Research Fellow in Trusted Human-Machine Teaming

The role will be part of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub (TAS Hub). The Hub is led by the University of Southampton with partners from the University of Nottingham and King's College London. TAS Hub is the focal point of the £33m UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems programme (for more details see www.tas.ac.uk )

The role will involve carrying out research in explainable artificial intelligence and machine ethics with the objective of developing trustworthy autonomous systems that are deployed in socio-technical contexts. Research will need to be carried out to address one or more of the following questions:

• How to design algorithms that can support human decision making in human-machine teaming applications while ensuring human users can interrogate and interpret the decisions made by the system?
• How to design human-machine interactions to ensure humans can manage large amounts of data produced by AI systems?
• How to engineer human-machine teaming systems to ensure the risks they pose are measurable?
• How to develop principles to certify or regulate human-machine teams?

The research will need to generalise across more than one application domain (e.g., healthcare, autonomous vehicles, IoT, etc..). The role will also require collaborating with partners from across the TAS Hub and the wider TAS programme (i.e., the 60+ TAS hub industrial partners and the TAS Nodes). This will Include the opportunity to undertake industry placements for periods of up to 12 months.

Work will need to be carried out in a multi-disciplinary setting involving experts and researchers from fields such as healthcare, law, engineering, business, and policy. Hence it will be important to be able to communicate research outputs in a way that is understandable and useful to researchers from diverse disciplines.

To be successful you will have a PhD or equivalent professional qualifications and experience in Machine Learning and/or Machine Ethics and/or Artificial Intelligence and/or Computer Science and/or Human Factors and/or Human Robot Interaction and/or Human Computer Interaction with a track record of publishing research.

Applications for Research Fellow positions will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification. The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon successful completion of the PhD. Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given.

Interviews will be scheduled for 6th/7th January 2021.

Equality, diversity and Inclusion is central to the ethos in the School of Electronics and Computer Science. We particularly encourage women, Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME), LGBT and disabled applicants to apply for this position. We are committed to improving equality for women in science and have been successful in achieving an Athena SWAN bronze award in April 2020. We give full consideration to applicants that wish to work flexibly including part-time and due consideration will be given to applicants who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy*, onsite childcare facilities

The University of Southampton is in the top 1% of world universities and in the top 10 of the UK's research-intensive universities. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and being a globally responsible university and has recently been awarded the Platinum EcoAward. Our vision is to embed the principles of sustainability into all aspects of our individual and collective work, integrating sustainable development into our business planning, policy-making, and professional activities. This commits all of our staff and students to take responsibility for managing their activities to minimise harm to the environment, whether this through switching off non-essential electrical equipment or using the recycling facilities.

*subject to qualifying criteria

We aim to be an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.