RMIT University invites applications from a talented PhD candidate to undertake world-leading research in information retrieval in 2020.
Project details:
Project 1: “New Approaches to Interactive Sessional Search for Complex Tasks”
Exploratory search tasks are often open-ended, persistent, and multifaceted, but current search engines are ill-equipped to support complex information needs. In this project, we will devise new approaches to handling complex information needs and interpreting the intentions of users. We will create a system that steps well beyond current “web search”, and provide better-quality answers and greater certainty of successful outcomes for complex information-seeking tasks.
Project 2: “Machine Learning for Information Retrieval”
In this project, we will explore novel applications of machine learning in large-scale search engines. In particular, we will investigate applications of high-performance machine learning in early-stage candidate generation for various query reformulation and parameter prediction tasks, develop and evaluate new deep learning models for improving effectiveness in reranking and result presentation stages.
Worth of Award
- Scholarships are valued at $31,000 per annum for three years with a possible six-month extension (as of 2019), and additional travel funding will be provided to attend international conferences.
Eligibility
Eligibility for these scholarships requires at least one of the following:
- A first-class honours degree in Computer Science (or a closely related field such as Mathematics / Electrical Engineering) from an Australian University;
- An MS degree in Computer Science with a major thesis component.
- Ranked in the top 10% in your class at a reputable national university;
- Ranked in the top third of your class at a Top 100 research university by world standards (CMU, ANU, Tsinghua, etc); or
- A publication in one of the following venues: SIGIR, WSDM, WWW, SIGKDD, NeurIPS, ICML, RecSys, ACL, NAACL, COLING, SPIRE, ECIR, CHIIR, ADCS, TOIS, TKDE, IPM, IRJ.
In addition, having one or more of the following is desirable:
- A personal recommendation describing your research abilities from someone known by the supervisors, or a well-known research leader in a closely related field;
- Prizes or awards from significant Mathematics/CS competitions such as the Math Olympiad or the ACM Programming Contest; and/or
- Outstanding programming ability as evidenced by a history of open source contributions through GitHub or other means.
All applicants Meet RMIT University’s entry requirements for the Higher Degree by Research programs.
How to Apply
To apply, please submit the following documents to A/Prof Shane Culpepper
- curriculum vitae
- academic transcripts
- In addition, you should submit a formal Expression of Interest as described on the School of Science website so that all relevant information can be captured for shortlisted candidates.
- Prospective candidates will be required to submit a formal application for admission to the PhD Computer Science program (DR221) as per instructions available on the School of Science HDR website after the screening process.
- Scholarship applications will only be successful if prospective candidates are provided with an offer for admission.
Deadline: positions will remain open until filled.