Research Associate in Artificial Intelligence for Autonomous Vehicles

The University of Edinburgh; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 49,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking university as a Research Associate in Artificial Intelligence for Autonomous Vehicles. This exciting role focuses on developing human-centered AI methods for shared autonomy and autonomous operation in urban environments. You will lead research initiatives, collaborate with experts across various fields, and contribute to groundbreaking projects that shape the future of mobility. If you are passionate about AI and robotics and eager to make a significant impact in a vibrant academic community, this position offers a unique opportunity to advance your career while addressing critical challenges in technology and society.

Benefits

Generous holiday entitlement

Competitive pension schemes

Staff discounts

Family-friendly initiatives

Comprehensive staff benefits

Qualifications

• PhD (or near completion) in AI and/or robotics focused on autonomous vehicles.
• Proven experience in developing field robotics systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead research on AI for autonomous vehicles in urban settings.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams for innovative solutions.

Skills

Artificial Intelligence

Robotics

Machine Learning

Decision Making

Human-Centered Design

Education

PhD in AI or Robotics

Master's in related fields

Tools

Field Robotics Systems

Machine Learning Frameworks

Job description

Research Associate in Artificial Intelligence for Autonomous Vehicles

Join to apply for the Research Associate in Artificial Intelligence for Autonomous Vehicles role at The University of Edinburgh

Research Associate in Artificial Intelligence for Autonomous Vehicles

1 week ago Be among the first 25 applicants

Join to apply for the Research Associate in Artificial Intelligence for Autonomous Vehicles role at The University of Edinburgh

UE07: £40,497.00 - £48,149.00 Per Annum.

CSE / School of Informatics.

Fixed Term Contract - 2 Years.

Full Time - 35 Hours Per Week.

The Opportunity

This post will be part of the Centre for AI for Assistive Autonomy, a mission-driven research centre established using a UKRI Turing AI World Leading Researcher Fellowship awarded to Prof Subramanian Ramamoorthy.

Job Description

UE07: £40,497.00 - £48,149.00 Per Annum.

CSE / School of Informatics.

Fixed Term Contract - 2 Years.

Full Time - 35 Hours Per Week.

The Opportunity

This post will be part of the Centre for AI for Assistive Autonomy, a mission-driven research centre established using a UKRI Turing AI World Leading Researcher Fellowship awarded to Prof Subramanian Ramamoorthy.

The post-holder will be the lead researcher anchoring laboratory activities in the area of Artificial Intelligence for autonomous vehicles, with a focus on human-centred settings including shared autonomy and autonomous operation in crowded urban environments. This represents one of the main application themes within the centre, alongside assistive technology in healthcare domains. This work benefits from parallel work of a foundations team, whose focus will be on fundamental investigations into generative modelling of the full stack of human behaviour, from sensorimotor control to higher level cognitive decision making, to enable the development of person-centred and teachable autonomous systems.

The post holder will be supervised by the Centre Director (Ramamoorthy). The post holder will also have the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues in a wide range of specialties across the University, including in machine learning and vision (e.g. Fisher, Mac Aodha, Bilen, Sevilla-Lara, Vergari), probabilistic programming (e.g. Narayanaswamy, Kammar, Belle), natural language understanding and interaction (e.g. Lascarides, Lapata, Gal), computational cognitive science and neuroscience (e.g. Lucas, Hennig, Nolan, Rajendran), as well as in robotics and neurotechnology (e.g. Vijayakumar, Nazarpour) and engineering of novel sensing and devices (Prodromakis, Koutsos, Amjadi). Beyond the university, the Centre will pursue collaborations with international teams including at The University of Texas at Austin (Stone), Stanford University (Kochenderfer), University of Bremen (Beetz) and Monash University (Burke).

The Centre will also have a strong industrial partner network, including Fourier Intelligence, Honda Research Europe, Shadow Robot, Sony Europe and other organisations who will be engaged in the Centre’s work at all stages, with the expectation that this network grows over time as the Centre’s work grows and begins to have broader impacts.

The central purpose of the job is to investigate human-centred AI methods to enable novel applications including shared autonomy and autonomous operation in crowded urban environments.

