[ecoop-info] Ph.D. position in Canada

[Amal.Zouaq at rmc.ca]

Dear Colleagues,
Please find below a Ph.D. position offer in Canada. 

The Semantic Technologies Lab at the Royal Military College of Canada is recruiting PhD
students for the OntoCmaps project. The positions include a Ph.D. research assistantship and
support for conference travel and equipment.
Qualifications
The ideal candidate would:
• have a background in knowledge extraction, data mining, NLP and/or machine learning
• have some knowledge on the Semantic Web and ontologies
• have (or soon receive) a Master’s degree in computer science/engineering, informatics, or
related fields
• be really excited about the project, persistent and hard-working
• have a researcher's attitude (to not be satisfied with the first explanation!)
• like to read, write and present
• be ok investing 3+ years as a "research assistant" (aka PhD student)
The OntoCmaps Project
In the context of the Semantic Web, the extraction, update and evaluation of formal conceptual
models (domain ontologies and rules) from unstructured and structured knowledge sources is an
important challenge. This task is particularly difficult when the adopted approach is an open
(domain independent) and unsupervised (without any guidance) knowledge extraction. However,
such a domain independent approach is crucial to the interoperability and reuse of ontology
learning methodologies across various applications and domains. The interest of the availability
of a complete ontology (with all its layers) is that it is essential for agents to reason over
semantic data and this will provide effective knowledge retrieval capabilities.
The OntoCmaps project aims at developing a domain independent methodology and a set of
tools for learning the ontology layers (terms, taxonomy, conceptual relations, relation
hierarchies, axioms and axiom schemata) from unstructured knowledge sources. In particular, we
aim at automatically learning the three last layers, which has been done very rarely in the state of
the art. The research also explores filtering techniques that identify important information and
integration techniques that adequately combine knowledge coming from various sources. The
long-term objective of this research is to build learning-by-reading systems by exploring the
integration of deep semantic analysis, filtering and knowledge integration techniques. Our
current application domains are the biomedical domain and the eLearning domain.
The Royal Military College of Canada and the Semantic Technologies Lab
The Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), established in 1876, is the only federal institution
in Canada with degree granting powers. Programmes are available at the undergraduate and
graduate levels on site through traditional studies and by distance learning through the Division
of Continuing Studies. There are possibilities to take courses at Queen's University as well. The
Semantic Technologies Lab is specialized in knowledge extraction in the context of the Semantic
Web. By joining the Lab, you will develop your skills in edge technologies needed in both
academia and industry. You will also have the opportunity to have close collaborations
(including internships, visits, joint conferences) with other institutions including Simon Fraser
University and Athabasca University, thus allowing multiple research experiences.
Links
RMC: http://www.rmc.ca/
Tuition Fees: http://www.rmc.ca/aca/reg-sc/fees-fs-eng.asp
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River
flows out of Lake Ontario. Located midway between Toronto and Montreal, Kingston is the site
of two universities, Queen's University and the Royal Military College of Canada, and a
community college, St. Lawrence College. According to Statistics Canada, Kingston has the
most PhD-holders per capita of any city in Canada. Kingston sits amid excellent cruising and
boating territory, with easy access to Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and the Thousand
Islands including the St. Lawrence Islands National Park. Kingston was recognized as one of the
"best places to live and work in Canada for young professionals" The city ranked # 4 on a list of
27 Canadian cities with a population of 100,000 or more in a study of the likes and dislikes of
professionals between the ages of 20-40. The study, by Next Generation Consulting, considered
factors such as: earning potential (things like employment opportunities and household incomes),
cost of lifestyle (the cost of food, clothing and housing), vitality (air and water quality and green
space) and after hours activities (things to do during week nights and on the weekend).
Application Process
The application deadline is June 15th, 2011, but we will consider applications until the positions
are filled. The start date is September 2011 (but could be negotiable for a very strong candidate).
Candidates interested in a position are asked to contact amal.zouaq at rmc.ca before submitting an
official application. The subsequent official application process is described on the RMC web
site: http://www.rmc.ca/
Candidates are requested to also submit (to amal.zouaq at rmc.ca):
1. A statement of interest
2. A list of publications (if any) and a CV
3. A list of contributions to open-source software projects (if any)
4. Their Master’s thesis (if any; applicants who are not finished yet should include a draft)


Amal Zouaq 
Professeure adjointe | Assistant professor
Département de mathématiques et d'informatique|
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Collège militaire royal du Canada | Royal Military College of Canada
CP 17000, Succursale Forces, Kingston ON CANADA K7K 7B4
amal.zouaq at rmc.ca
Office | Bureau Girouard 320
Telephone | Téléphone 613-541-6000 # 6478
Fax | Télécopieur 613-541-6584
http://azouaq.athabascau.ca/

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