[BIC-announce] PhD Opportunity - TU Dresden

[Sylvain Baillet, Prof]

on behalf of: Prof. Shervin Safavi, Dresden University of Technology + Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics


PhD position (m/f/x) (TVL-65%, 3 years)


“Computational Machinery of Cognition (CMC)” lab (cmclab.org <http://cmclab.org/>)  based in the Faculty of Medicine of TU Dresden will offer 1 PhD position (m/f/x) (TVL-65%, 3 years). The release of the official call will be after the completion of the administration process, however, interested applicants can send us their application as instructed below.

The overarching research theme of the CMC Lab is understanding the computational machinery that supports our cognitive processes. Cognition spans a wide range of functions (from perception to action and planning), and it is one of the most remarkable capabilities of the brain. In the CMC lab, we want to understand the computations (in particular, inference, and decision processes) that support our cognition and the biophysical machinery that implements these computations. We develop normative and biophysical modeling of cognitive functions, test these models with neural and behavioral data (in collaboration with experimental labs), and develop methods for multi- and cross-scale analysis of neural data to better capture the neural markers of these processes. We value the culture of collaboration, thus we extensively collaborate with labs in Dresden and other labs nationally and internationally (e.g., MPI for Biological Cybernetics and MPI for Intelligent Systems, Harvard Medical School).

The project will focus on developing reinforcement learning (RL) models to understand internal cognitive processes (in particular perception, and perceptual multistability; for example, see, Safavi and Dayan, Neuron 2022 <https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)00669-9> and BioRxiv 2024 <https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.06.627286v1.abstract>).  In the course of the project, we, together, will develop decision-theoretic models,  for instance, based on partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDP), and assess them with psychophysical experiments, and will have the possibility to analyze neural data recorded from animals while doing similar tasks to understand the neural implementation of these computations. We will also collaborate with Peter Dayan <https://www.mpg.de/12309370/biological-cybernetics-dayan> (MPI for Biological Cybernetics) and Philipp Sterzer <https://universe.unibas.ch/org-units/94/research-groups/43244/overview> (University of Basel). 


More information. <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qyuPbNznU9u0tLOuja_SuA0W3bTrz63LXlcwJ9mEi_4/edit?tab=t.0>
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