Modeling Virtual Coaches

The European Horizon-2020 project Council of Coaches aims to develop a tool in which virtual embodied coaches form a team of experts that can discuss amongst themselves and with the user how the user could improve his healthy lifestyle behaviors. The project combines state of the art 3D Virtual Avatars with language and reasoning technology and applies this to the area of lifestyle and behavior change coaching.

The goal of research is to design, implement and evaluate user interaction with the team of virtual agents, the council of coaches (Home Interface) and one-on-one interaction with a single coach (Mobile Interface). In particular it focuses on

1. Modelling coaches with their own specific agenda and behaviour style aiming at creating unique social relationships with users.
2. Adapting virtual coaches? behavior to ensure that user maintains his involvement in the relationship with the coaches.

Specific attention will be given to the development of virtual coaches with a wide variety of behavioural characteristics and personality traits. Several studies have shown how low level features such as behaviour expressivity and high level characteristic (e.g. personality traits ) affect user?s involvement in their interaction with the virtual characters and impact his performances (McRorie et al., 2011) (Paiva et al., 2017)).

The work in this research will make use of and build upon the GRETA/VIB platform developed at UPMC (Pecune et al., 2014) for multimodal behaviour generation and for visualizing virtual coaches.

To apply, send a CV and names of reference to    catherine.pelachaud@upmc.fr

H2020 Council of Coaches

Context:

The GRETA/VIB platform is developed at CNRS-ISIR (Pécune et al, 2014). It simulates virtual characters able to communicate with humans in real-time. It is endowed with socio-emotional capabilities. The control of the character is done through two specific languages at the communicative intention level and at the multimodal behavior one. The platform includes several tools to create multimodal behaviors.

The GRETA/VIB platform is used within the European Horizon-2020 project Council of Coaches which aims to develop a tool in which virtual embodied coaches form a team of experts that can discuss amongst themselves and with the user how the user could improve his healthy lifestyle behaviors. The project combines state of the art 3D Virtual characters with language and reasoning technology and applies this to the area of lifestyle and behavior change coaching.

Job Description:

We are looking for an engineer knowledgeable in 3D virtual environment. S/he will participate to Council of Coaches project. Her/his role will be:

-          Port the Greta/VIB platform onto Android mobile and VR headset.

-          Participate to development of computational model of agent?s multimodal behaviors

-          Integrate software modules within the VIB/Greta platform and/or within a bigger software system developed within the H2020 project Coach Council.

-          Participate to developers meetings (online and on site) of the H2020 project Coach Council

Profile: Engineer in computer science, Master, PhD

skills:

• Programming languages and standards: Java, C#, C++, XML, Ogre 3D

Mastered skills:

• The ideal candidate will have solid software development, testing and integration skills
• English (written and oral)

Project Length: 1 year position renewable

Place: ISIR - UPMC

Stipend: depends on applicant qualification

Contact: Catherine Pelachaud, CNRS-ISIR; catherine.pelachaud@upmc.fr

To apply, send a CV, names of reference, master grades (for Master applicants) to    catherine.pelachaud@upmc.fr

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The Institute of Digital Sciences, Management and Cognition at the University of Lorraine
(Nancy, France) opens a new Masters program in Natural Language Processing and Data
Science - Computer Science, Speech, Language, and Knowledge Representation

http://institut-sciences-digitales.fr/idmc-master-degree-in-natural-language-processing/

Do you want to become an expert in Deep Neural Networks, Logic, Speech Processing,
Information Retrieval, Knowledge Representation, ? all of this for Natural Language?
Here's your chance!

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is at the crossroads of linguistics, computer science,
and artificial intelligence. We propose a modern curriculum which combines different
approaches covering both theoretical and applied perspectives.

The program includes a hands-on project in each semester. It ends with a 6-month paid
internship in a company or a research lab.

See the course description below.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can apply for the 1st year (M1) or for directly entering the 2nd year (M2).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Language
-------------
All courses are taught in English (except the 'French for non-native speakers' course).


Fees
-------
The University of Lorraine is publicly funded and therefore offers tuition-free education
for all students including students from both inside and outside EU/EEA/EFTA countries.
The only student expenditures are a nominal semester fee of about 600 euros which
includes health insurance. Nancy?s high quality of life goes hand-in-hand with a low cost
of living.


