[SIGCIS-Members] UK postdoc: Java programmer wanted for Analytical Engine simulation!

[James Sumner]

Forwarding on behalf of a colleague (see contact details below): not a 
history job in the usual sense, but looks fascinating!
Best
James

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AIA801/postdoctoral-research-assistant/

Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Leverhulme Project Grant 'Notions and Notations'
Royal Holloway, University of London -Computer Science

36 months duration full time

Starting salary is £32,862 per annum inclusive of London Allowance

Applicants are invited for a position as fixed term Research Assistant 
in the Computer Science department at Royal Holloway, University of London.

The post will support the Leverhulme Trust project Notions and 
Notations, Babbage's Language of  Thought, grant reference RPG-2013-396. 
The team is led by Professor Adrian Johnstone and Professor Elizabeth 
Scott, and includes Dr Doron Swade who oversaw the construction of 
Babbage's Difference Engine 2 for the Science Museum.

Babbage scholarship is an expanding field, yet one fundamental question 
has been largely ignored: how is it that one individual working alone 
could have synthesised a workable computer design over a short period, 
designing an object whose complexity of behaviour so far exceeded that 
of contemporary machines that it would not be matched for over one 
hundred years?

We believe that the answer lies in the techniques Babbage developed to 
reason about complex systems. His Notation, or rather his notations 
showing the geometry, the timing, the causal chains and the abstract 
components of his machines, have a direct parallel in the Hardware 
Description Languages (HDLs) developed since 1970 to aid the design of 
large scale electronics. Our research project will attempt to establish 
whether Babbage created the forerunner to HDLs, achieving intellectual 
leverage by abstracting away from machine schematics to hardware 
notations that directly described function, rather than implementation.

The key research questions to be addressed are (a) whether Babbage's 
notations capture the full specification of his engines and (b) the 
degree to which the notation is a successful HDL that underpins and 
enables the intellectual development of Babbage's mechanisms, both at 
the micro level of individual functional units and at the systems level. 
We propose to test this by developing a specification language and 
accompanying simulator which capture Babbage's notation, and using them 
to exercise Babbage's notations for Difference Engine 2.

The successful candidate will have a PhD in relevant area,  have good 
programming skills in Java, be familiar with current software 
engineering practices, be able to implement Web based applications, be 
familiar (to undergraduate level) with the construction of programming 
language parsers and translators, and have a good working knowledge of 
computer architecture. Detailed knowledge of Babbage and his designs is 
not required since that will be acquired within the project, but 
candidates must have an interest in the origins of computing.

This is a full time post available from 1 April, 2014 for a fixed term 
period of 36 months. This post is based in Egham, Surrey, London where 
the College is situated in a beautiful, leafy campus near to Windsor 
Great Park and within commuting distance from London.

For an informal discussion about the post, please contact Prof Adrian 
Johnstone, a.johnstone at rhul.ac.uk or +44 (0)1784 443425.