Mar 10, 2020
About Northeastern:
Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experience-driven lifelong learning. Our world-renowned experiential approach empowers our students, faculty, alumni, and partners to create impact far beyond the confines of discipline, degree, and campus.
Our locations—in Boston; Charlotte, North Carolina; London; Portland, Maine; San Francisco; Seattle; Silicon Valley; Toronto; Vancouver; and the Massachusetts communities of Burlington and Nahant—are nodes in our growing global university system. Through this network, we expand opportunities for flexible, student-centered learning and collaborative, solutions-focused research.
Northeastern’s comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate programs— in a variety of on-campus and online formats—lead to degrees through the doctorate in nine colleges and schools. Among these, we offer more than 195 multi-discipline majors and degrees designed to prepare students for purposeful lives and careers.
About the Opportunity:
Northeastern recently announced the launch of a new interdisciplinary center for research and learning: the Institute for Experiential AI.
This new institute will focus on advancing human-centered artificial intelligence to solve problems in health, security, and sustainability. We believe that the true promise of AI lies not in its ability to replace humans, but to optimize what humans do best. Experiential AI provides a framework to design, implement, and scale AI-driven technologies in ways that make a true difference to society. To fulfill this promise, the institute will integrate the expertise of up to 50 tenured and tenure-track faculty, research faculty, and post-doctoral researchers, including as many as 30 new hires.
In response to the shortage of researchers trained in AI, Northeastern seeks postdoctoral candidates from other scientific fields to grow its cadre of scholars in Experiential AI. During a two-year postdoctoral appointment, Experiential AI Postdoctoral Fellows will take classes in AI and work in the lab of a member of Northeastern’s Experiential AI faculty. Of particular interest is AI applied to the life sciences and to security. Candidates are not required to have prior exposure to computer science or AI before beginning the program, but interest and/or significant experience in math is required. A list of faculty who work in Experiential AI and are seeking postdoctoral fellows and proposed research projects can be found here https://www.northeastern.edu/experientialai/faculty-mentors/ .
Responsibilities:
During the two years, Northeastern will provide Computer Science and AI course work and research mentorship in Experiential AI to the post-doctoral scholars, with the ultimate goal of training scholars who could be appointed at Northeastern as Tenure-track Faculty, Research Faculty, Teaching Faculty, or research staff members. Note that Experiential AI faculty appointments might be in the postdoc’s original field of study or in a computational field, depending on research interests. Successful applicants will spend 2+ years with a faculty mentor at the Boston campus, and, if selected for a faculty appointment, move to the Portland ME, campus (the primary location of the new institute in Experiential AI), or to one of Northeastern’s other 10 campuses (Boston, Burlington, Nahant, Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, Vancouver, Toronto, London and Charlotte). It is anticipated that the majority of the open faculty positions will be in Portland as part of the Roux Institute at Northeastern University.
During the first year, the Experiential AI postdoctoral scholar will audit courses and collaborate with a Northeastern faculty mentor on a research project. In the second year, all scholars will take additional coursework and then depending on which track they choose will complete the following:
[Research Track:] With their mentor, they will work toward developing an independent research program in experiential AI.
[Teaching Track:] In the first semester of their second year, trainees will co-teach a course in core AI or AI applied to their original field of study, and during the second semester they will teach their own section in addition to continuing to perform research under the supervision of their mentor.
Qualifications:
The successful candidate will have a PhD by the time of appointment. Although no previous experience or course work in AI is required, experience coding and significant course work in mathematics is a plus.
Salary Grade:
10
Additional Information:
How to Apply: Applications are being accepted for positions beginning in Fall 2020. Interested candidates should submit the following application materials:
1. Cover Letter. To further assist the search committee in its screening process, all cover letters should address your interest in Experiential AI, and in particular whether you are interested in working at the juncture of the field in which you obtained your PhD, or whether you are interested in becoming a researcher in core AI.
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Research Statement. A statement about your research program and if you are interested in working at the juncture of your field and AI, how it would interface with Experiential AI (typically 2–3 pages).
4. A list of your top three choices for a faculty member from this list https://www.northeastern.edu/experientialai/faculty-mentors/ .
5.Teaching Statement. A statement about your teaching philosophy: describe principles, practices, or experiences that inform the way you teach or would like to teach (typically 1-2 pages).
6. References. Names and contact information for at least three potential recommenders.
Applications will be accepted and evaluated on a rolling basis, with the first evaluation period starting March 1, 2020.
All questions can be emailed to: experientialAI@northeastern.edu
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Postdoc