Research Associate - Human-AI Teaming for Chemistry (HATCH) Project

Research Associate - Human-AI Teaming for Chemistry (HATCH) Project

University of York

York, United Kingdom

GBP 37,694 - 46,049 per year

Role

The PDRA will work in the intersection of AI/Robotics and Chemistry for our Human – AI Teaming for Chemistry (HATCH) project funded by AIChemy Frointer Fund. The ultimate goal of HATCH is to enable Physical AI (robot manipulators, automated handling units) working with human chemists collaboratively, conducting frontier synthetic chemistry experiments.

Skills, Experience & Qualification needed

You will have:

• PhD (or close to completion) in Robotics, Computer Science, or a closely related field.
• A strong track record of high-quality research publications in top-tier journals or conferences relevant to robotics (e.g., ICRA/IROS, RSS, CoRL, RAL, TRO, IJRR or other similar venues).
• Robot Manipulation: Hands-on experience programming and controlling robot manipulators (e.g., UR, Franka Emika) and end-effectors for precise tasks.
• Software Proficiency: Strong proficiency in ROS/ROS2 (Robot Operating System) and hardware-software communication protocols.
• Programming: Advanced programming skills in Python and standard ML libraries
• Human-AI Collaboration: Understanding of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), shared autonomy, or collaborative decision-making frameworks.

Desirable to have:

• Experience working with Large Language Models (LLMs) or Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, particularly in grounding text/code generation into physical robot actions.
• Strong willingness and enthusiasm to learn synthetic chemistry workflows, laboratory safety protocols, and chemical domain knowledge.
• Prior experience collaborating with scientists outside of core computer science/engineering (e.g., chemists, biologists, physicists) is highly valued.