PhD position on Auditing and Evaluating Human-Centred AI

PhD position on Auditing and Evaluating Human-Centred AI

Job description

Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has enjoyed an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative center of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Belonging to the best research universities of Europe and joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.

The Faculty of Economics and Business offers an inspiring study and working environment for students and employees. International accreditation enables the Faculty to assess performance against the highest international standards. It also creates an exciting environment of continuous improvement. FEB's programmes, academic staff and research do well on various excellence ranking lists.

FEBRI, the graduate school and research institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business has available a PhD position Auditing and Evaluating Human-Centred AI (1.0 FTE)

The ubiquitous availability of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) has created significant opportunities but has also raised concerns about the trustworthiness of AI outcomes. Explainability, accountability, autonomy, and robustness requirements are of fundamental importance for trustworthiness, but are often not yet sufficiently addressed. Furthermore, integration into operational workflows requires moving from iterative prompting and querying of AI models to intelligent AI agents’ concepts, through agentic workflows. These are among the prime targets of the newly approved AIEXPERT project: “An agentic, multi-layer, GenAI-powered backbone to make an AI system explainable, accountable, and transparent”. AIEXPRT envisions a future where AI systems are explainable, transparent, accountable, and robust, fostering trust in human-machine interactions. The AIXPERT solutions will measure the efficiency and accuracy of AI systems and will also provide contextual explanations, offering insights into the data and models used to generate outcomes. The integration of Knowledge Graphs (KGs) with AI agents will link the data and the actions taken by AI agents. Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) will enable AI to learn and adapt based on real-time user interactions. The dynamic creation and configuration of AI agents will allow users to customise and deploy agents, primarily powered by Large Language Models (LLMs). AIXPERT will leverage human-centred design principles, incorporating participatory design and usability studies. Your research will target the development of an AI auditing and evaluation framework. It will be conducted working closely with the AIEXPERT project partners. It is expected to contribute towards the development of social equity-centred and ethically AI aligned models. Furthermore, it will research the integration of Knowledge Graphs and Large Language Models (LLMs) for enhanced decision-making in the multi-domain contexts. Cross-domain validation and societal impact assessment of AI systems, will be demonstrated in the domains of clinical decision-support systems in healthcare, HRM and hiring processes, manufacturing production processes, educational robotics and AI-assisted music generation.

Your role

You will work within the Department of Operations. The AIEXPERT project involves collaboration within a consortium which includes technology providers (including AI providers), industry experts from multiple domains, academic & research institutions, and other organisations, offering the right partnership mix of stakeholders to integrate a multi-stakeholder viewpoint on the research. The project will offer you opportunities to develop and apply your skills in impactful research. You will be expected to contribute to project research towards novel approaches for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence (HCAI), leading to high quality research outcomes, including technical reporting and publications, informed by and serving the needs of industrial use cases. You will also participate and represent the University of Groningen team in project regular meetings, will contribute to project activities, and will engage with project partners and external stakeholders, demonstrating own initiative.

You will be supervised by Dr Christos Emmanouilidis (promotor) and co-supervised by Dr Laura Maruster (co-promotor) from the Operations Department. As part of international collaboration, and subject of interest, the possibility of additional co-supervision from the ATHENA Research and Innovation Centre in Information, Communication, and Knowledge Technologies (AIEXPERT project co-ordinator) will be considered.

Qualifications

Requirements and Qualifications

• A Master’s degree in Management / Industrial Engineering, Engineering, Computing/Data Science, or other science domain relevant to the project (completed or near completion).
• You should be a proactive, self-driven individual, with critical thinking, who can excel in an environment that offers collaboration options, within the supervising and organisation teams, but also within the extensive project partnership, able to perform within project timescales.
• Competences in data analytics, machine learning / AI (for example in Python and relevant machine learning libraries), as well as interest and ability to expand such competences.
• Experience with programming for data management and data integration would be an advantage.
• Experience with working with topics relevant to the project (such as Large Language Models; Intelligent Agents; Knowledge Graphs, AI trustworthiness) will be an advantage.
• Excellent technical and research report writing skills, including excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Ability and interest in combining theory with experimental research.
• Readiness and willingness to engage/collaborate with consortium partners and other researchers as a team player working in an interdisciplinary environment.

Conditions of employment

We offer you in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities

• A gross monthly salary from a minimum of € 2,901 which increases yearly to a maximum of € 3,707.
• An additional 8% holiday allowance each year in May, and an additional 8.3 % end of year bonus in December.
• A temporary full-time appointment for a period of four years, under the condition of a positive assessment at the end of the first year. PhD candidates usually contribute 20% of their time to teaching in years 2-4.

Starting date: September 1, 2025 (earlier start is possible).

For information you can contact: Dr. Christos Emmanouilidis, c.emmanouilidis rug.nl