[Neuroinfo] Postdoctoral computer scientist – Algorithms, tools and data formats for scalable interactive data visualization (2 years)

[Dave Messina]

Do you know how to tackle large datasets? Do you know how to distribute
workload across computer nodes and cores? And are you also interested in
data visualization?

We are looking for a motivated postdoctoral researcher who can help us to
scale up visual analytics.

Visual analytics is a data-visualization-plus-automated-algorithms approach
for identifying new hypotheses in the large datasets that we create every
day: searching for the unknown unknowns. The sheer amount of data however
makes it more hard and sometimes impossible to process it fast enough to
allow for interactivity in the visualizations.
Particular challenges that needs to be addressed include (a) how can we
quickly calculate different resolutions of genomic data (with minimal
preprocessing), (b) how can we distribute visualization subtasks over
different computer nodes and/or cores, and can we leverage functional
programming languages such as Clojure for this, (c) how can we integrate
kernels for dimensionality reduction? Eventually, as the work will be done
in collaboration with genomics researchers, it will need to be implemented
in a proof-of-concept data visualization tool for in that domain.

You’ll have the chance to dig into Storm (real-time hadoop;
storm-project.net) and put your teeth into setting up fast workflows for
big data.

We offer a competitive package and a fun, dynamic environment in close
collaboration with Intel (intel.eu), IMEC (imec.be) and Janssen
Pharmaceuticals (janssenpharmaceuticalsinc.com). The University of Leuven
is one of Europe’s leading research universities, with English as the
working language for research. Leuven lies just east of Brussels, at the
heart of Europe.

Profile

The ideal candidate holds a PhD degree in computer science. Programming and
data analysis experience is essential. Willingness to interact with
genomics experts is mandatory. Experience in data visualization would be
considered a plus, but is not necessary. Good communication skills are
important for this role.

The candidate will collaborate closely with researchers across the
consortium and contribute to the reporting of the project. Qualified
candidates will be offered the opportunity to work semi-independently under
the supervision of a senior investigator, mentor PhD students, and
contribute to the acquisition of new funding. A two-year commitment is
expected from the candidate. Preferred start date as soon as possible.

Relevant publications

Kent WJ et al. BigWig and BigBed: enabling browsing of large distributed
datasets. Bioinformatics 26(17):2204-2207 (2010)

How to apply

Please send in PDF before 31 October 2013:

a CV including education, research experience, and bibliography

two references (with phone and email)

to Prof Jan Aerts (jan.aerts at esat.kuleuven.be), cc Prof Yves Moreau (
yves.moreau at esat.kuleuven.be) and Ms Ida Tassens (
ida.tassens at esat.kuleuven.be).

Pre-application inquiries can be sent to jan.aerts at esat.kuleuven.be.

URL: http://www.kuleuven.be/bioinformatics/; http://datavislab.org
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