[liberationtech] Post-Doc and Project Scientist Openings - School of Computer Science - Carnegie Mellon University

[Yosem Companys]

From: Norman Sadeh-Koniecpol <sadeh at cs.cmu.edu>

*Post-Doc and Project Scientist Openings – Personalized Privacy Assistant
for the Internet of Things*



*School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University*



November 2015



The *School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University* has two
openings (one project scientist position and one post-doc position)  to
work on a high-profile, interdisciplinary project aimed at *developing
Personalized Privacy Assistants for the Internet of Things.  Both positions
are research positions that require a PhD. *The project scientist position
is a more senior position that also includes *some managerial
responsibilities*. Both positions report directly to the lead Principal
Investigator of the project*.*



The Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data are making it impractical for
people to keep up with the many different ways in which their data can
potentially be collected and processed. What is needed is a new, more
scalable paradigm that empowers users to regain appropriate control over
their data.  *Personalized privacy assistants* are intelligent agents
capable of *learning the privacy preferences of their users over time,
semi-automatically configuring many settings*, and making many privacy
decisions on their behalf. Through targeted interactions, privacy
assistants will help their users better appreciate the ramifications
associated with the processing of their data, and empower them to control
such processing in an intuitive and effective manner. This includes:
(1) *selectively
alerting users* about practices they are not expecting and may not feel
comfortable with, (2) confirming with users *privacy settings* the
assistants are not sure how to configure, (3) refining *models of their
user’s preferences* over time, and (4)  occasionally *nudging users* to
carefully (re)consider the implications of some of their privacy decisions.
Ultimately, these assistants will learn our preferences and help us more
effectively manage our privacy settings across a wide range of devices and
environments without the need for frequent interruptions.



This project involves five faculty members at Carnegie Mellon University
(Prof. Norman Sadeh, Alessandro Acquisti, Lujo Bauer, Lorrie Cranor and
Anupam Datta) along with a number of graduate and undergraduate students
and several other post-docs. As part of this research, we are building on
promising results we have obtained developing personalized privacy
assistants for mobile apps. This is a multi-disciplinary effort that
combines *privacy, human computer interaction, machine learning, artificial
intelligence *and* behavioral science*. Work in the project will combine
human subject experiments and software development with deployment and
piloting of our technology in actual Internet of Things environments.



Both openings are for individuals who are interested in and capable of
contributing to *research in one or more of the following areas*: (1)
Modeling user privacy preferences, (2) Dialogs with users to selectively
communicate important privacy policy considerations and elicit preferences
and decisions from users, (3) machine learning techniques to incrementally
refine user models, (4) develop and refine machine readable privacy policy
languages to capture relevant data collection practices and privacy
preferences, (5) protocols to communicate privacy policies and configure
privacy settings in IoT and mobile environments, (6) design, development
and evaluation of mobile clients implementing different configurations of
personalized privacy assistants.





*Successful candidates are expected to have a PhD in computer science or
some equally relevant discipline -  or have some equivalent research
experience*. They are expected to be capable of working under limited
supervision and should have *strong organizational and communication skills*.
They are also expected to have some development skills and have experience
collaborating with others in the context of large-scale research and
software projects. Both openings include opportunities to directly
supervise both undergraduate and graduate students working on the
project. *Actual
work is expected to involve a mix of conceptual design, experimentation,
software development, and empirical evaluations (including human subject
experiments). The project scientist position also involves some managerial
responsibilities to support the lead Principal Investigator coordinate the
project and interact with the project sponsors*. The successful candidates
are expected to publish papers in top-tier conferences and journals along
with other faculty and students.



Initial appointments will be for one or two years with option of renewal
subject to performance and availability of funding. These positions are
available immediately. Preference will be given to candidates who can start
by March 2016. Carnegie Mellon offers competitive salaries and benefits. To
be considered for one or both positions, candidates should forward their
resume along with the names of 3 references to:



*Ms. Linda Francona*

*ISR – School of Computer Science*

*5000 Forbes Avenue*

*Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891 - USA*

*Tel: +1-412-268-9934 <%2B1-412-268-9934>*

*Email: **laf20 at cs.cmu.edu* <laf20 at cs.cmu.edu>


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prof. Norman M. Sadeh – www.normsadeh.org
ISR -  School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue -- Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Lab Manager: Ms. Linda Moreci – laf20 at cs.cmu.edu - Tel: 412-268-9934
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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