Ontology Research Intern – PDRA/School of Computing (Ref. 446)
With the advent of sharing economy platforms (SEPs) such as Airbnb and Uber, people can exchange services and goods among themselves directly. However, no computational model has been proposed to describe or facilitate the automatic analysis of how people, organisations and other entities exchange information via SEPs. It not only limits our understanding of human behaviour and business models but also can cause sociotechnical issues such as privacy and safety of people who are using/providing services on SEPs. To fill the gap, we propose building an ontology, (i.e., a semantic graph-based conceptual model) to model SEPs.
Key Accountabilities / Skills to be developed
· Conducting an interdisciplinary research project advised by a team of researchers from both Computing and Business, to prepare you for a potential research career or a research-informed career in industry.
· Conducting preliminary research on building a computational ontology about sharing economy, a human- and machine-readable semantic graph describing relationships between entities and data shared by entities.
· You will be guided to read some key research papers and reports about SEPs, data economy, and socio-technical issues around privacy and safety online related to SEPs.
· Design a mini questionnaire for a quick survey on social media to get some firsthand information about SEP users to supplement data gathered from the literature.
· Conceptualising the computational ontology based on identified entities, interactive activities, and data exchanged.
· If time allows, to look at a privacy-related use case so as to assess the usefulness of the built ontology.
· The outcomes will be disseminated internally via a KirCCS seminar talk given by you, and later as part of a planned research paper. In addition, it will then be released it as part of the deliverables of the PriVELT project on its website, and to other researchers, practitioners and users of SEPs via online channels such as social media.
Health, Safety & Wellbeing Considerations
This role involves undertaking duties which include the Health, Safety and wellbeing issues outlined below. Please be aware of these, when considering your suitability for the role.
· Regular use of Screen Display Equipment
Person Specification
The person specification details the necessary skills, qualifications, experience or other attributes needed to carry out the role. Applications are assessed against each of the criteria either at application or interview stage. Applications will be deemed unsuccessful if an essential criterion is not met. This may also help you self-select if you are suitable for the role.
Experience/Knowledge
· Excellent organisational and time management skills (Essential)
· Attention to detail, ability to solve real world problems and to think creatively (Essential)
· Excellent IT skills (Essential)
· Confident user of crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon mTurk (Desirable)
· Ability to learn ontology editing tools such as Protégé (Essential)
· Experience of writing for different audiences (Desirable)
Skills/Abilities
· Good verbal and written communication skills (Essential)
· An enthusiastic attitude and willingness to learn new skills (Essential)
· Ability to work collaboratively and creatively with others, sharing knowledge and skills (Essential)
· Ability to meet deadlines and give regular updates (Essential)
Salary details: £10.31/hour
Closing date: Apr-23-2020
Apply: via Target connect for Ontology Research Intern at:
https://careers.kent.ac.uk/leap/jobSearch.html?id=40965&service=Careers+Service