荷兰神经科学研究所2020年招收博士后

The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) are looking for 3 PhD student position or 3 Postdoctoral researcher position to work on Architectures and learning methods for hierarchical cognitive processing.

Project description

Our recent theoretical insights have allowed a preliminary understanding of how animals learn to represent and memorize the key features of sensory stimuli for the guidance of action based on reinforcement learning (Rombouts et al. PloS Comp Biol 2015; Holtmaat & Roelfsema, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2018). The present project focuses on the hierarchical learning of cognitive subroutines, which can be incorporated into larger routines, by trial and error. We aim to develop a biologically plausible learning rules that endow neural networks with the possibility to learn hierarchical task structures and learn and execute cognitive tasks.

Topics of interest include – the role of learnable/flexible working memory models in learning and executing hierarchically structures routines. The project is a collaboration between in the Vision & Cognition group (Dr. Pieter Roelfsema) at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and the Machine Learning Lab at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica in Amsterdam (Dr. Sander Bohte).

We expect from you:

You are highly motivated, have a solid computational background, an interest in cognitive neuroscience and good programming skills.

You should expect from us:

The position involves a temporary appointment for 3-4 years. The first appointment is for one year with extension for the remaining period pending on an evaluation. We offer a competitive salary with excellent secondary benefits and friendly taxes, and also an extremely friendly, interactive and international working environment. Amsterdam is one of Europe’s most beautiful and livable cities where almost everybody speaks and understands English, so that candidates need not be afraid of the language barrier.

Appointment

We offer an exciting job at a dynamic research institute and an attractive package of fringe benefits.

The position is for a period of 3 or 4 years in total for a postdoctoral researcher or PhD-student, respectively. The first appointment is for one year with an extension for the remaining period pending on an evaluation.

Salary

The salary will be commensurate with experience and institutional guidelines based on the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities; cao NU). Fulltime monthly salary for a PhD student is