Two PhD student / postdoc positions in Formal Semantics & Logic, Delft (The Netherlands)

The purpose of this announcement is to solicit applications for two PhD/postdoc positions (PhD: 4 years, postdoc: 2 years), attached to a newly funded NWO Vidi grant obtained by Birna van Riemsdijk.

The project is entitled Computational Reasoning for Socially Adaptive Electronic Partners (CoreSAEP). The research lies in the intersection of theoretical computer science (formal semantics, temporal logic) and multi-agent systems (agent programming, normative systems). The overall aim of the project is to develop a reasoning framework that combines logic and quantitative techniques for Socially Adaptive Electronic Partners (SAEPs) that adapt their behavior to norms and values of people. This becomes more and more important as technology becomes an integral part of our daily lives. The computational reasoning techniques are aimed at determining when and to what extent norm-compliance can be guaranteed, and deciding what to do if in exceptional situations a norm cannot or should not be complied with. We will implement the reasoning framework to evaluate its run-time behavior.

The associated research posts will be in the following areas:
POST 1 - formal semantics, temporal logic & normative agents (vacancy number: EWI2014-29)
POST 2 - quantitative reasoning, logic & normative agents (vacancy number: EWI2014-34)

Deadline for application: December 15th, 2014. More information on the project and the team you will be working in, can be found on http://ii.tudelft.nl/~birna/projects/CoreSAEP.html. For further information about the positions, please contact Birna van Riemsdijk via email (m.b.vanriemsdijk at tudelft.nl).