Logic List Mailing Archive

PhD student and postdoctoral positions in Automated Reasoning, Karlsruhe, Germany

*seeking PhD student or postdoctoral researcher for automated reasoning 
in semantic web*

The Knowledge Management research group at the Institute for Applied 
Informatics and Formal Description Methods (AIFB, 
www.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/WBS) at the University of Karlsruhe (TH), 
Germany, is an interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, 
mathematicians, and industrial engineers and one of the world leading 
institutes in the area of the Semantic Web.

We are offering a

research position (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter BAT IIa)

for a PhD student or a postdoctoral researcher, on initial contract for 
two years, with the possibility of extending the contract.

We are looking for a highly skilled person to be responsible for further 
development of the reasoner KAON2 (http://kaon2.semanticweb.org/). KAON2 
is a reasoner for description logics which underlie the Ontology Web 
Language (OWL) - the language for building ontologies in the Semantic 
Web. It is currently one of the fastest reasoners available, which we 
achieved by developing several innovative and efficient reasoning 
algorithms that reduce inferences in description logics to query 
answeringon  deductive databases via a resolution-based transformation. 
KAON2 is used in several large projects funded by the European Union, as 
well as for commercial purposes in cooperation with the company 
Ontoprise GmbH.

Possible extensions of KAON2 include, but are not limited to, developing 
and implementing reasoning algorithms for advanced knowledge 
representation formalisms such as nonmonotonic or paraconsistent logics, 
extending the calculus for reasoning with concrete domains, extending 
the transformation algorithm to handle nominals, and improving 
performance by means of databases and heuristics.

This position requires solid programming experience, if possible in an 
industrial setting, and also solid knowledge of mathematical logic and 
automated deduction.

We are looking forward to receiving applications from candidates who 
have recently completed a Masters degree in computer science or a 
related field and want to pursue a PhD project, or who have recently 
completed a PhD degree and are interested in research and project work 
in an internationally acclaimed research group.


Application deadline is January 12th, 2006. Earlier applications are 
very welcome and will be dealt with as they arrive. Late applications 
may be considered.


Please send your application by ground mail to

Prof. Dr. Rudi Studer
Universit?t Karlsruhe (TH)
Institut AIFB
76128 Karlsruhe
Germany

If you have questions, please contact

Dr. Pascal Hitzler
+49 (721) 608-4751
hitzler@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de