Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available until 30 June 2026.
Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) to join the Prorok Lab in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, at the University of Cambridge, UK.
The Postdoc will work across several projects, interfacing with teams of students and research collaborators on developing and implementing vision processing algorithms that enable robust robot tracking and autonomy. The ideal candidate will possess hands-on experience designing, implementing, and deploying computer vision systems onto real robots for tasks such as tracking, 3D reconstruction, object recognition, and visual SLAM.
They will be working with a team composed of PhD students, Research Assistants, and Postdocs that is developing novel robotic solutions for practical, real-world settings. Current approaches to many perception and autonomy challenges use simplifying assumptions and controlled environments. Our team is pushing these boundaries, aiming to enable real-world and outdoor deployments with various robotic platforms. As a result, we need to design systems and algorithms that are both robust and resilient while also offering scalability to dynamic and complex environments. The PDRA will also lead in-field testing and deployments. Therefore, we require someone with excellent implementation skills and substantial experience with real robot deployments and vision system integration.
The Prorok Lab in the Dept. of Computer Science & Technology, has a variety of robotic platforms (aerial and ground), and boasts expertise in controlling and deploying them in practice, as well as in designing coordination strategies for them. Our recent work on RL and graph neural networks (GNNs) demonstrate some of our key research directions relevant for this position. A high degree of self-motivation, research-oriented thinking, and a drive for getting real robotic systems up and running are all essential traits for this position.
Appointment at Research Associate level is dependent on having a PhD. Those who have submitted but not yet received their PhD will be appointed at Research Assistant level, which will be amended to Research Associate once the PhD has been awarded.
The Department of Computer Science and Technology is an academic department that encompasses computer science along with many aspects of engineering, technology and mathematics. We have a worldwide reputation for academic research with consistent top research ratings. The Department has an open and collaborative culture, supporting revolutionary fundamental computer science research, strong cross-cutting collaborations internally and externally, and ideas which transform computing outside the University. Please follow the link at: to find out more about our department.
In addition to the base salary stated above, the successful candidate for this post will receive an additional 2.5% supplement to their pay.
Applicants should contact Prof Amanda Prorok for further information.
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Please provide a CV and 1-page covering letter, along with contact details of 2 referees. Please note referees may be contacted at any point in the assessment process. If you upload any additional documents which have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.
Please quote reference NR47459 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.
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