Research Assistant/Associate - Validation of GEO-located Multimodal Data and AI

Salary: 

Research Assistant: £30,619 to £32,411 per annum

Research Associate: £33,348 to £39,592 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 09 June 2023

The Role

This is an excellent opportunity to join leading team at Intelligent Sensing and Communications Group, School of Engineering, Newcastle University.

The EPSRC IAA project is to generate impact from our multimodal data and features-based AI building blocks, tracking and activity anomaly detection methods, to be validated for security and surveillance in maritime domain applications. 

The project is directly linked with the original Innovate UK/EPSRC/Dstl/Thales funded grants “Multi-task Learning for GEO-located Multi-modal Data”, “Multimodal Wide Area Surveillance” and “Signal Processing Solutions for the Networked Battlespace”. 
This project will transform the fundamental breakthroughs/algorithms contributed at Newcastle University i.e., AI based multiple target tracking (https://youtu.be/3GEdxL7JbiE); human action recognition (https://youtu.be/7_mcWCB76Ps); and human behaviour analysis (https://youtu.be/GBPoMPI94EM) on the datasets with the specific focus to the AIS maritime multimodal data processing and features based AI building blocks, developed in the above mentioned UKRI and Innovate UK projects, will be transformed for vessels behaviour prediction for maritime security and surveillance applications.

You should be educated to at least MSc (or equivalent degree qualification) in EEE (PhD award essential for Research Associate). You should have a demonstrable record of signal processing/machine learning algorithms.

For more information about the School of Engineering, please click here.

We are committed to building and maintaining a fair and inclusive working environment and we would be happy to discuss arrangements for flexible and/or blended working. 

To apply, please complete an online application form and upload your CV and cover letter. In your cover letter, please state how you are a good fit for this role. Please outline how you meet or exceed the essential requirements of the role as outlined in the Job Description; we recommend that you provide examples to best demonstrate how you meet the essential requirements. 

This position is available immediately on a part time (0.8FTE), fixed-term basis, tenable until July 2024 in the first instance. 

For an information chat regarding the role, please contact Dr. Mohsen Naqvi, Senior Lecturer in Elec-Intelligent Sensing and Comms, at: Mohsen.Naqvi@newcastle.ac.uk. 

For more information about PI, please click here.

For more information about the School of Engineering and our research, please click here.

Key Accountabilities

• Work under the lead and supervision  of Dr Mohsen Naqvi, in the area of multimodal signal and information processing, within Intelligent Sensing and Communications Research Group
• Use unique multi-sensor (audio-video-infrared) research lab facility. In the state-of-the-art lab design, the multimodal sensors are operating in parallel, completely time-synchronised and specifically the Infrared sensors are working in overlapping field of view. This multimodal sensing facility is part of our purpose-built 100m2 Intelligent Sensing Lab
• Contribute to the  evaluations on our state-of-the-art open source multimodal complex and noisy AIS data
• Contribute to accelerate  the impact in maritime surveillance for security applications by epoliting our advanced frameworks
• Validate and prototype the fundamental breakthroughs i.e. artificial intelligence (AI)-based target tracking (https://youtu.be/RZKW0n3akbc), action and behaviour analysis (https://youtu.be/VJD9tYPzHPQ), and audio signal dereverberation/denoising/enhancement (https://youtu.be/nmnIZS0HNGU). Contribute to the design of digital technologies automated maritime security and monitoring

The Person 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Track record of design, deployment, and evaluation of deep learning-based techniques, preferably transformers
• Strong qualitative evaluation skills 
• Experience of working on multi-sensor data
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to present detailed or technical information and the ability to work with others to understand technical and user requirements 
• Basic knowledge of programming languages e.g., Python, Matlab, etc

Desirable

• Evidence of originality, innovation, creativity, and research track record including publications in leading conferences in Signal Processing and high-calibre journals
• Experience demonstrating to undergraduate and PGT students 

Attributes and Behaviour

• Ability to work on own initiative with demonstrable problem-solving skills 
• Ability to complete tasks independently and flexibly at the discretion of the Principal Investigator  
• Ability to work as a member of a dedicated research group, in a collaborative manner with team colleagues at all levels. 
• Committed to embedding the values of equality and diversity in all aspects of your work
• Demonstrated interpersonal skills with the ability to interact and collaborate with people from industry 

Qualifications

• PhD (awarded or close to submission) in EEE, or a closely related discipline
• MSc (or equivalent) in Signal Processing or Machine Learning Subjects 
   

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 25542