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Post - doctoral fellow - AI-Powered Testing Infrastructure for Cancer Registry System (AIT4CR)

Deadline: 30.11.2020

Simula Research Laboratory AS

Simula Research Laboratory AS is a publicly owned research institute located at Fornebu outside of Oslo, Norway. Simula has a multi-cultural organization, employing about 150 individuals from 29 countries. Simula conducts Information and Communication Technology (ICT) research in the fields of communication technology, scientific computing, and software engineering. Simula's main objective is to generate new understanding and create vital knowledge about fundamental scientific challenges that are of genuine value for society. This is achieved through high-quality research, education of graduate students, industry collaboration, technology transfer, and commercialization. Since 2001, scientific evaluations conducted by the Research Council of Norway has repeatedly placed Simula at the forefront of international research in ICT. The most recent in-depth evaluation was recently published, grading all research groups at Simula as excellent.

Call for Post-doctoral fellow in the field of artificial intelligence-enabled software system testing with a particular focus on testing the cancer registration support system at the Cancer Registry of Norway.

Simula Research Laboratory (https://www.simula.no/) is seeking one three-year full-time post-doctoral fellow position in the field of artificial intelligence-enabled software system testing with a particular focus on testing the cancer registration support system at the Cancer Registry of Norway.

The appointment starts on January 1 of 2021. However, the review of candidates will be performed continuously until the position has been filled. The position can start early as well and the earliest starting date is October 1, 2020.

Project Description

The position is funded by the Research Council of Norway. The project title is: AI-Powered Testing Infrastructure for Cancer Registry System (AIT4CR). The post-doctoral fellow will be hired at Simula; however, will also spend a considerable amount of time at the Cancer Registry to work closely with the real system and experts at the cancer registry.

The Cancer Registration Support System (CaReSS) at the Cancer Registry of Norway has been handling information on cancer since 1952. The system has gone through several upgrades and is now fully digital. All health personnel diagnosing or treating cancer patients are obliged by law to report to the Cancer Registry, and in addition, data from other registries are collected. All patient information is submitted to the system and curated by trained medical coders. They create patient histories by piecing together all this information into patients’ histories, which are timelines of the patient’s diagnostic workup, treatments, and follow-up. Hundreds of rules have been defined to validate the data. These rules are manually reviewed to ensure that patient histories are correct. New rules are constantly introduced, and existing rules are frequently revised due to new medical findings. Dependencies between rules, such as ordering and timing, also exist. The automated checking of rules is an ideal solution to improve the quality of patient history. However, not only are the rules changing over time but also the data as diagnostics and treatment are improved. This leads to the continuous evolution of the CaReSS’s key software components, to ensure that such data structures and rules are correctly specified and implemented. Thus, there is a need for a cost-effective, systematic, and automated testing layer, i.e., new testing methods implemented in a software testing tool and a test execution infrastructure—the innovation planned in this project. Such testing methods will be based on state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques such as deep neural networks, rule mining algorithms, and search algorithms to support cost-effective and optimized testing of continuously evolving CaReSS. Such techniques have shown promising results for testing many other types of systems, and in this project, the application of these techniques will significantly advance the current state-of-the-art of testing methods CaReSS that is commonly used in cancer registries all over the world. This innovation is expected to have a long-term impact (of several decades at least) on the quality of data that the system can provide to end-users (e.g., patients, researchers, doctors, and government officials), as the data in the Cancer Registry is used in medical research and evaluation of health services.

Candidate profile

We consider interested candidates who have a Ph.D. degree in software engineering, preferably with experience in the area of software testing and knowledge about the use of artificial intelligence techniques (e.g., reinforcement learning, search algorithm) with top grades and good publications record. The candidate will also have to demonstrate an excellent level of spoken and written English, possess good interpersonal and communication skills, and show a willingness to work as part of an international team.

Simula Offers

  • Excellent opportunities for performing high quality research, as part of a highly competent and motivated team of international researchers and engineers;
  • An informal and inclusive international working environment;
  • Generous support for travel and opportunities to build international networks, through established collaboration with industry, exchange programs and research visits with other universities, and funding to attend conferences.
  • Modern office facilities located at Fornebu by the Oslo fjord and 10 minutes’ drive from the center of Oslo.
  • A competitive salary. Starting salary from NOK 532.300
  • Numerous benefits: access to company cabin, BabyBonus arrangements, sponsored social events, generous equipment budgets (e.g., computer, phone and subscription), subsidized canteen meals and monthly bus pass, comprehensive travel/health insurance policy, etc.
  • Relocation assistance: accommodation, visas, complimentary Norwegian language courses, etc
  • Administrative research support: e.g., quality assurance process for grant proposals (including RCN and EU programs).
  • Wellness and work-life balance. Our employees’ health and well-being is a priority and we encourage them to make use of our flexible work arrangements to help balance their work and home lives efficiently.

Simula is an equal opportunity employer, and women are particularly encouraged to apply.

Application Requirements

Interested applicants are must submit the following:

  • A cover letter explaining the candidate’s background, qualifications, research interests and how/why the candidate is qualified for the position;
  • Curriculum vitae (summarizing education, positions and academic or industrial work, scientific publications, and software development experience);
  • Academic transcripts including a copy of PhD thesis.
  • Contact information of two references, including the PhD supervisor(s).

Application deadline: November 30, 2020

Contact

Further enquiries should be addressed to:

Learn more about working at Simula: Careers at Simula

This position is subject to funding.

Simula Research Laboratory uses Semac´s background check in our recruitment process.

According to the Norwegian Freedom and Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

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