2 PhD Student Positions in Multi-agent Systems and Coordination

The Intelligent Systems Group at Utrecht University and the theme SEN3 Coordination Languages at CWI have two positions for PhD students for four years. One PhD student will be employed by the Utrecht University and one by CWI. Both positions are within the research project "Coordination and Composition in Multi-Agent Systems (CoCoMAS)", recently funded by the Dutch national science organization, NWO (http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOP_5SME25_Eng).

Job description

The candidates are expected to work on the design and development of compositional executable coordination models for multi-agent systems. The general perspective of this project is to provide the formal description of organizational structures of multi-agent systems in terms of exogenous coordination models. In particular, the aim is to develop and implement integrated programming languages (syntax and semantics) for exogenous coordination of roles, individual agents, and multi-agent systems. The context of this project is given by an integration and implementation of extensions of the existing agent-oriented programming language 3APL and the exogenous coordination language REO. Intended applications include the organizational structures in incident management and business processes. More information on this project can be found at the following webpage: http://www.cs.uu.nl/~mehdi/cocomas/.

This research spans over two separate groups: Intelligent Systems at Utrecht University and SEN3 Coordination Languages at CWI in Amsterdam. The candidates will work together and will have regular meetings. The activities in CoCoMAS involve both systems oriented and theoretical work in both multi-agent systems and software engineering. The CoCoMAS project complements the theoretical and technological framework of other current projects within these two groups. The candidates should have at least a master degree in computer science or Artificial Intelligence, with a background in multi-agent systems, logic, software engineering, concurrency and distributed systems, or practical software development.

Faculty of Science at Utrecht University & Scientific Cluster of Software Engineering at CWI

The Faculty of Science consists of six departments: Biology, Chemistry, Information and Computing Sciences, Mathematics, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Physics and Astronomy. The Faculty is home to 3500 students and nearly 2000 staff, and is internationally renowned for the quality of its research. The faculty's academic programmes reflect current developments in today's society. CWI is an internationally renowned research institute in mathematics and computer science, located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The theme SEN3 Coordination Languages of the Scientific Cluster of Software Engineering at CWI is a dynamic group of internationally recognized researchers who work on Coordination Models and Languages and Component-Based Software Composition. The activity in SEN3 is a productive, healthy mix of theoretical, foundational, and experimental work in Computer Science, ranging in a spectrum covering mathematical foundations of models of computation, formal methods and semantics, implementation of advanced research software systems, as well as their real-life applications.

Terms of employment

The salary at the Utrecht University will be € 1,933 during the first year (gross per month) and will reach € 2,472 during the fourth year. The salary is supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 3% per year. In addition, we offer a pension scheme, parental leave, facilities for childcare, flexible employment conditions in which you may trade vacation days for extra compensations. Conditions are based on the Collective Employment Agreement of the Dutch Universities.

The salary and terms at CWI are in accordance with the Dutch "CAO-onderzoeksinstellingen". The initial salary for a Ph.D. student is €1848,- gross per month. The salary grows to € 2367,- in the fourth year. The salary is supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 4.1 %. Moreover CWI offers very attractive working conditions, including flexibility and help with housing for foreigners.

Further details

More information can be obtained from Dr. Mehdi Dastani, telephone +31-30-253-3599, e-mail mehdi at cs.uu.nl and Dr. F.S. D Boer, telephone +31-20-592-4139, email F.S.de.Boer at cwi.nl.

How to apply

To apply, please send a statement of your interest, together with curriculum vitae, letters of references, and possibly list of publications to: Head of Personnel and Organization, Buys Ballotlaboratorium, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands and send an e-mail to P&O at phys.uu.nl ( with a cc to mehdi at cs.uu.nl and F.S.de.Boer at cwi.nl). Please mention vacancy number 62603. Make sure that you specifically mention the CoCoMAS project.