Summary
- Title: Postdoctoral Position: Smartphone Biomarkers (Sensing) for Warfighter Health
- University: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- Department: Computer Science Department
- Project Website: http://wash.wpi.edu/
Position Description
We seek to hire a post-doctoral researcher to join our research team, which includes faculty, several graduate students and a software engineer, for the DARPA-sponsored Warfighter Analytics using Smartphones for Health (WASH) project.
Warfighters face an increased exposure to ailments such as Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and infectious diseases. Digital biomarkers are smartphone-sensable user behaviors that can reliably indicate the health status, ailment symptoms and condition of the smartphone user. For example, an ailing smartphone user may exhibit reduced daily step counts, slurred speech, or an increase in sedentary activity states during their day.
Our team is researching and developing machine/deep learning algorithms that synthesize reliable smartphone biomarkers for the detection of ailments. Continuous, real-time assessment of TBI and infectious diseases afflicting warfighters will be enabled by mining data unobtrusively captured from smartphone sensors. Our resulting smartphone biomarker detector will be tested and ultimately deployed on a cohort of millions of smart-phone users.
Expected qualifications
The ideal candidate will have a PhD in computer science or closely related field, with demonstrated background in statistical analysis, signal processing, machine learning and/or deep learning. Specific research tasks include:
- Feature engineering of smartphone sensor data
- Statistical modeling of personalized behavior typical of a smartphone user
- Detection of higher-order activity states from low-level signals
- Machine/Deep learning of robust outliers or deviations from normal, healthy behavior
- Inference of classes of diseases affecting a smartphone user
- Empirical study and evaluation of robustness of biomarker detectors
An interest in interdisciplinary research, in particular, in digital health, and a proven track record of high-quality research and academic excellence are expected. Experience analyzing smartphone sensor signals is desirable but not a must. Excellent written and verbal communication in English are required.
Responsibilities and Position Details
Besides original research resulting in quality publications on the above topics, the postdoctoral scholar will also assist in managing the project, directing the research of undergraduate and graduate students, coordinating research across the team, and preparing project deliverables for the sponsor.
Research funding for the post-doctoral position is available for 18 months; with a likely extension for a total of 4 years.
Application Deadline
The deadline for applications is May 31, 2018, with applications continuing to be considered until the position is filled.
Contact
To apply, please send a cover letter, CV, a statement of research interests, and the names and contact information of three references, to:
Professor Emmanuel Agu (emmanuel@cs.wpi.edu)
Computer Science Department
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester, MA 01609