Researcher - Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (24 months fixed term) (092020-315)

Made in the Midlands and The School of Computing and Digital Technology at Birmingham City University (BCU) are looking to appoint a high calibre graduate in the broad area of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Birmingham City University is a large and diverse place to study right in the heart of Birmingham City Centre.

The School of Computing and Digital Technology at Birmingham City University (BCU) is partnering with Made in the Midlands on a 24 month Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP).  Made in Midlands curates an online platform serving the Midlands manufacturing community, offering subscribed members opportunities to connect and collaborate with each other via online activities & face-to-face networking events.  This KTP project will enable the company to scale its business across the country while improving its services and reducing sales costs by employing novel Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods for matching potential and existing members (madeinthemidlands.com). 

This position forms part of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme co-funding by a grant through Innovate UK.  It is essential you understand how KTP works with business and the University, and the vital role you will play if you successfully secure this position. KTPs offer a wide range of benefits including access to a £4,000 Personal Development budget to upskill during the project. For more information on KTP please go to  https://bcuadvantage.co.uk/innovate/ktp/

The successful graduate will be employed by the University and will be based full time at Made in the Midlands, in Birmingham (B7 4BB) where they will lead on the technical development of the project and be supported by academics from BCU’s School of Computing and Digital Technology. 

The position is for 24 months. The expected start date is as soon as is practical. 

The Role:

The project will involve designing and implementing a NoSQL database, along with novel streaming graph embedding methods to realise a series of dynamic matching services. 

Responsibilities:

• Researching available data storage solutions;

• Designing and implementing an appropriate data collection and storage infrastructure;

• Migrating existing data to the new data storage infrastructure;

• Developing streaming graph embedding methods;

• Implementing a series of AI-based matching and recommendation services;

• Interacting with a variety of stakeholders (e.g. senior management, other employees, academics, customers);

• Interacting with manufacturing companies across the UK (e.g. to collect requirements and feedback, train users);

• Participating in regular meetings with the KTP team;

• Writing research papers, reports, technical specifications, training material and white papers;

• Developing project and personal development plan;

• Acquiring new knowledge and skills as required by the role;

• Participating in the KTP residential training programme.

Skills and Experience:

Applicants must have BSc, MSc or PhD degree in Computer Science or related subject area, along with the following skills.

Essential:

• Programming in Python, Java and/or C#;

• Setting up NoSQL databases;

• Performing data analysis and visualisation;

• Developing machine learning and/or natural language processing pipelines;

• Excellent English verbal and written communication skills;

• Excellent problem-solving and time-management skills;

• Excellent team-building and customer-relationships skills.

Desirable:

• Setting up graph databases such as ArangoDB or Neo4j;

• Using cloud computing services such as AWS;

• Training deep learning models;

• Applying graph embedding methods;

• Developing software and/or mobile applications;

• Deploying software applications, machine learning models and/or data processing pipelines in production;

• Working with real-time applications.

For an informal discussion, please contact Dr Yevgeniya Kovalchuk (yevgeniya.kovalchuk@bcu.ac.uk) or Dr Abdel-Rahman Tawil (abdel-rahman.tawil@bcu.ac.uk).

CLOSING DATE FOR ADVERT AND APPLICATIONS IS SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER 2020

Closing Date: 25 Oct 2020
Category: Research