I am hiring a PhD student in data science for the analysis of online communication to join the Uppsala University Information Laboratory.

Application deadline: 31 May 2022

Link to the call: https://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/join-us/details/?positionId=501594

Profile

Uppsala University is a comprehensive research-intensive university with a strong international standing. Our ultimate goal is to conduct education and research of the highest quality and relevance to make a long-term difference in society. Our most important assets are all the individuals whose curiosity and dedication make Uppsala University one of Sweden’s most exciting workplaces. Uppsala University has over 54,000 students, more than 7,500 employees and a turnover of around SEK 8 billion.

The Department of Information Technology has a leading position in research and education in a wide spectrum of areas, from construction of computer systems, via programming of computers, storage and handling of data, to information retrieval and methods for applying computers in a variety of contexts. The Department currently has about 300 employees, including 120 teachers and 110 PhD students. More than 4,000 students take one or more courses at the department each year. More info: https://www.it.uu.se.

The successful candidate will join the Uppsala University Information Laboratory, a growing interdisciplinary research group doing basic and applied research at the intersection of data mining, social network analysis, and computational social science. The InfoLab is part of the EU-funded Nordic Observatory for Digital Media and Information Disorder and has several ongoing collaborations with the Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences at Uppsala University.

Duties

Network Science is an interdisciplinary scientific area focusing on the study of complex networks, i.e., the structure of the connections between entities, for example social relationships between individuals. The application fields of Network Science are numerous and span several sub-areas depending on the nature of the connected entities, including not only social networks but also biological, communication, and computer networks. The main objective of the field is to develop predictive models for physical, social, and biological phenomena.

The research focus for the advertised position is directed towards integrating textual and temporal data with Network Science for online data analysis. Our aim is to develop novel theory and methodology for enabling the analysis of complex data from social media. The project involves fundamental research on the development of new network models and computational algorithms, as well as applied research to demonstrate the usefulness of the new methodologies to study online communication.

The position is for at most five years and includes department duties (mainly teaching) at a level of at most 20%. The candidate will be expected to teach in Swedish or English (or both).

Requirements

The candidate must have a Master of Science in Computer Science or equivalent. The ideal candidate for the position has a solid background in algorithm design and data structures, as well as strong programming skills.

In addition to the above, applicants should be able to work well both on their own and with others in a diverse group. These competencies are as important as the technical qualifications.

Excellent skills in spoken and written English are a requirement.

Additional qualifications

Experience in at least one of the following areas: network analysis, natural language processing, and statistics. A genuine interest and curiosity in the subject and demonstrated independence.