About the Role

The Research Assistant / Associate role is funded by an Innovate UK grant in the context of the ITEA 4 2023 programme.  The overall aim of this project is to improve organizational resilience through the development of novel technological solutions that strengthen the ability of an organization to adapt to changing conditions. In particular, this post has a focus on developing a new generation of cognitive robots, which are able to make sense of the environment in which they operate and identify anomalies, e.g., health and safety violations in hospital settings.

About the Unit

KMi

The Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) is a multidisciplinary corporate R&D lab for The Open University, committed to world class research at the forefront of AI and new media technology. The research conducted in the context of these projects covers a diverse set of analysis for online communities, personal need and event detection, and monitoring and predicting behaviour based on large data sets.

The Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) was set up in 1995 in recognition of the need for The Open University (OU) to be at the forefront of research and development in a convergence of areas that impacted on the OU’s very nature: Cognitive and Learning Sciences, Knowledge Technologies, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Multimedia, and Human-Computer Interaction. Over the past 30 years, KMi has established itself as a major player on the world stage of research in AI and new media technologies, acquiring over £50M in external funding. A key aspect of KMi research is its focus on concrete user audiences and, indeed, throughout its existence, KMi has deployed research solutions that have led to significant innovations in both academic and commercial settings.

STEM

The Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) comprises:

• School of Computing & Communications
• School of Environment, Earth & Ecosystem Sciences
• School of Engineering & Innovation
• School of Life, Health & Chemical Sciences
• School of Mathematics & Statistics
• School of Physical Sciences
• Knowledge Media Institute

The STEM Faculty consists of 2500 staff including 1,800 Associate Lecturers. It delivers over 185 modules across undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum, supporting nearly 19,000 students (full time equivalents) which is 29% of the OU total.

The Faculty generates more research income (circa £17M) than any other Faculty in the University, supported by a comprehensive laboratory infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities

• To become familiar with the state of the art in object recognition and sensemaking in robotics.
• To develop novel sensemaking solutions for cognitive robots, which can perform effectively in the hospital settings relevant to the project.
• To perform rigorous task-centric evaluations of the developed solutions.
• To publish project results in high quality journals and conferences
• To collaborate effectively with our project partners. 

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• PhD or equivalent experience in robotics.
• Experience with ROS (Robot Operating System).
• Experience in using state of the art methods for object recognition and sensemaking in robotics.
• Experience with Machine Learning and Large Language Models.
• Experience in the evaluation of AI solutions.
• Able to draft technical reports and journal papers
• Excellent oral and written communication skills 

Essential Requirements

To apply for this role please submit the following;

• CV that includes details of academic qualifications, teaching and research experience, grants received and publications.
• Supporting Statement that outlines how you meet the essential criteria listed above.

You will need to have your CV and Supporting Statement ready ahead of submitting the electronic application.

Next Steps

Interview date: Likely to be W/C 14th July via MS Teams. 

Candidates will be notified as soon as possible after the closing date whether they have been shortlisted for interview.

Work location

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where you can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that attendance on our Milton Keynes campus will be required when necessary and in response to business needs, for example for laboratory-based research and/or supervision of research students or occasional team meetings. This is likely to be 2-3 days per week. 

Flexible working 

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what may work for you and the role.

For informal enquiries about this position, please contact Prof Enrico Motta at enrico.motta@open.ac.uk