Associate or Full Professor in Language and AI Engineering

Associate or Full Professor in Language and AI Engineering Departments, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Introduction

Are you our next Associate or Full Professor who will explore the frontiers of language, cognition, and AI to drive responsible innovation a data‑driven society that benefits people and communities? You may be the ideal candidate to strengthen our research and education efforts to co‑shape the future of language and AI engineering in a supportive and collaborative environment. This vacancy is part of the Irène Curie Fellowship and is currently only open to female candidates.

You will join the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (M&CS). With over 140 (assistant, associate and full) professors, almost 250 PhD and EngD students, nearly 3000 students, M&CS is the largest department of the TU/e. By performing top‑level fundamental and applied research, and maintaining strong ties with industry, M&CS aims to contribute to science and innovation in and beyond the region.

This position is embedded in the Data & AI (DAI) cluster within the Data Science Domain (DS). DS brings together the Visualization, Process Analytics, and Data & AI clusters and aims to empower a data‑driven society through research and education in data science, contributing to effective, robust, and responsible data‑driven solutions for societal challenges. Within DS, DAI focuses on the foundations of data and AI systems for the present and the future.

Researchers in DAI develop new methods, algorithms, and tools that expand the reach, reliability, and generalization capabilities of data systems and AI.

Language and AI Engineering is an important area for DAI and DS. It connects the technical foundations of language, cognition, and AI with the development of responsible, trustworthy, and human‑centered AI systems. This position offers the opportunity to contribute to the further strengthening of this area within the cluster and domain, while nurturing meaningful connections to education, collaboration, and societal impact.

We are seeking an outstanding Associate or Full Professor with a strong track record in research and academic leadership to join our team and actively shape the future of Language and AI Engineering. This position focuses on the complex and fascinating intersection of AI, language, cognition, multimodality, human‑AI interaction, and the development of interpretable, trustworthy AI systems. You investigate not only what AI models (e.g., foundation models) can do in the context of language, cognition, and interaction, but also how they do it, thereby informing the design of the next generation of AI systems.

You will be expected to define and further develop an internationally visible research line, contribute to the strategic development of the field within the cluster and department, and support and inspire a new generation of students and researchers. Your work contributes to building AI that can support humans on complex tasks and be deployed responsibly in society.

Your research is focused on:

• AI, Language, and Cognition: Conduct fundamental research into the relationship between language and cognitive capabilities and large‑scale AI models. Explore core areas such as memory, reasoning, and the nature of machine “understanding.” Investigate what separates genuine machine understanding and reasoning from blind optimization of benchmark performance.

in combination with one or more of the following areas:

• Multimodal Interaction: Research and develop AI systems that interact through diverse modalities, including vision (images, video), language, and physical interfaces (e.g., robotics).
• Human‑AI
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Design and study models for effective human‑AI partnerships. Focus on complex collaborative tasks that require joint reasoning and consensus‑making.
• Enhancing AI Interpretability and Safety: Develop novel techniques to understand the internal workings of AI models. Identify, analyze, and mitigate potential biases, fairness issues, and other safety risks to build more trustworthy systems.
• Societal Impact: Study the application and implications of advanced AI in…