PhD Position Visual Data Efficiency

This PhD position is about fundamental visual recognition in the CV lab of the PRB section, INSY department, TU Delft. The research focuses on understanding-based research for data-efficient visual recognition.

Current models use hundreds of millions of images, while it is often unclear where all this data comes from. Much of the data is in the hands of large companies that do not share it and have extensive resources to process it. This is problematic for the long tail of companies and universities doing research and working with visual recognition models, because they neither have such amounts of data available nor the computational resources to process it.

The goal of this 4-year PhD project is to enable current models to use less data. With less data, it becomes easier to curate datasets and better address important societal challenges such as privacy, copyright, energy use, and bias in the data.

The candidates need to have, or be in the process of finishing, an MSc degree with ample demonstrable experience in doing research through a research-oriented project or thesis in the field of visual recognition, with a clear focus on understanding and/or efficiency.

Job requirements

• MSc degree in fundamental visual recognition: understanding and/or efficient deep learning

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

At TU Delft, doctoral candidates are offered a strong research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor through the TU Delft Graduate School. As a PhD candidate, you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School, and the Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing transferable, discipline-related and research skills.

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) brings together three scientific disciplines that reinforce each other and drive the technology used in daily life. The faculty offers strong opportunities for ground-breaking research, educates innovative engineers, and provides excellent labs and facilities in an international environment.

Conditions of employment

Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts: an initial 1.5-year contract with an official go/no-go progress assessment within 15 months, followed by an additional 2.5-year contract for the remaining period assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met.

The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, a monthly work costs contribution, and flexible work schedules can be arranged.

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a level that enables the candidate to communicate and interact effectively, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis.

As part of knowledge security, TU Delft conducts a risk assessment during the recruitment of personnel to help prevent the unwanted transfer of sensitive knowledge and technology. The assessment is based on information provided by candidates, such as their motivation letter and CV, and takes place in the final stages of the selection process.