PhD Job in Computer Science - Germany

The Institute of Computer Science at the University of Jena, Germany offers a vacancy for a full-time PhD student at the Heinz-Nixdorf Endowed Chair of Practical Computer Science

The work will focus on the application of adaptation techniques to Web Portals.

The research group has broad experience within the area of Web Portal technology and recently contributed to the JSR 286 standard (Apache Pluto Project - Java Portlet Specification) and developed its reference implementation in conjunction with the IBM Research and Development Laboratories at Böblingen, Germany. A second, relevant focus is on semantic description of resources and context-adaptabilility.

The PhD research will be performed under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Birgitta König-Ries and Prof. Dr. Martin Welsch in cooperation with the IBM Research and Development Laboratories at Böblingen, Germany.

The aim of the project is to perform research and develop prototypes that apply adaptation techniques specifically to modern Web Portals in order to come to a solution that we currently call a Contextual Portal, a Portal being more semantic- and context-aware, i.e. a Portal that exploits information available in the computing environment to react to changing context with the aim to adapt itself to these changes to better suit the new circumstances, the new requirements.

Project description:

Recognizing the value of internet technologies, companies started to establish intranets to provide their employees with a central point of access to enterprise specific information. Initially, intranets focused on presenting the most valuable and widely used information to employees providing them with quick and efficient information access. But the amount of information accessible via those intranets quickly grew and finding the right information became more complex and time consuming.

Many companies successfully introduced Web Portals to manage the upcoming information overflow. Web Portals provide users with a central point of access in a highly personalized manner. They allow providing information and applications based on the role of a user within the enterprise. Understanding the role of a given user and his information needs allows efficient targeting of the content. Today, Web Portals are comprised of a huge amount of content. They have grown tremendously and again it becomes more time consuming to find and access the right information throughout a particular context. Information overflow is becoming a productivity threat again and users once more fear to get lost in hyperspace.

Contextual Portals propagate the next generation of Web Portals. The goal is to come to a more adaptive, adaptable, dynamic and context-aware type of Web Portals, where the main idea is to overcome drawbacks of static Web Portals, mainly by taking into account which context a user is acting in and by learning from a user’s behavior in order to make assumptions about his potential behavior throughout future sessions. The aim is to let the system self-adapt to better suit users’ needs - in order to better support their typical behavior and to better manage information overflow.

The new concepts then aim to improve certain selected aspects of Web Portals: the presentation of the navigation, the presentation of the page layout, the way in which contextual information is exchanged across applications and across pages, the way in which users are notified about context-changes and the mechanisms that allow single users to have multiple (behavior) profiles.

A context adaptive Portal collects knowledge during users’ interaction with the Portal, filters and stores the collected knowledge and finally makes use of it and additional context information during future sessions in order to adapt the Portal to better suit users needs. It improves supporting users’ typical behavior by taking into account contextual information and by learning from a user’s previous
behavior.

The PhD research focuses on the definition of a declarative language and ontological models for semantically describing adaptable portal components, user behavior and contextual information. Proper reasoning on these models should allow for meaningful adaptation options.

Requirements:

We are looking for a candidate who meets the following requirements:

- An excellent Masters or equivalent degree in Computer Science or a closely related field
- Experience within the fields of adaptive hypertext and hypermedia, information systems, context modeling, user modeling, data mining, semantic web, artificial intelligence and machine learning and/or Web Portal technology are of advantage
- Very good programming and software engineering skills
- Very good communicative skills in English, both in speaking and in writing
- Skills in German are of advantage

We expect dedication, enthusiasm and the willingness to solve difficult problems.

Employment:

- Full time employment at the University of Jena for initially two years (with the option to extend)
- Salary according to TV-L 13 (about 1700 Euros/month take home amount)

Information:
Project/technical information:
Andreas Nauerz
IBM Research and Development
Schönaicher Str. 220
71032 Böblingen

phone: +49(0)7031-16-1777,
e-mail: andreas.nauerz[at]de.ibm.com

Application/organizational information:
Prof. Dr. Birgitta König-Ries
Institut für Informatik
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Ernst-Abbe-Platz 1-4
Raum 3311
07743 Jena
Germany

phone: +49(0)3641-946430
mail: koenig[at]informatik.uni-jena.de

or

Prof. Dr. Martin Welsch
IBM Research and Development
Schönaicher Str. 220
71032 Böblingen
Germany

phone: +49(0)7031-16-2216,
e-mail: martin.welsch[at]de.ibm.com

Application:

Interested candidates are requested to send their application by November 05, 2007 to:

Prof. Dr. Birgitta König-Ries
Institut für Informatik
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Ernst-Abbe-Platz 1-4
Raum 3311
07743 Jena
Germany

You can also send your application by e-mail to: koenig[at]informatik.uni-jena.de.
Please cc martin.welsch[at]de.ibm.com and andreas.nauerz[at]de.ibm.com.

The application should refer to registration number 62/07 and consist of:
A motivation letter, your Curriculum Vitae, copies of your diplomas together with the lists of grades, and other relevant certificates and proof of English language skills (if applicable). Letters of recommendation are a plus, too.

website link:
http://www.drarbeit.de/drarbeit/php/arch_get.php?angebot=nr3484