Post doctor (2 years) within data privacy and machine learning

Umeå University is one of Sweden's largest universities with over 41 500 students and about 4 600 employees.

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To our department, which conducts research at the highest international level and provides a number of high-quality educational programmes, we are now looking for a postdoc who will work with data confidentiality methods for data driven models. The employment is full-time for two years with admission 12 January 2027 or by agreement.

The Department of Computer Science at Umeå University is an international environment for research and education in a wide range of computer science. Read more at Department of Computer Science Project description and tasks The project will develop integrity-conscious models for machine learning (ML). We are interested in data driven models for complex data, including temporal data. We are interested in both data driven models and models based on synthetic data.

Within privacy, we focus on different types of privacy measures and models (differential and integral integrity, k-anonymity), as well as different scenarios (centralised and decentralised data; local and global integrity). For decentralised data, we consider federated learning.

We are interested in integrity-keeping machine learning on a large scale.

Research Group The Privacy-aware transparency decisions research group, led by Professor Vicenç Torra, researches data integrity for data to be used for machine learning and statistical purposes. It is well known that data can be very sensitive and that naive anonymization is not enough to avoid disclosure. Models and aggregates can also lead to disclosure as they may contain traces of the data used in the calculation. We want to understand the basic principles that enable us to build integrity-conscious AI systems and develop algorithms for this purpose. The group collaborates with several national and international research groups, is the editor of one of the largest journals on Data Privacy and has active contacts with the private and public sector. The group cooperates with several national and international research groups on these topics, and has active contacts with the private and public sector. For more information, see: umu.se/en/research/groups/nausica-privacy-aware-transparent-decisions-group/ Postdoctoral position funded by Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program, WASP, is Sweden's largest single research program in modern times. The programme creates a platform for academic research and education in close collaboration with leading Swedish technology intensive industry. The research includes artificial intelligence and autonomous systems that work in collaboration with people and adapt to their environment with the help of sensors, information and knowledge and create intelligent systems of systems. WASP's vision is excellent research and expertise in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and software for the benefit of Sweden's industry and society. Read more: https://wasp-sweden.org/ Qualifications To be employed with the support of a contract for fixed-term employment as a postdoctoral doctoral student, a doctoral degree or a foreign degree is required that corresponds to a doctoral degree. This qualification requirement shall be met at the latest by the time the employment decision is taken.

In order to be employed on the basis of the post-doctoral agreement, the person who has completed the degree referred to in the previous paragraph must be considered above all three years ago. If there are special reasons, it may be considered that has completed a doctoral degree earlier. Special reasons refer to leave due to illness, parental leave, positions of trust in trade unions, service in total defence, or other similar circumstances, and clinical service or relevant duties/missions for the subject area.

A qualified applicant must have a doctoral degree or a foreign degree that is considered equivalent in computer science or other subject of relevance to the project.

Documented knowledge and proven research experience in the field of design of algorithms and methods for data protection and machine learning are required. Publications at leading conferences in machine learning, security and integrity (NeurIPS, ICML, S&P, PETs, ESORICS or similar conferences) are highly meritorious.

A successful candidate is expected to have a scientific and result-oriented approach to your work. Very good knowledge of the English language, both in speech and writing, are key requirements.

Application A complete application must contain: Personal letter describing your research interests and why you are applying for the job announced. Summary of your qualifications, research interests, motivation to apply and describe the link between your previous research and position (max 2 pages), CV with publication list, Controlled copy of the doctoral degree certificate or documentation that proves when the doctoral degree is expected to be obtained, Controlled copies of other diplomas, academic course certificates and/or grades, Copy of doctoral thesis and maximum 5 relevant articles, Other documents that the applicant wishes to invoke.

Contact details of two adopted references.

The application must be written in English or Swedish. The application is made through our electronic recruitment system. Documents sent electronically must be in Word or PDF format. Log in to the system and apply via the button at the end of this page. Application deadline is 11 October. More information is provided by Vicenç Torra, vtorra@cs.umu.se Umeå University wants to offer an equal and equal environment where open conversations between people with different backgrounds and perspectives lay the foundation for learning, creativity and development. We therefore welcome people with different backgrounds and experiences to apply for the current position.

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