Vacant job

Job Responsibilities

The latest developments in commercially mature humanoid robotic systems and advanced generative AI have created the technical foundation for meaningful robot assistance in home environments.

KTH has recently been granted a Promobilia-funded project, Situated Agentic Interaction (SAInt) (https://www.speech.kth.se/saint/ (https://www.speech.kth.se/saint/)), aimed at developing and evaluating humanoid assistance robots that can understand context, learn through spoken interaction, and offer proactive support. The overarching goal of SAInt is to go beyond traditional command-driven assistance robots by developing agentic systems that can understand context, infer user goals through natural multimodal communication, and proactively collaborate as an integrated part of everyday activities.

We are now seeking a postdoctoral researcher with an interest in generative AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and human-robot interaction.

Your Role

You will collaborate with three principal investigators (PIs) and a postdoctoral researcher in supervising three PhD students who are developing the project's core technologies. A central part of the work is to design and conduct experiments in human-robot interaction to evaluate the iteratively developed humanoid robot. The robot should be able to understand the user's goals, actions, ongoing activities, and cognitive states, in order to determine when and how verbal and physical assistance should be provided.

Qualifications

Requirements

• A completed PhD or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a PhD in computer science, machine learning, computational linguistics, robotics, human-computer interaction, or a related field. This eligibility requirement must be met by the time the employment decision is made.
• Documented experience in experimentally evaluating robots that interact via speech.
• Good programming skills (e.g., Python, PyTorch).
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary team.

Desirable

• At the time of application, no more than three years since the PhD was awarded or a foreign degree deemed equivalent.
• Previous experience in developing and evaluating robots that interact via speech.
• Awareness of diversity and equality issues, with a particular focus on gender equality.

We will place great emphasis on personal qualities.

Become a Part of KTH

KTH shapes the future through education, research, and innovation. As a leading international technical university, we play an active role in driving and participating in the transition to a sustainable society. Here, you are offered the opportunity to grow and develop in a creative and dynamic workplace with good working conditions and benefits. Gender equality, diversity, and equal opportunities are quality issues and an obvious part of KTH's core values as a university and public authority.

https://www.kth.se/om/jobba-pa-kth (https://www.kth.se/om/jobba-pa-kth)

Union Representatives

Contact information at https://www.kth.se/om/work-at-kth/fackrepresentanter-1.500898 (https://www.kth.se/om/work-at-kth/fackrepresentanter-1.500898)

Application

You apply via KTH's recruitment system. As an applicant, you have the main responsibility for ensuring that your application is complete when submitted.

The application should include:

• CV including relevant professional experience and knowledge.
• Copy of degree certificates and transcripts from your previous university studies. Translations into English or Swedish if the original documents are not issued in either of these languages.
• A brief account of why you wish to pursue research, your academic interests, and how they relate to your previous studies and future goals. Maximum 2 pages long.

The application must be received by KTH no later than the application deadline at midnight, CET/CEST (Central European Time/Central European Summer Time).

About the Employment

The employment is permanent, but for a maximum of two years.

A https://www.arbetsgivarverket.se/globalassets/arbetsgivarverket/avtal-och-skrifter/avtal/avtal-om-tidsbegransad-anstallning-som-postdoktor/avtal-om-tidsbegransad-anstallning-som-postdoktor-2021-11-19.pdf (https://www.arbetsgivarverket.se/globalassets/arbetsgivarverket/avtal-och-skrifter/avtal/avtal-om-tidsbegransad-anstallning-som-postdoktor/avtal-om-tidsbegransad-anstallning-som-postdoktor-2021-11-19.pdf) is a fixed-term qualification position primarily focused on research intended as a first career step after the doctoral degree.

Other

For https://www.kth.se/om/work-at-kth/fackrepresentanter-1.500898 (https://www.kth.se/om/work-at-kth/fackrepresentanter-1.500898) in connection with recruitment.

It may occur that an employment at KTH is classified in a security class. If this is the case for this particular employment, a security review of the applicant will be conducted in accordance with the Security Protection Act (2018:585) after consent. In such cases, a prerequisite for employment is that the applicant is approved after the security review.

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