Job offer: postdoctoral Fellow Project Title: Controlled semantic data integration for self-directed learning Research Fields: Semantic web, data integration, usage control Workplace: Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France Research Laboratory: LS2N UBL Research Department: Computer Science department Heads of the Scientific Project: Hala Skaf-Molli, Patricia Serrano Alvarado Offer type: postdoctoral researcher (short term contract, 12 months) Hiring Institution: LS2N Application deadline: 31/01/2018 Job Starting Date: February 2018 Environment LS2N, is a "Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR 6004) » supported by 5 public institutions of Higher Education and Research and including the activity of approximately 450 people (half on permanent position: 20 researchers, 163 professors, 30 engineers and administrative staff). LS2N covers 5 areas of expertise, (1) Systems Design and Operation, (2) Robotics, Processes and Calculation, (3) Data Science and Decision-making, (4) Signals, Images, Ergonomics and Languages, and (5) Software and Distributed Systems Science. The postdoctoral project will integrate the GDD team of LS2N in the context of the project SEDELA of the CominLabs (French program "Investissements d'Avenir »). GDD team "Distributed Data Management" has expertise in semantic federated data management, web of data and Linked Data. SEDELA is a multidisciplinary project which main objectif is to design, develop, experiment and evaluate an improved model of Self Regulated Learning Process, supported by Semantic Open Learner Models, Trusted collaborative services and an experimental infrastructure, in a lifelong learning and trusted perspective. Mission (scientific project) SEDELA project will develop semantic open learning models (ontology) and trusted collaborative services tailored for self-directed learning. The semantic representation of an open learner model will enable to provide interoperability among collaborative services and distributed data sources. The objective of the postDoc is to propose a semantic data integration approach for self-directed learning that takes in consideration usage control. A learner will manage her personal learning data in a private space and can share data and collaborate with other learns or organizations. As data can be heterogenous, an effective integration approach using the open learner model should be provided. Querying integrated data should take in consideration data usage policies, e.g., who is able to access my data, for how long, for which purposes, under which context, which data can be crossed/joined with which other data, etc. The postdoc missions will be: 1. Analyse the state-of-the-art on data integration techniques and usage policies. 2. Define a data integration approach that preserves usage policies. 3. Evaluate the approach with real data collected from other partners of the project. GDD team has already proposed semLAV [Montoya et al. 2014], a data integration solution based on a local-as-view mediator. However, semLAV does not preserve usage control. GDD team has also proposed an ontology to express usage policies and a policies composition mechanism [Soto-Mendoza et al. 2015]. These two works can be the starting points for the new integration approach. Required Profile PhD in computer science, maximum 3 years of experience after thesis defense. An international experience in research is required (during or after Doctorate). Candidates must not have supported their thesis in the hiring institution and not previously worked in the host research unit. The candidate must hold a PhD related to semantic Web, data integration or usage control. Excellent writing skills, good autonomy and initiative, etc. Useful References LS2N web site: ls2n.fr GDD team web seit: https://sites.google.com/site/gddlina/ http://www.cominlabs.ueb.eu/ [Montoya et al. 2014] Gabriela Montoya, Luis Daniel Ibáñez, Hala Skaf-Molli, Pascal Molli, Maria-Esther Vidal: semLAV: Local-As-View Mediation for SPARQL Queries. Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems XIII. 2014. Volume 8420 of the series LNCS pp 33-58. http://hal.univ-nantes.fr/hal-00841985v2 [Soto-Mendoza et al. 2015] Valeria Soto-Mendoza, Patricia Serrano-Alvarado, Emmanuel Desmontils, José-Antonio García-Macías. "Policies Composition Based on Data Usage Context". In International Workshop on Consuming Linked Data (COLD) at ISWC2015, 12p, https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01184660 How to apply ? Please send the following documents by email to : Hala.Skaf@univ-nantes.fr, Patricia.Serrano-Alvarado@univ-nantes.fr : - Curriculum Vitae - Letters of recommendation Further information Salary : 2000 euros per month. This Fellowship is co-funded by Université Bretagne Loire and CominLab. The Université Bretagne Loire federates 7 universities, 15 "grandes écoles" and 5 research organizations in the West of France (Bretagne and Pays de la Loire). This community of universities and institutions aims to develop the scientific and academic potential of this territory at national and international level. The CominLabs are an initiative selected as part of the "Laboratoires d'Excellence" program by the French ministry of research and education. The CominLabs has been the only Laboratoire d'Excellence selected in the area of software sciences. The CominLabs federate the best teams from Bretagne and Nantes regions in the broad area of telecommunications, from electronic devices to wide area distributed applications "over the top".