Ph D student (m,f,x) for 3 years with 39,83 hours per week, TV-L E13

The Trustworthy Human Language Technologies Group (Trust HLT) at the chair of Fairness and Transparency led by Prof. Dr. Ivan Habernal conducts research on privacy-preserving and trustworthy methods in natural language processing. We are embedded into the the Research Center for Trustworthy Data Science and Security (RC-Trust) which unites the expertise of its three member universities to bridge the gaps between Psychology & Social Sciences, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Data Science & Statistical Learning, and Cybersecurity & Privacy.

We have a job opening for a full-time Ph D student (m/f/x) to conduct original research in the area of trust and privacy in Large Language Models (LLMs). This is a three-year position with the standard TVL-E13 paygrade.

Research topics include privacy guarantees of LLMs such as differential privacy and beyond, trustworthiness of LLMs, privacy attacks and data reconstruction attacks, fundamentals of privacy in textual data, machine unlearning for LLMs, and other related topics. Trust HLT is strongly committed to diversity and particularly welcomes applications from members of underrepresented groups. Applications from female candidates are highly encouraged.

Your tasks:

• Research on novel methods in the context of trust and privacy in Large Language Models (LLMs)
• Designing and conducting experiments to validate the hypotheses
  
• Collaborate with researchers from other disciplines to develop innovative approaches to trust and privacy in LLMs
  
• Publication of research results in leading international venues

Your profile:

• Required: Master's degree in Computer Science or related field
  
• Required: Excellent interpersonal and communication skills in English
  
• Desired: Strong background in NLP, LLMs, machine learning, and/or privacy and trustworthy NLP
  

Our offerings:

• Challenging and varied tasks with a high degree of personal responsibility
  
• Employment at one of the largest universities in Germany within the University Alliance Ruhr
  
• Fair working hours and family-friendly working
  
• Agood work-life balance
  

Additional information:

At the request of the applicant (m,f,x), the staff council may be involved in selection interviews. https://www.wpr.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/
If the position is funded by third-party funds the employee has no teaching obligation.

German language skills are not necessary.
German language courses are offered by the University Language Center (Zf A) in the field of German as a Foreign Language (Da F).
https://www.daf.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/sbgk/index.html.en

You can find information about TV-L at: https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/

Contact details for your application:

Prof. Dr. Ivan Habernal, ivan.habernal@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Travel expenses for interviews cannot be refunded.

For information on the collection of personal data in the application process see: https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/en/information-collection-personal-data-application-process.

Please send your complete application documents (recent CV, a cover letter describing your motivation and suitability for the position, and a transcript of your academic records) in the form of A SINGLE PDF document (max. 10 MB) with the subject "phd-trusthlt" ANR 3979 to ivan.habernal@ruhr-uni-bochum.de until 02. December 2024.

Please get in touch with the contact person named above if you would like to use an alternative application channel.