Young Children Scholarship : PhD Student For The Development of Motor Imagery

Overview
The focus of this PhD project is on the development of motor imagery (MI) capacity in young children (5-10 years). During the first phase, a longitudinal study will be performed to chart the developmental trajectories of MI and motor planning and execution in 5- to 10-year-olds in detail. EEG registration is used to scrutinize the concomitant age-related changes in brain activity, in particular with respect to the fronto-parietal coupling. While it is clear that cognitive, motor and brain development occur concurrently during childhood, much less is known about the direction of the relationships between them. Hence, during the second phase, experimental learning designs are implemented to investigate the effects of MI training on the development of motor control and to determine the age period most sensitive to intervention. Finally, the changes in brain activity induced by MI-training will be examined via the innovative trial-by-trial analysis of the EEG/ERP signal.

The project will result in a PhD thesis, comprising papers published in top scientific journals.

Requirements
You should have:
- a Master’s degree in psychology, pedagogy/remedial education, neuropsychology, rehabilitation psychology, cognitive or experimental psychology, human movement science, or a related field;
- excellent writing skills (in Dutch and English) and data-analysis skills preferably evidenced by authorship or co-authorship of published articles;
- experience with setting up longitudinal and experimental research, preferably on young children, and experience with data analysis in experimental designs is desirable;.
- good organization skills and experience with EEG/ERP registration and analysis are desirable;
- experience with SPSS is desirable.

Organization
You will work within the BSI’s Learning and Plasticity programme. This programme deals with the micro-analysis of learning and cognitive plasticity. The main focus of this programme is on the learning and development of communication and cognition in normal and atypical populations. Intervention studies on individuals with a variety of disorders as well as on those at risk will also be conducted to yield a better understanding of the dynamic factors that can prevent or remediate learning problems. This project is part of the Brain and Cognition programme (NWO). You will work on the project in close collaboration with a post-doctoral researcher. The project is supervised by Prof. Bert Steenbergen (Website: www.ru.nl/fsw) and Dr John van der Kamp (Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam).

The Faculty of Social Sciences is one of the largest faculties at Radboud University Nijmegen. The faculty currently employs approximately 650 employees. The faculty’s ambition is to become one of the top social science institutes in Europe, providing high-quality research programmes and study programmes that rank among the best in the Netherlands.
Website: http://www.ru.nl/fsw

Conditions of employment
Employment: 0,8 fte
Maximum salary per month, based on a fulltime employment: € 2,612 gross/month
The starting salary is €2,042 per month on a full-time base; the salary will increase to €2,612 per month in the fourth year.
Duration of the contract: 5 years.

Additional conditions of employment
Your performance will be evaluated after 18 months. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 3.5 years. As part of the contract, you will participate in educational activities (i.e. teaching students).

Additional Information
prof. dr. Bert Steenbergen
Telephone: +31 24 3612642
E-mail: b.steenbergen@pwo.ru.nl

Application
You can apply for the job (mention the vacancy number 24.19.10) before 15 October 2010 by sending your application -preferably by email- to:
Faculty of Social Sciences
P&O
Postbus 9104
6500 HE NIJMEGEN, NL
E-mail: vacancies@socsci.ru.nl

PhD studentship in Computer Vision (University of Malaya)

Applications are invited for TWO PhD studentship to work in the Centre of Signal and Image Processing on two different UM funded project entitled "- i) Action recognition using local and dynamic descriptor" and "ii) Linguistic summarisation of human action using pictorial structure."

The post is on the university scale (MYR 18,000 – 28,800); and is open to all nationality. Placement for the post is according to experience and qualifications. However, foreign candidates are required to have at least IELTS Band 6 or TOEFL 550 if their first degree is from a university where English is not the medium of instruction or pass an English proficiency test approved by the University. To apply formally, please send to Dr. Chee Seng Chan (cs.chan@um.edu.my) the following documents:

1. Latest CV including your experience in computer vision area, publication lists (if any)
2. Latest examination transcript, and
3. Two names and email addresses of academic referees

Key Requirements

* First Class or high 2:1 degree (or equivalent) or Master by research in Engineering/Computer Science/Mathematics or related subject and be able to demonstrate a strong mathematical background.
* Knowledge in image processing, machine learning and computer vision, especially probabilistic and fuzzy methods. Expertise in graphical models, structured learning or human pose estimation would be a particular advantage.
* High levels of ability in programming in MATLAB/C++
* Self-motivated, good at time management and planning, and have a proven ability to meet deadlines. Good communication and presentation skills are also important.

Informal enquiries should be made to the Principal Investigator of the research programme:
Dr Chee Seng Chan, cs.chan@um.edu.my, Tel. +603 7967 6433

The post is available from January, 2011 until December, 2013.

Fixed Term: 3 years
Salary Scale: MYR 18,000 – 28,800 per annum