PhD position in Knowledge Management, Labour Economics and Sociology of Occupations at the institute of Knowledge Based Systems, Faculty of Science and Technology and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of Siegen, Siegen(D)

Project: Developing a Web-based Multi-country Occupational Information System

This project firstly aims to systematically investigate opportunities and challenges in the use of dynamic text fields in the continuous, 75-country WageIndicator web-survey. Because the survey uses a well-defined set of terms (all words from one specific domain: occupation), it offers cross-language and cross-country comparisons concerning the use of the auto-complete tool, including response times and dropout rates. Inspired by findings from Internet science, memory research and survey methodology, psychological factors that may affect data quality arising from the use of auto-complete and auto-suggest technology are investigated. It secondly aims for an exploration of the requirements of the underlying database with more than 1,700 occupational titles and their translations, in order to assure consistency in how respondents fit their detailed job titles into the aggregated occupational categories. Thirdly, it aims for the development of a procedure how respondent-side newly added occupational titles, derived from the web-survey, are to be classified in the database. To make the desired outcome reliable and long term applicable, the system should be developed in a Cloud-based platform. Deploying the target platform in the Cloud provides opportunities for asynchronous access to the distributed documents and contents across multi-countries. In addition, the long term application of the system engages with a foresight in the volume and variety of accumulated data. In this context, the selected database technologies and analytical algorithms should support the requirements of Big Data.

Requirements

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or similar degrees.
• Experience with  Data and text-mining methods
• Experience with  Cloud-based application development and programming
• Experience with Big Data tools and technologies such as Apache Hadoop, MapReduce
• Ability to work in a team and independently
• Highly motivated to pursue a career in science
• Background/expertise in  Knowledge Management, Knowledge Engineering, Programming, Cloud Computing, Big Data and Database Management

Preferably

• High thesis grade
• Publication(s) in peer reviewed journal(s)
• Honours distinction
• Advanced language skills in German
• Experience with Knowledge Management projects

More information

Project information can be obtained  from Prof Dr. –Ing. Madjid Fathi Email: fathi@informatik.uni-siegen.de; Phone: +49 271 740-2311

Appointment

Based on a full-time appointment the duration of employment is limited to a maximum of three years and is based on the Act on Temporary Employment in Higher Education. The appointment should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). The PhD student is expected to assist in teaching of undergraduates. The remuneration will be in line with the EC rules for Marie Curie grant holders (early-stage researcher, ITN, Work Programme 2013 - People).

Host institute: The institute of Knowledge Based Systems, University of Siegen

The University of Siegen has four faculties with more than 17,500 students and 1,400 employees offering a diverse range of subjects. The institute of Knowledge Based Systems (KBS) is the member of Faculty of Science and Technology and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (ETI).

KBS encompasses theories, techniques and methods from diversified fields such as information and knowledge retrieval and discovery, knowledge, competence and innovation management, recommendation systems, organizational learning, cognitive science and sustainability.

More information: http://www.eduworks-network.eu/vacancies/5