In response to the rapid evolution of the AI landscape and the increasing importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, we are launching a unified postdoctoral fellows program that spans the sciences and AI. The program aims to seamlessly integrate the strengths of the Center for Innovation in Data Engineering and Science (IDEAS) and the Data Driven Discovery Initiative (DDDI) into a single home for data science postdoctoral fellows in SEAS and SAS. Both engineering and science oriented postdocs in this program will benefit from sustained peer interactions within the program, broad exposure to faculty across schools, and opportunities for cross-school faculty mentorship.
Objectives
The mission of the Postdoctoral Fellows Program is to foster innovation, collaboration, and excellence in data science, machine learning, and AI across traditional disciplinary boundaries. We will build on the existing strengths of both IDEAS and DDDI in order to:
Bridge disciplinary divides
Facilitate collaboration between AI/ML/DS experts from SEAS and natural and social science experts from SAS. Postdocs will typically work with up to two mentors, with complementary expertise in AI and a scientific domain.
Advance scientific discovery and AI
Enabling new scientific discoveries drives the need for new technological innovation, and conversely new AI is opening up scientific questions previously considered out of reach. We will facilitate interactions with research centers, laboratories, and institutes at Penn through co-hosted events and mixers. We will run a weekly postdoctoral lunch program that hosts faculty from across SEAS and SAS as invited guests.
Promote ethical and interpretable AI
Emphasize the design and engineering of fair, ethical, explainable, robust, and trustworthy autonomous systems through interdisciplinary research at the intersection of AI and application domains. Applications of AI in science and medicine offer powerful testing grounds for approaches to interpretability and safety.
Support career development
Provide postdoctoral fellows with a unique opportunity to engage with cutting-edge scientific and clinical data, leveraging Penn’s research centers, laboratories, and institutes across SEAS and SAS.
Application Process
Applicants to the Postdoctoral Fellows Program will follow a streamlined application process, identifying mentors from both AI and a scientific domain. The selection committee will assess candidates based on their excellence, potential for cross-disciplinary scientific research and commitment to advancing methodology in AI. Penn faculty may forward applications as well.
Funding and Support
The Postdoctoral Fellows Program will provide financial support for postdocs, providing an additional salary support and/or an annual research fund.