Research Software Engineer (Kinds of Intelligence) (Fixed Term)

The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), University of Cambridge, is seeking a part-time Software Engineer to contribute to a two-year project focused on developing a benchmark for measuring the ability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents on real-world data science tasks. The Software Engineer will join the Kinds of Intelligence team at CFI, a multidisciplinary team comprising expertise in Computer Science, AI, cognitive science, and others.

This Software Engineer post is within the Kinds of Intelligence program at the CFI. The Animal-AI Project, led by Professor Lucy Cheke, uses the Unity platform to create cognitive tasks based on research in Developmental Psychology and Animal Cognition. These are then used to assess and explore the cognitive capacities of AI agents, with the aim of developing new benchmarks within machine intelligence. The team ran the "Animal-AI Olympics" competition in 2019, and have since been upgrading the environment and test bed for the next generation of cognitive tests. One key feature of these assessments is that they are in the form of computer games, allowing assessment of cognitive abilities both in humans and AI agents on a comparable metric.

The role holder takes technical responsibility for support and continuous improvement of The Animal AI platform. In particular, they will be working alongside researchers to create research-focused improvements to the platform including new features, both in terms of environmental objects and in terms of user-accessibility. We expect the successful candidate to be capable to work independently and in collaboration with others, to possess very strong programming skills, preferably with experience with Python, C#, and/or Unity. Experience with creating and maintaining Python libraries, producing production-level code, handling virtual coding environments, GPU programming (e.g., CUDA, JAX), and training and evaluating AI agents (especially Deep Reinforcement Learning agents) would be beneficial. Experience conducting research would also be beneficial.

This role will be part time (0.2 FTE) and fixed term for 2 years.

CFI is a highly interdisciplinary research centre addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence (AI), in both the short and long term. CFI is based at the University of Cambridge, with partners in Imperial College London, and UC Berkeley, and close links with industry and policymakers. More information is available at: https://www.lcfi.ac.uk/.

Further information on how to apply can be found on the last page of the Further Particulars below.

Informal enquiries are welcomed and should be directed to Professor Lucy Cheke on lgc23@cam.ac.uk.If you have any queries on the application process, please contact the School's HR Team on  sahhr@admin.cam.ac.uk.

The closing date for applications is midnight (GMT) on Sunday 5 January 2025. Interviews are planned for the week commencing 20 January 2025, subject to change.

To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, please click the 'Apply' button above. 

Please quote reference GO44334 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

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