PhD position in Bioinformatic/computer engineering, Korea

Ghent University Global Campus, Korea (GUGC-K) is the first campus of Ghent University outside Belgium. This brand new campus is situated in Incheon, South-Korea. GUGC-K integrates educational and research facilities in a single building. Ghent University has the ambition to organize a first-rate, truly European education in Asia and to develop excellent research in the fields of Molecular biotechnology, Environmental and Food technology. While the candidate will mainly work under the supervision of Prof. Wesley De Neve located at the campus in Korea, he/she will be co-supervised by Prof. Rik Van de Walle located in Ghent.

The candidate will therefore have the opportunity to spend at least one month every summer at the campus in Ghent during the course of his/her PhD. The terms of employment at GUGC-K are comparable to those at the campus in Ghent. However, free student accommodation and a yearly travel budget are foreseen.

Job description

• to conduct applied research in the area of (large-scale) machine learning, with a particular focus on applying deep learning techniques to visual and/or textual biotech data (e.g., parasite detection in microscopic images, genomic data analysis, plant growth analysis, drug discovery, …).
• to assist his/her supervisor in teaching undergraduate informatics courses at Ghent University Global Campus, Korea (a first course on scientific programming using Python and a second course on bioinformatics algorithms).

Starting date: 15th August 2015.

Qualifications

• hold or expect to hold by August 2015 a master degree in one of the following disciplines: computer science, electrical engineering, or (applied) mathematics. Exceptional candidates from other science/engineering backgrounds will also be considered.
• have a high level of comfort with computer programming (e.g., C/C++ and/or Python) and mathematics.
• be highly motivated to conduct applied research in the area of (large-scale) machine learning.
• have an excellent academic track record, an excellent command of English (a minimum score of 80 on the TOEFL iBT test), and good academic writing and presentation skills.
• experience with libraries for machine/deep learning, computer vision, and/or GPU programming is a plus.

How to apply

Applications should be sent no later than June 15th, 2015 by email to wesley.deneve@ghent.ac.kr with the application letter, the required transcripts (copies of degrees), an overview of the study results, and a PDF version of the master’s thesis. The candidate will receive an e-mail confirming receipt of the application.