Explaining model decisions through dialogue

Applications are invited for our EPSRC funded Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) PhD studentships that will support six (6) research projects starting 1 October 2022. One of these projects is “Explaining model decisions through dialogue” led by Dr Isabel Sassoon in the Department of Computer Science

Successful applicants will receive an annual stipend of £18,062 including outer London allowance plus payment of their full-time tuition fees for a period of 42 months (3.5 years).

You should be eligible for home (UK) tuition fees but there is a limited number of studentships (no more than two) available to overseas applicants, including EU nationals, who meet the entry criteria.

The Project

As Machine Learning and AI models underpin many of the recommendation/decision tools used to in day-to-day life these need to be transparent and explainable. The aim of this research is to explore, develop and evaluate methods that allow an end-user to have a dialogue with the recommendation/decision made by a model to better understand the reason and rationale for that recommendation/decision. Examples of such models range from health risk to the eligibility for credit or loans.

Please contact Dr Isabel Sassoon at isabel.sassoon@brunel.ac.uk to find out more.

Eligibility

You will have or will receive an undergraduate degree classified at 1^st class or 2:1 (honours) in computer science. A postgraduate masters degree may be an advantage. Where appropriate, applicants must have English language proficiency to an overall score of IELTS 6.5 or equivalent.

Skills and Experience

You should have experience of applying AI, Machine Learning, or related (e.g., Natural Language Processing) techniques. Skills and experience in software development, UX development, chat bot development or running user studies is an advantage. You should be a highly motivated individual and possess a strong sense of curiosity. The ability to study independently, think critically and collaborate with others is essential.

How to apply

Email the documents below as a single PDF file to cedps-studentships@brunel.ac.uk by 16:00 on Friday 3 June 2022. Please state the name of the project supervisor in your email.

Your up-to-date CV;
Your 300-word personal statement setting out why you are suitable for this position;
Your Undergraduate/Postgraduate Masters degree certificate(s) and transcript(s);
Your English Language qualification of IELTS 6.5 overall or equivalent, if applicable;
Two references, one of which can be provided by a member of Brunel University academic staff.

Interviews will take place in June 2022.

Meet the Supervisor(s)

Isabel Sassoon - Dr Isabel Sassoon is a Lecturer in Computer Science at Brunel University. Isabel is co-Investigator on IMMUNE (Immunity Passport Service Design) an UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project. IMMUNE's aim is to research the unintended consequences and risks related to immunity passports for COVID-19 with a view to inform their design in way that mitigates these. Before joining Brunel Isabel was Research Associate on the CONSULT (Collaborative Mobile Decision Support for Managing Multiple Morbidities), an EPSRC funded project in the Department of Informatics in King’s College London. This project developed a collaborative mobile decision-support system to help patients suffering from chronic diseases to self-manage their treatment, by bringing together and reasoning with wellbeing sensor data, clinical guidelines and patient data. Prior to that Isabel was Teaching Fellow in the Department of Informatics in King’s College London, primarily on the Data Science MSc. Isabel's research interests are in data-driven automated reasoning, and its transparency and explainability. Her PhD research developed a computational argumentation based system to support the appropriate selection of statistical model given a research objective and available data. Her current research continues to explore how computational argumentation can assist in model explainability and trust. Prior to joining King's College London Isabel worked for more than 10 years as a data science consultant in industry, including 8 years in SAS UK. Isabel read Statistics, Operations Research and Economics at Tel Aviv University and received her Ph.D. in Informatics from King's College London.