantics of programming languages, particularly game semantics of programs which manipulate state; mechanisms for controlling and reasoning about interference between programs; the problem of full abstraction for sophisticated languages.
CJ Thornton BA MSc PhD:
computational learning using symbolic algorithms and connexionist mechanisms.
I Wakeman BA MSc PhD:
communications and distributed systems, distributed multimedia and collaborative working.
DJ Weir BSc MSc PhD:
computational linguistics, particularly computational and mathematical properties of grammar formalisms.
S Wood BA DPhil:
design and development of agent architectures for rapidly-changing, uncertain, multi-agent environments, such as driving, and of expert systems for teacher training.
DS Young MA PhD:
computational and biological aspects of vision, including theoretical and experimental research on optic flow and image representation, and practical applications such as traffic monitoring.

In addition there are in the School approximately twenty research fellows and visitors from other institutions, seven systems support staff, and some fifty research students.

The General Particulars document available from Staffing Services (see earlier) describes the general terms and conditions of employment for academic staff.

Job Opportunity University of Sussex School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences Lectureship in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Grade A or B (Ref 076)