Research Officer

The Essex Artificial Intelligence Innovation Centre brings together the research skills, expertise and technologies across our Faculty of Humanities, Science and Health, and Social Sciences to address the grand challenges facing citizens, workers, and all those technologists in sectors undergoing the digital transformation to create new - or modify existing - business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements.

We have the ambition of developing a sustainable funding model for our research fit for the rigours of the emerging UK research environment. We reach beyond the confines of academia as we have a clear mandate to work with business partners in the UK and overseas. We’re different because we bring a commercial mind-set to our work. We start with and are responsive to business needs. We work hard to make sure they are getting the outputs they need, when they need them. We’re not bound by tradition and offer fresh perspective and innovation in all we do.

Recently, we secured funding from Horizon Europe for the project ARISE (GA 101135959). As part of this 4-year project we aim to realise a robotic platform that focuses on two crucial industrial sectors that can drive the European Green Deal progress, namely Energy and Agriculture. ARISE will be driven by the needs of Solar Panel installation and maintenance and the harvesting of hydroponic lettuce. It will be validated on five highly challenging Use Case Scenarios, including but not limited to, picking up and moving Solar Panels in collaboration with human workers, transplanting delicate lettuce pieces and repairing solar panel back-sheets with silicon-based sealants. This set of scenarios involves extremely diverse requirements in terms of long-sequence task accomplishment, complex, contact-rich manipulation and physical Human-Robot Interaction.

Duties of the Role

The purpose of this post is to deliver part of the Horizon Europe project ARISE (https://arise-robotics.eu/)

A full list of duties and responsibilities (Research; Leadership and Citizenship) can be found within the job pack.

This appointment will be on a fixed-term, full-time basis until 31 December 2026 in line with the temporary funding and will be based at Granta Park, Cambridge (TWI site).

Qualifications and Skills required

You will hold a relevant Bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent professional experience or practice.

You must have evidence of an emerging research agenda, engagement in high-quality research activity and a developing research profile.

In addition, you will have experience with computer vision and deep learning, Python (programming language) and PyTorch (deep learning framework).

Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, are essential.

At the University of Essex, internationalism and diversity is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries, faiths and backgrounds, where you can find the world in one place.

Please use the 'Apply' button to read further information about this role including the full job description and person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role. You will also find details of how to make your application here.

Our website http://www.essex.ac.uk contains more information about the University of Essex. If you have a disability and would like information in a different format, please email resourcing@essex.ac.uk. 

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