Scholarships for the Introduction to a Research Career "JAE Intro 2021"
10/MAR/2021
The CSIC offers scholarships for the introduction to a research career in the context of the JAE Intro Programme. The IIIA offers two projects to be carried out at our research institute:
Projects and mentors:
- Embodied Cognition in Making Sense of Diagrams (JAEINT21_EX_1311):
Mentors: Marco Schorlemmer, Dimitra Bourou
An important part of AI research is that of implementing computational models of certain aspects of human cognition, so as to enhance the potential of human-computer collaboration in particular domains. Contemporary cognitive science has provided evidence that human creative reasoning and problem-solving processes are partly grounded on our bodily experience with the world. This embodied cognition seems to be central for making sense of the unstructured stimuli we perceive (e.g., when looking at a diagram, or the hearing the sound frequencies of a song) by projecting onto them the structure of preexisting mental frames. These frames are shaped through continuous experiences in the physical world.
This project will focus on the domain of reasoning with diagrams, which are ubiquitous in the current practice of many engineering and scientific disciplines. In particular we shall identify the basic embodied cognitive principles underlying our making sense of diagrams. For this we will draw from well-known theories of cognitive linguistics such as ‘images schemas’ and ‘conceptual blending’. We will formalise and implement these cognitive principles, and simulate the reasoning and problem-solving processes underlying the way humans make sense of diagrams in these disciplines. Our model has already been implemented in a computer-executable language, based on first-order logic, with several schemas, interpreting four different diagrams and some of the conclusions a human can draw by observing them.
The objectives of this project is to obtain a variety of image schema specifications, in order to offer a rich, reusable, open-source library to the community, and to be able to study a variety of factors affecting the efficacy of diagrams for reasoning. This is highly interdisciplinary project, bringing together techniques from cognitive linguistics, computer science, mathematical logic and philosophy.
- Federated agent-based simulations for fire department training (JAEINT21_EX_1351)
Mentor: Jordi Sabater-Mir
The use of simulations in virtual environments for the training of emergency forces has proven to be very useful to improve these units' operational level when faced with a real problem. Tools such as "XVR simulation" already allow the design of scenarios in 3D environments to train emergency situations. However, the use of these generic tools has its limitations. One of them is that they do not allow multilevel simulations in which low-ranking units located in the focus of the emergency, middle managers, and high-level managers can participate at the same time, all together in a single scenario.A scenario of this complexity requires a set of federated simulations that communicate with each other, providing a different level of granularity according to the participant's tasks and using different interfaces to interact with him (CAVE, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, standard screens…).
The candidate will participate in different tasks of the definition and implementation of this technology that is beginning to be developed in the IIIA-CSIC in collaboration with the fire department of the "Generalitat de Catalunya".
Courses in Artificial Intelligence, advanced knowledge of Python programming, and knowledge of the Unity video game development environment will be valued.
Requirements:
Applicants and beneficiaries of these grants subject to this call may be Spanish, nationals of any Member State of the European Union and non-EU foreigners, who meet one the following requirements:
- Being enrolled in a Bachelor's degree of at least 240 "European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System" (ECTS) in the academic year 2020-2021, and have at least 192 ECTS credits (80%) completed corresponding to the degree they are doing.
- Being enrolled in a double Bachelor's degree of at least 300 ECTS, in the academic year 2020/2021, they have at least 240 ECTS (80%) completed corresponding to the degree they are doing.
- Being enrolled in an official University Master's degree during the 2020-2021 academic year or are going to be university students enrolled in an official University Master's degree in the 2021-2022 academic year, having requested pre-admission, admission, or enrollment in it. Provided that they have the Bachelor's degree title and have obtained it after the dates that are dictated in the resolution.
General requirements:
- Not being in possession or in legal disposition to obtain an academic degree of Doctor.
- Not having been a beneficiary of an Introduction to Research grant within the JAE program, in previous calls.
- Not being physically disabled or suffer from a disease that could impede the development of the training activity that is the object of the scholarship.
- Not being affected by incompatibility in the terms established in the respective calls.
Requirements regarding the minimum average grade of the academic record:
- Prove an average grade or Bachelor's grade, on a decimal scale of 0-10 and with 2 decimals, equal to or greater than 8.00 for all branches of knowledge, except for Engineering and Architecture, which will be equal to or greater than 7.00.
- Applicants who have not obtained the Bachelor's degree must prove these average marks for the credits obtained until the end of the application submission period.
Salary:
Duration:
Workday:
Workplace:
Start date:
Closing date:
Applications need to be completed through the CSIC application portal (https://sede.csic.gob.es/intro2021).
In this application it is necessary to select, freely and without order of priority, up to three training plans from those offered by CSIC researchers.
In addition to the document generated through the application portal, it is necessary to provide the following documents:
- Valid proof of identity document.
- Personal academic certificate or academic record
- Curriculum Vitae (depending on the model)
- Official documentation that proves any complementary training (courses, languages, collaboration grants, Erasmus grants, etc.), which appears in the CV.
- Letter of motivation of the applicant, according to the model that appears in the Internet address.
- If you are not enrolled in a Bachelor's degree in the 2020-2021 academic year, you must provide: document or form of being enrolled in an official University Master's degree in the 2020-2021 academic year, or of registration, pre-registration or admission to an official University Master for the academic year 2021-2022.
- Declaration responsible for: not having been a beneficiary of an Introduction to Research grant within the JAE program, in the previous calls, on the date the application was submitted; of not being in possession of the title of Doctor, by any Spanish or foreign university; and of not being physically incapacitated or suffer from illness that could impede the development of the training activity that constitutes the object of the scholarship. According to the model that appears in the Internet address (https://sede.csic.gob.es/intro2021).
For more information, please contact Marco Schorlemmer <marco@iiia.csic.es>.