Joint Postdoctoral Research Position in Computer Vision: Centre for AI Research, South Africa/ University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research position in the area of Computer vision in the newly established UKZN/CSIR Meraka Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CAIR) within the School of Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: http://cair.cs.ukzn.ac.za

The researcher will contribute to two video surveillance system (VSS) research projects within CAIR. The first is the development of a video
surveillance system using unmanned aerial vehicles. This project seeks to explore the use of relative mapping techniques such as V-SLAM for automatic 3-D modelling of outdoor environments. Potential applications are wildlife, forestry and agricultural monitoring. The second project is the use of knowledge representation and reasoning techniques within a system for analysing fish behaviour from underwater video. This project seeks to explore the potential of knowledge representation and reasoning techniques such as formal ontologies and bayesian networks
to facilitate knowledge capture and reasoning at each of the layers of a typical video surveillance system (VSS), viz. low level image processing, tracking and occlusion, scene modelling, behaviour analysis and event detection. This project is linked to the FISH4K project coordinated by the machine vision unit at UED (http://fish4knowledge.eu).

Strong preference will be given to candidates with experience in Computer Vision or machine learning. The successful applicant will be based primarily in Durban, South Africa, and will undertake short research placements to the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom (UED). The application will be jointly supervised by Dr Deshen Moodley at CAIR and Professor Bob Fisher at UED. The position is for a duration of one year and is renewable for a second year, subject to satisfactory progress.

Eligibility Criteria:

– A doctoral degree in Computer Science or related area.
– Appropriate experience to undertake postdoctoral research in the specified area.

Funding for the position will range from R180 000 to R270 000 per year comprising of:

– A tax free scholarship of R 180 000 for one year and subject to satisfactory  progress, renewable for a second year.
– A topup of up to R 90 000 per year from CAIR, depending on the experience  of the candidate and the availability of funds.

There is no application deadline. The position will be filled as soon as an appropriate candidate is identified. More details on the application process can be found on the CAIR website:

http://cair.cs.ukzn.ac.za/?page_id=501

Contact Deshendran Moodley <moodleyd37@ukzn.ac.za> for informal inquiries.