Description

PUBLIC NOTICE

Call for allocation of a Scientist Scholarship

Reference: BII/FhP-23/03

The call for allocation of a Research Integration Grant for a Student attending a Master’s degree is open and subject to the following conditions:

1. General scientific field: Engineering.

1. Specific scientific field: Informatics and Computing Engineering

1. Admission Requirements: i) Student attending an academic Master’s degree in the field of Informatics and Computing Engineering; ii) Knowledge on machine learning techniques and interest in developing such skills; iii) Some experience or interest in machine learning operations; iv) Good programming skills (Python) and knowledge in machine learning frameworks (PyTorch or TensorFlow); v) Proficiency in English and excellent communication skills and teamwork.

1. Work Plan: The Student will perform research activities within the Intelligent Systems Group in topics related to data preparation, machine learning deployment and fine-tuning.
   1. Tasks:

• Research and select candidate Large Language Models (LLM): investigate open-source LLMs, choosing a subset based on various criteria, and deploy them on our internal infrastructure;
• Perform comparative analysis: conduct tests to evaluate the performance of chosen LLMs, analyse their suitability for specific tasks, and prepare comprehensive reports with recommendations;
• Fine-tune a LLM for targeted tasks: explore methods to adapt a chosen model and corresponding data for specific tasks, such as chatbots or summarization, collaborating with the team to achieve the research objectives.

1. Applicable law and regulation: Portuguese Statute of the Scientific Research Scholarship Holder [“Estatuto do Bolseiro de Investigação Científica”], approved by Law no. 40/2004, of August 18, amended by Decree Law no. 202/2012, of August 27, Law no. 12/2013, of January 29, Decree Law no. 89/2013, of July 9 (hereinafter referred to as the “Statute”), Law no. 123/2019, of August 28 and the Research Scholarships’ Regulation of Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulation”).

1. Place of work: Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, Porto, Portugal, under the scientific supervision of PhD André Carreiro.

1. Scholarship’s Duration and Regime: The scholarship shall have the duration of 3 months, eventually renewable for equal periods of time or until the term of the project, with estimated starting date on May 2023, according to article 13 of the Regulation and article 3 of the Statute, under exclusivity regime, except for the exceptions expressly set out in nos. 3 and 4 of article 5 of the referred Statute.
2.  

1. Amount of the monthly maintenance allowance: The amount of the scholarship corresponds to €541,12 as per table of amounts of the scholarships of Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research, (https://www.fraunhofer.pt/content/dam/portugal/fhp/careers/grants/regulamento_bolsas.pdf). The payment of the scholarship shall be made on a monthly basis, by wire transfer.

1. Selection Procedures: The selection procedures to be used shall be made based on the following parameters:

A – Current average in the master’s degree; B – Alignment of academic choices with the work to perform; C – Curriculum evaluation in accordance with the objectives of the project. The following percentage weighting shall be given to the selection parameters: 0,2 x A + 0,3 x B + 0,5 x C.

1. Composition of the selection panel: Chairman: Doctor Inês Nunes de Sousa Soares; Permanent Members: Doctor Luís Filipe Caeiro Margalho Guerra Rosado and Doctor André Carreiro.

1. Publication/notification of the results: The final evaluation results shall be published in a list ordered by final score, posted in a visible and public place at Fraunhofer Portugal. The approved applicant shall be notified by e-mail.

1. Opening period of the call: The call is open from 21-04-2023 to 30-04-2023.

1. Documents and deadlines for application: Applications must be submitted by means of an application email with the following documents: Curriculum Vitae, required qualifications’ certificate and other evidencing documents deemed relevant.

Applications should be delivered during the call’s opening period, sent by e-mail with acknowledgement receipt to [email protected], in pdf format, until 11:59 p.m. of April 30th 2023.