Beasiswa - PhD in Computer Science, UNiversity of Jena, Germany

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

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-adaptabilil ity.

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- Universitä t Jena
Ernst-Abbe-Platz 1-4
Raum 3311
07743 Jena
Germany

phone: +49(0)3641-946430
mail: koenig[at]informati k.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- Universitä t Jena
Ernst-Abbe-Platz 1-4
Raum 3311
07743 Jena
Germany

You can also send your application by e-mail to:

koenig[at]informati k.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.