A funded internship is available at Idiap Research Institute in Switzerland:

Link:

http://www.idiap.ch/webapps/jobs/ors/applicant/position/index.php?PHP_APE_DR_9e581720b5ef40dc7af21c41bac4f4eb={__TO%3D%27detail%27%3B__PK%3D%2710166%27}


Description:

Internship on inference of high level semantics from prosodic features.

The Idiap speech group works on many aspects of speech processing, including
recognition and synthesis for the purpose of speech to speech translation.
Recently, much of our work is in the area of speech prosody. Prosody is often
ignored in speech recognition, but is vital for synthesis. To this end, we are
developing models of prosody that lend themselves to automatic extraction,
translation and synthesis of speech.

Prosody is also a communicative device in itself; it can infer meaning in
words, can convey emotion and affect, and is indicative of personality. It is
the latter of these that defines the general direction of the current project.

The successful candidate will begin with standard models of prosody and attempt
to infer higher level semantics. We intend to compare representations of
prosody for such inference, and investigate which representations are
appropriate for which semantics, hence which semantics can be inferred.
Possible tools include the usual array of speech processing methods such as
Markov models, and machine learning approaches such as neural networks and
support vector machines.

The candidate should have strong programming skills, ideally familiarity with
Python or C++. An analytic background in computer science or engineering is
desirable. All our speech work is multi-lingual; to this end, in addition to
English, the candidate would benefit from knowledge of another European or
Slavic language. Some knowledge of French is an advantage but not a requirement.

The application deadline is March 31st 2015; however, the position will be
filled as soon as possible. The appointment is for 6 months. Interns receive a
'stipend' of 2000 CHF per month.

--
Phil Garner