At a Glance
- Tasks: Research and develop innovative vision-language models for analysing micro-expressions.
- Company: Join a leading academic institution focused on cutting-edge AI research.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, tuition coverage, and teaching experience to boost your CV.
- Other info: Perfect for those aiming for an academic career with excellent growth opportunities.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in AI and healthcare while gaining valuable teaching skills.
- Qualifications: Strong background in computer vision, machine learning, and programming required.
The predicted salary is between 31236 - 31236 £ per year.
Micro-expressions are tiny, involuntary facial movements that can occur when a person tries to hide an emotion, but are difficult to analyse because they are subtle, short-lived, and easily confused with ordinary facial movement.
While many methods have been developed to recognise and localise micro-expressions, these results remain difficult to understand.
The proposed models will be designed to identify where the relevant facial evidence occurs, describe what subtle change has been observed, and explain why a prediction has been made.
The project will deliver new methods, benchmark protocols, and evaluation frameworks for explainable and trustworthy micro-expression analysis, with relevance to human-centred AI, and healthcare-related affect analysis.
The core novelty of the project is to shift micro-expression research from predominantly vision-only pipelines towards multimodal foundation-model approaches that combine subtle visual motion with structured language-level representations such as action units, temporal descriptions, prompt templates, and evidence-based explanations.
Objectives
We will investigate whether vision-language models (VLMs) can improve micro-expression analysis by combining video understanding with language-based reasoning.
- Process micro-facial expression data more efficiently in computer vision and vision language models.
- Create a language-guided representation for subtle facial motion, exploring multimodal data
- Create a spot-then-recognise approach to detect micro-expression intervals and interpret language-aware recognition.
- Evaluate novel methods and validate against the state-of-the-art in a real-world setting.
- Funding
These are doctoral teaching assistant positions that combine a Ph D programme with a university teaching contract.
Your time will be split approximately 60% on research and 40% on teaching.
This provides excellent preparation for candidates considering an academic career at a university.
The teaching component will typically run over the 22 teaching weeks per year and the 4 assessment weeks.
You will help deliver an outstanding student experience by supporting lead academics with classroom and lab teaching and assessment, further building the skills developed within your Ph D research programme.
The position is grade 6 with a current salary of £31,236 and includes payment of home Ph D tuition fees for the duration of the 6-year award.
Home students can apply.
Applicants must have the right to work in the UK.
We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
Candidate requirements
Candidates must have expertise in developing computer vision and machine learning algorithms. Vision Language Model (VLM) experience is desirable.
Qualifications
- A high-grade undergraduate degree (first class or upper second) in computer science or MSc in related field.
Skills
- Knowledge of programming, computer vision, machine learning, or related discipline.
- Experience with Python and relevant AI/ML libraries (such as Py Torch, Tensor Flow).
- Demonstrated knowledge of multimodal data processing (such as vision, language, 3D).
- #J-18808-Ljbffr
PhD Studentship - Vision Language Models for Micro-Expression Analysis in Manchester employer: UAG
Queen Mary University of London is an exceptional employer, offering a vibrant work culture that fosters academic excellence and innovation. With opportunities for professional development and the unique experience of teaching in both London and Hainan, China, employees are encouraged to grow their skills while making a meaningful impact on students' academic journeys.
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We think you need these skills to ace PhD Studentship - Vision Language Models for Micro-Expression Analysis in Manchester
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