Closing Date for applications is September 23rd 2011. Interested candidates are advised contact Stefano Panzeri (stefano.panzeri@iit.it) and/or Chiara Bartolozzi (chiara.bartolozzi@iit.it) for further information before submitting an application.
Call and details of the application procedure are available at the following link:
http://www.iit.it/en/resources/calls/unige/xxvii-cycle-doctoral-school-on-life-and-humanoid-technologies.html (Annex A4 - Theme 1.27)
Research theme:
Information theoretic study of efficient multiple-modality sensing in humanoid robots
Successful interaction of a robot with the external world requires combining the information from different senses such as vision, touch, or hearing, and selecting and combining the information from each sense with efferent copies generated by the robot ongoing action. While current humanoid robots are being endowed with sensors providing information from artificial retinas and ears, and from touch sensors as well as from proprioception (including position and force), it is not clear how to optimally extract information from these data and use it to select the appropriate action for example in a sensorimotor coordination task. This project aims at developing and using analytical methods based on information theory [1] to analyze the data collected by different arrays of sensors and to find out what combinations of multisensory parameters to extract information lend themselves to rapid and efficient extraction of relevant features of the external world. These algorithms have been used successfully to study how cortical neurons may transmit information about multisensory stimuli [2]. In the attempt to replicate biological perceptive skills, the robot platform used for the project is equipped with biologically inspired asynchronous event-driven visual sensors [3]. The above approach based on information theory will be then used to characterize the information content of the event-driven vision sensors and design an efficient strategy for extracting relevant information from visual and then multisensory data. A longer term aim of the project is also the understanding of how these multisensory parameters may be used for learning sensorimotor coordination in a complex humanoid robot (www.icub.org). The candidate should hold a degree in Physics, Mathematics, Engineering or Computer Science, and have a keen interest in applying mathematical and numerical techniques to the study of robotics, as well as an interest in brain function.
The research will be will be supervised by Prof. Stefano Panzeri and Dr. Chiara Bartolozzi, and will be performed within the Neural Computation group led by Stefano Panzeri and the Cognitive Humanoids group at the Department of Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences of the Italian Institute of Technology. Research in the Neural Computation group aims at understanding the computations made by neurons to represent, process and exchange information. Research at the Cognitive humanoids group aims at developing cognitive robots able to learn from experience and interact naturally and efficiently with humans.
Selected Recent Relevant Publications
[1] Quian Quiroga R, Panzeri S (2009) Extracting information from neuronal populations: information theory and decoding approaches. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10: 173-185
[2] Kayser C, Logothetis NK, Panzeri S (2010) Visual enhancement of the information representation in auditory cortex. Current Biology 20: 19-24
[3] P. Lichtsteiner, C. Posch and T. Delbruck (2008) A 128x128 120 dB 15 μs latency asynchronous temporal contrast vision sensor. IEEE J. Solid State Circuits,2:43, 566--576
Location: The IIT is located in Genova, Italy, a charming seaside mediterranean city right in the middle of the beautiful Italian Riviera, with a vibrant cultural life and with a much more affordable cost of living than many other European cities.
The PhD programme has a duration of 3 years. The position is supported by a PhD Studentship amounting to 16500 euros / year, and there are no tuition fees for the candidate admitted to the PhD programme. The PhD funding scheme provides successful candidates with all the means needed to perform the research, including funds for travel to conferences and collaborating European laboratories, and state of the art computing equipment. The working language of the institute is English.
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