[visionlist] Postdoctoral Research Internship in 3D Face Modelling (University of York, UK)

[William Smith]

Postdoctoral Research Internship in Computer Vision (12 months)
3D Face Modelling for Identification of Facial Abnormalities

We are seeking a talented postdoctoral researcher to undertake a 12 month internship at the University of York, UK. Candidates must have completed a PhD in Computer Vision or related topic (we will consider applications from students who have submitted but not yet defended their thesis). This is an opportunity to apply computer vision expertise to an interdisciplinary project with considerable freedom to direct your own research. You will be supervised by Prof. Paul O'Higgins (http://tinyurl.com/bb35d4s) in the Hull York Medical School (HYMS) and collaborate with Dr Nick Pears (http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/~nep/) and Dr Will Smith (http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/~wsmith/) in the Department of Computer Science.

The internship is funded by the Centre for Chronic Diseases and Disorders (C2D2, http://www.york.ac.uk/c2d2/) at the University of York. C2D2 fund discipline-hopping internships for the best and most imaginative young researchers enabling them to step out of their original discipline and acquire complementary skills and knowledge in a different academic area.

This internship will bring a computer vision specialist, with programming and mathematical skills, from Computer Science into HYMS, working with anatomy researchers and clinical collaborators. The aim is to develop a screening tool using 3D face imagery that is able to aid the diagnosis of abnormalities impacting on growth and form. We will develop a model of normal facial form variation to assess individual facial form, growth and development. Previous attempts have been hampered by the lack of a large and diverse landmarked dataset to train a statistical model. There are also unanswered research questions relating to the construction of the statistical model.

Clinical collaborators at both Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital will supply us with the required ‘training’ and ‘test’ data. We intend to extend Pears’ and Smith’s work in automatic landmarking, to improve landmark number and accuracy using semi-landmarking tools in the EVAN toolbox (O’Higgins), and to build face models via dense correspondences. The role is likely to involve travel to our clinical collaborators as well as to international conferences.

The post is available to those with permission to work in the UK and offers a salary of £23,399 p.a. Candidates must be available to start on or very close to the 1st of April 2013. The internship provides additional support of £10,000 to cover research, consumables and travel costs associated with the post.

For application details, please see: http://tinyurl.com/atertxu or contact Paul O'Higgins <Paul.O'Higgins at hyms.ac.uk> for an informal discussion.