Postdoctoral fellowship Position
Humans-on-the-loop deep reinforcement learning with application to multi-UAVs missions in next-generation emergency response systems
Dr. Nan Kong, Biomedical Engineering, and Dr. Dengfeng Sun, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, are seeking one postdoctoral research scientist, to work together on an exciting research project at the intersection between UAV control, reinforcement learning, and human computer interaction with a concrete application context emergency medical response. We are also part of the big research team at Purdue focusing on UAV-enabled emergency response. Other participating Purdue faculty are Dr. Xiaoqian (Joy) Wang from Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dr. Nicole Adams from Nursing. We are seeking a recent PhD graduate in AAE, ECE, OR/IE, and CS with research expertise in reinforcement learning and optimal control for autonomatous systems. Candidates with research experience on robotic perception systems and human-computer interaction will be highly valued.
The applicants are required to compete a Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowship application at Purdue, Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowships at Purdue Engineering. Gilbreth Fellows are appointed for a two-year term, and receive an annual stipend of $70,000 and benefits. A $5,000 grant is also provided for professional development such as attending conferences or workshops and are mentored for their future academic careers through a variety of programs.
The selection and employment will be dependent upon receiving the fellowship. The fellowship application submission deadline is October 31, 2021. But the application review and interview by the two PIs take place upon the submission. The fellows will be announced in January 2022 and they can start their assignments as early as February 2022.
Project Description
Using a swarm of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to support first responders in emergencies has earned significant interest due to advancement in robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The UAVs of next-generation emergency response systems is expected to be capable of sensing, planning, reasoning, collaborating, and acting to accomplish their tasks. These UAVs will not require humans-in-the-loop to make all key decisions, but rather make independent decisions with human-on-the-loop setting goals and supervising the multi-UAV missions.
Despite advances in AI and robotics autonomy models, deployment of multi-UAV systems remains challenging due to uncertainties in the outcome of AI models, rapid changes in environment conditions, and emerging requirements for how a swarm of autonomous UAVs can best support emergency responders during time-critical missions. One big challenge in designing such a semi-autonomous system is identify how they can collaborate to achieve a common goal. Even with a good system design, another critical challenge for optimal deployment is learning efficiency with reinforcement learning based methods. The recruited post-doctoral fellow is expected to spearhead into the development of a humans-on-the-loop meta-model-driven deep reinforcement learning (DRL) based solution in which human maintains oversight while intelligent UAVs are empowered to autonomously make planning and enactment decisions.
About the Fellowship. The Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowships at Purdue Engineering are awarded in memory of Dr. Lillian Moller Gilbreth, Professor at Purdue from 1935-1948. The goal of the Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at Purdue Engineering is to attract and prepare outstanding individuals with recently awarded PhDs for a career in engineering academia through interdisciplinary research, training, and professional development. The Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellows are selected not only for their outstanding scholarly achievements and proposed innovative interdisciplinary research but also for their potential for broader impact on industry and society. They undertake research with faculty mentors in different fields and participate in professional development activities tailored to their chosen path in academia.
About Purdue Engineering. Purdue Engineering is one of the largest and top-ranked engineering colleges in the nation (2nd public college for engineering, 3rd for online graduate engineering programs, 4th for graduate programs, 6th in the world for utility patents, and 9th for undergraduate programs) and renowned for top-notch faculty, students, unique research facilities, and a culture of collegiality and excellence.
For more information, please email Nan Kong, nkong@purdue.edu and Dengfeng Sun, dsun@purdue.edu.
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Nan Kong, PhD
Professor
Purdue University
West Lafayette IN
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