This work builds on an established track record with autonomous systems that been deployed in field trials within Five (a Bosch company). Following this earlier work and an equipment donation to establish new laboratory facilities, this post holder will be a crucial part of a new initiative within the university to explore emerging issues for next generation mobility systems. With the support of three research engineers who are part of this laboratory, we are undertaking efforts to create a novel Edinburgh dataset focussed on driving in dense urban environments, a resource that will be available for the post holder to build on.

The post holder will be expected to address a range of issues including the following:

• Real-time perception for human intention and environmental state inference
• Human-in-the-loop adaptation strategies for shared autonomy
• Interactive decision making methods in urban driving environments
• Planning and decision making in interactions involving vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclsists, etc.)
• Large scale data-driven modelling of driver behaviour in urban environments
  
  

The candidate is expected to take intellectual ownership of core scientific questions in this space, developing new ideas and driving collaborative projects towards significant publications, leveraging the expertise of the supervision team and other scientific collaborators.

It is also expected that the post holder will contribute to the development of new assets in the form of experimental robotic systems and demonstrators. These will be expected to make use of data and model assets created by other Centre researchers.

Essential

Your skills and attributes for success:

• A PhD (or near completion) in AI and/or robotics, with a focus on autonomous vehicles applications
• An excellent track record of publications in top-tier journals (e.g. IEEE Trans. or broad-interest science venues) and/or conferences in AI (e.g. IJCAI, AAAI, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR), robotics (e.g. R:SS, CoRL, ICRA), or allied areas
• Excellent proven experience of developing field robotics systems
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team, to meet deadlines, and to report on project progress
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly, orally and in writing.
  
  

Desirable

• Research experience with methods for learning and decision making in sequential decision making problems with humans in the loop
• Research experience with real-time perception and scene understanding methods based on state-of-the-art machine learning methods
• Hands-on experience of designing and conducting field experiments, including human subject studies
• Demonstrated experience of the development and management of projects involving multiple stakeholders.
  
  

Click to view a copy of the full job description (opens new browser tab)

Application Information

Please ensure you include the following documents in your application:

• CV
• Cover letter
  
  

Contact details for informal enquiries: Ram Ramamoorthy, [e-mail]

As a valued member of our team you can expect:

• A competitive salary
• An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work.
• To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community
• Comprehensive Staff Benefits, such as a generous holiday entitlement, competitive pension schemes, staff discounts, and family-friendly initiatives. Check out the full list on our staff benefits page (opens in a new tab) and use our reward calculator to discover the total value of your pay and benefits
  
  

Championing equality, diversity and inclusion

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.

Prior to any employment commencing with the University you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages (opens new browser tab)

The University is able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. If successful, an international applicant requiring sponsorship to work in the UK will need to satisfy the UK Home Office’s English Language requirements and apply for and secure a Skilled Worker Visa.

Key dates to note

The closing date for applications is 28 May 2025.

Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone.

About Us

As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.

About The Team

Informatics is the study of how natural and artificial systems store, process and communicate information. Research in Informatics promises to take information technology to a new level, and to place information at the heart of 21st century science, technology and society. The School enjoys collaborations across many disciplines in the University, spanning all three College, and also participates as a strategic partner in the Alan Turing Institute and, with Heriot-Watt University, in the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics.

The School provides a fertile environment for a wide range of studies focused on understanding computation in both artificial and natural systems. It attracts students around the world to study in our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and currently has approximately 1000 undergraduate students, 320 MSc students and 350 PhD students. Informatics is one of seven schools in the College of Science and Engineering, at the University of Edinburgh. It is recognised for the employability of its graduates (demand exceeds supply), its contributions to entrepreneurship, and the excellence of its research. Since the first Research Assessment Exercise in 1986, Informatics at Edinburgh has consistently been assessed to have more internationally excellent and world-class research than any other submission in Computer Science and Informatics. The latest REF 2014 results have again confirmed that ours is the largest concentration of internationally excellent research in the UK. This contributes to our ranking in the top 15 CS departments world-wide according to the latest Times Higher Education ranking.

We aim to ensure that our culture and systems support flexible and family-friendly working and recognise and value diversity across all our staff and students. The School has an active programme offering support and professional development for all staff; providing mentoring, training, and networking opportunities.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Engineering and Information Technology

• Industries

  Research Services

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