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The positions are filled - thanks again for the numerous applications! Due to limited funding we had to reject several great candidates, but we hope we'll be able to announce new positions soon! Jürgen Schmidhuber, 2006.
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at IDSIA
Cogbotlab

Position at TU Munich:
Sequence Learning

(1-3 years / wiss. Mitarbeiter BAT IIa or BAT 1b)
a robot hand at TUM
Location: The robot lab at TUM is a great place for adaptive robotics, with state-of- the-art facilities, several unique and expensive robots (25 by last count, not counting the small ones), many connections to other leading robotics institutes, and strong interaction with machine learning researchers at IDSIA (Switzerland).

Start: 1 Dec 2006 or later. Salary according to the official BAT IIa or BAT 1b scale. There is travel funding available in case of papers accepted at important conferences. Occasional participation in teaching / tutoring is expected. Knowledge of German would be a plus, but is not mandatory.

Prof. Schmidhuber (of TUM and IDSIA) is seeking an outstanding postdoc (or possibly PhD students) interested in Sequence Learning, in particular, statistical models such as Hidden Markov Models, Recurrent Neural Networks, Evolino, and Support Vector Machines. We anticipate that the work will be funded through a project on Tactile Sensing. The project also involves neurobiologists and hardware experts building artificial haptic devices. Our goal is to process and analyze sequential data obtained by other teams in the project consortium, in particular, data from artificial fingers with haptic sensors, and from neurophysiological measurements. Possible subgoals are: to improve existing sequence learning algorithms, to recognize objects by touching them, improving the artificial fingers etc.

The job will involve some interaction with experts in the UK, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Applicants should submit as soon as possible: (i) Curriculum vitae, (ii) List of three references and their email addresses, (iii) Brief statement on how their research interests fit the topics above.

first robots to tie knots
Submit your application as plain text file (or pdf) by email to juergen@ idsia.ch. Do NOT send large files; instead send URLs. In the subject header, please mention your name and the keyword bat2006eu. For example, if your name is Jo Mo, use subject: Jo Mo bat2006eu.
Above: robot hand of the Artesimit project. More. Left: The first bots to tie knots! More.
tum logo
TUM is a leader in the fields of automation and robotics. The recent FOCUS and SPIEGEL surveys (2004) ranked TUM first among Germany's universities, right ahead of Munich's LMU. TUM CS has strong connections to industry leaders such as Munich's BMW and Siemens, both headquartered in Munich. Many foreign tech companies also have their German headquarters here, such as GE and Microsoft.
14 Nobel laureates (the most recent one of 2005) are associated with Munich, 4 of them with TUM. Not counting Einstein and others who just went to school here.
BMW building and museum
tum logo
Munich is one of the world's most livable places (ranked 2nd among the world's cities with over a million inhabitants, after Vienna, according to 2006 & 2005 surveys), and gets consistently voted as Germany's most attractive city. Lots of culture & fun, 100,000 students, the world's largest festival (Oktoberfest), the world's oldest & largest technical museum, scenic Bavarian surroundings with lakes, rivers, hills, meadows, bikepaths, castles, and beer gardens, close to major ski areas etc.
Schmidhuber has seen the world, and claims there is no more beautiful region than the pre-alpine land between Munich and the Alps. (He's biased though - he was born in Munich.)
Neuschwanstein
Einstein
Why do a postdoc in Germany? It is a fine place for scientists and inventors, with a long tradition of fundamental breakthroughs that define today's world, including Western bookprint, the calculator, the binary system & calculus, watches & other small machines, math a la Gauss, the second industrial revolution based on the combustion engine & the car & the first practical dynamo & electric locomotion, the germ theory of disease, the modern research university, general relativity, quantum physics, population explosion, the computer, controlled heavy flight, the helicopter, the jetplane, uranium fission, missiles, X-rays, and innumerable others.
Until the mid 20th century Germany boasted more Nobel prizes than any other nation. And it is still a fine place for robotics: the world's second largest producer and user of robots, after Japan, and origin of the first robot cars. And it is the world's largest exporter.
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