[SBF-general] Job advert - Efficient Biological Grammar Acquisition

[Chris Bryant]

Job advert - Efficient Biological Grammar Acquisition

The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen 

School of Computing

Research Fellow/Assistant (Ref T229)
(2.5 Years)

Applications are invited for the position of Research Fellow/Assistant
on an EPSRC funded project entitled "Efficient Biological Grammar
Acquisition". The project will be based in the Computing Technologies
Centre (a recent 1.5 million pounds, purpose-designed SRIF-funded
research centre) in the School of Computing at the Robert Gordon
University, Aberdeen.  The industrial collaborator on the project will
be GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's leading research-based
pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.

Linguistic methods have provided some interesting results in the
recognition of complex biological signals.  However the hand
development of grammars is difficult and, because it requires human
expertise, expensive.  Thus, given the enormous volume of data arising
from genome projects, there is a need to automate the acquisition of
grammars from sets of biological sequences.  As the researcher on this
project, you will develop an efficient method of acquiring such
grammars using Inductive Logic Programming (ILP).  Your method will
use efficient techniques for discovering non-terminals which are
potentially pertinent to the subsequent induction of a biological
grammar and a parser which increases the speed at which biological
grammars may be acquired by an ILP system.

You should have a good honours degree in Computing or a cognate
discipline and some experience of bioinformatics research; or you may
have a background in the life sciences and have an advanced MSc in
Computing or a cognate discipline.  Preferably you will have a PhD in
Machine Learning or Bioinformatics or equivalent experience, as
demonstrated by a good publication record.  Experience of ILP, Prolog
or Parsers would be an advantage.  A good communicator and programmer,
you will bring an enthusiastic and organised approach to this
challenging position.

Informal enquiries to: Dr Chris Bryant Tel: +44 (0)1224 262475 E-mail:
chb at comp.rgu.ac.uk

Starting Salary: 18,265 - 27,339 GBP 

Further particulars and an application form are available from: Human
Resources Department, The Robert Gordon University, Schoolhill,
Aberdeen, AB10 1FR. www.rgujobs.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)1224 262085 E-mail:
staffrec at rgu.ac.uk

Closing Date: 25 November 2003