Why Nancy?
---------------
Nancy is a center of excellence for NLP!

1/Two important research centers:
- LORIA, the computer science research laboratory (http://www.loria.fr/en/)
- ATILF the linguistics research laboratory (http://www.atilf.fr/)

Both research units participate in many national and international research projects.
Their members are highly visible in the international community and regularly publish in
the most prestigious conferences and journals in the field.

2/ The University of Lorraine participates in two Erasmus Mundus Masters funded by the
European Union :
- Erasmus Mundus Master Language and Communication Technology (http://lct-master.org/)
- Erasmus Mundus Master EMLex (https://www.emlex.phil.fau.eu/)


Why NLP?
--------------
Natural Language Processing is a rapidly expanding field.

With the proliferation of digital data, there is a massive need for well-trained
engineers and researchers able to exploit this data for commercial (e-commerce,
recommendation systems, translation, etc) and socio-political (e-learning, opinion
mining, behavioral prediction, etc.) purposes.

Start-ups, small firms with strong R&D profiles and large companies (e.g., in France,
Airbus, Thales, EDF, Orange) are looking for scientists and engineers who can contribute
to the development of systems capable of managing and exploiting textual data.

The GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) are hiring intensively in both the
NLP and the Speech processing domains.

The need for PhD candidates is also strong as shown by the many PhD scholarships offered
by both academic and industrial players.


Contacts
------------
Head of the MSc program:
        Maxime Amblard <maxime.amblard@univ-lorraine.fr>
Secretary:
        Karine Weisse <karine.weisse@univ-lorraine.fr>
Location of the courses :
        École des Mines (Artem Campus, Tram stop 'Blandan')
        http://www.alliance-artem.fr/


Application
---------------
The application file is available here:
https://ecandidat.univ-lorraine.fr

More information:
http://institut-sciences-digitales.fr/application-process-nlp-master-degree/#application


Academic Year 2018-2019
-----------------------------------
From September 3rd to 13th, 2018: Refresher courses in mathematics (probability theory,
statistics) and computer science (algorithms, programming)

M1:
        1st semester from September 17th to January 11th
        2nd semester from January 14th to June 6th
M2:
        1st semester from September 17th to February 15th
        Internship from February to August


In brief
----------
? A program with strong national and international visibility
? Taught entirely in English
? A high quality research environment with two research centers covering a wide range of
disciplines (linguistics, computer science, speech and language processing) and
applications (Human-Machine Interfaces, Speech Processing, Knowledge Retrieval,
Statistical Machine Translation, etc.)
? Studies in a vibrant, human-sized city
? Studies at a low cost (Tuition fees at around 600 euros per year incl. health insurance)


Course Description
---------------------------
M1 1st Semester
---------------------------
PROBABILITIES, STATISTICS AND ALGORITHMS FOR AI
        ? Elementary mathematical tools, statistics, algorithms to define and solve
artificial intelligence problems
        ? Case studies covering both theoretical and practical aspects

CORPUS DESIGN AND ACQUISTION
        ? Written corpora
        ? Speech corpora

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        ? Collection, analysis and formalization of customers' needs
        ? Software design and development
        ? Functional analysis and specifications
        ? Project management

LINGUISTICS FOR NLP (1)
        ? Methods for Natural Language Processing
        ? Phonology
        ? Morphology

PROJECT AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE
        ? Hands-on project
        ? Foreign language (French)

---------------------------
M1 2nd Semester
---------------------------
MACHINE LEARNING AND SEMANTIC WEB
        ? Machine learning theory
        ? Data mining
        ? Knowledge retrieval

FORMAL TOOLS
        ? Logic
        ? Formal languages
        ? Calculability and complexity

DATA PROCESSING
        ? Storage and retrieval
        ? Data analysis

LINGUISTICS FOR NLP (2)
        ? Lexicology: lexical units and phraseology
        ? Syntax
        ? Semantics

PROJECT AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE
        ? Hands-on project
        ? Scientific communication
        ? Foreign language (French)

---------------------------
M2 1st Semester
---------------------------
DEEP LEARNING AND DATA MINING
        ? Neural networks, Deep neural networks
        ? Data mining (structured data and text)
        ? Collaborative filtering

TEXT AND SPEECH PROCESSING
        ? Processing textual data
        ? Speech processing
        ? Terminology and ontology

NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING AND DISCOURSE
        ? Application to text
        ? Computational semantics
        ? Discourse and Dialog modeling

LEXICONS AND GRAMMARS FOR NLP
        ? Diachronic and synchronic lexicology
        ? Lexical resources
        ? Syntactic framework

PROJECTS AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE
        ? Software project
        ? Law and ethics
        ? Research methods
        ? Professional integration
        ? Foreign language (French)

---------------------------
M2 2nd Semester
---------------------------
Paid internship (company or research lab)

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M.Sc. Program in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Data Science
Université de Lorraine, Nancy (France)


The Institute of Digital Sciences, Management and Cognition
is opening a Masters Program in NLP - ??
Computer Science, Speech, Language and Knowledge Representation

**************

http://institut-sciences-digitales.fr/idmc-master-degree-in-natural-language-processing/
**************

So you want to be a specialist in Neural Networks, Logic, Speech
Processing, Information Retrieval, Knowledge Representation... all
for Natural Language? Well, now's your chance!

Natural Language Processing (NLP) lies at the crossroads of
linguistics, computer science and artificial intelligence. This
Masters Program offers a modern curriculum which combines the
different approaches, and covers both theoretical and applied
perspectives.


In each semester, the program includes a hands-on project.
It ends with a 6-month paid internship in a company or a research
lab. You can find the course description below.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can apply to directly enter at either the first year (M1) or second year (M2) level.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Language
-------------
All courses are taught in English
(except the 'French for non-native speakers' class).


Fees
-------
The University of Lorraine is publicly funded and thus offers
tuition-free education for many students including students
from the EU (243 ? cost per year). The tuition fee for students
from other nations arriving in France at the beginning of
the 2019 academic year will be 3.770 ? per year.

Find more information here:
https://www.campusfrance.org/en/tuition-fees-France

Nancy?s high quality of life goes hand-in-hand with a low cost
of living.


Why Nancy?
---------------
Nancy is a center of excellence for NLP. It can boast of:

1/Two important research units:
- LORIA, the computer science research laboratory http://www.loria.fr/en/
- ATILF the linguistic research laboratory http://www.atilf.fr/

Both research units participate in many national and
international research projects. Their members are highly
visible in the international community and regularly publish
in the most prestigious conferences and journals of the field.

2/ Two Erasmus Mundus Masters funded by the European Union :
- Erasmus Mundus Master Language and Communication
Technology (LCT) http://lct-master.org/
- Erasmus Mundus Master EMLex.
        https://www.emlex.phil.fau.eu/


Why NLP?
--------------
Natural Language Processing is a rapidly expanding field.

With the proliferation of digital data, there is a massive need
for well-trained engineers and researchers able to exploit this
data for commercial (for example: e-commerce, recommender
systems and translation) and socio-political (for example:
e-learning, opinion mining, and behavioural predictions) purposes.

Start-ups, small firms with strong R&D profiles and large companies
(in France this includes Airbus, Thales, EDF, Orange, etc.) are
looking for scientists and engineers who can contribute to the
development of systems capable of managing and exploiting textual
data.

The GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) also recruit
intensively in both the NLP and the Speech processing domain.

There is also a strong need for Ph.D. candidates in the field, as
demonstrated by the many Ph.D. proposals in both the public and
the industrial domain.



Contacts
------------
Head of the Master program: Maxime Amblard
        maxime.amblard@univ-lorraine.fr
Secretary: Karine Weisse
        karine.weisse@univ-lorraine.fr

Location of the courses:
        École des Mines (Artem Campus, Tram stop 'Blandan')
        http://www.alliance-artem.fr/


Application
---------------
Non-European students
---------------
Students from most non-UE countries shall apply on
https://pastel.diplomatie.gouv.fr/etudesenfrance/dyn/public/authentification/login.html?_csrf=a530f0a6-e1d3-4052-ba91-f2cb8029fcd8&codeLangue=EN
(search Traitement Automatique des Langues Nancy)

Students from other non-EU countries can directly apply with the following file:
http://institut-sciences-digitales.fr/applicationfilem-sc_-nlp19-20/


European students
---------------
The application file for EU students is available here:
https://ecandidat.univ-lorraine.fr

Create an account then follow:
        - Offre de formation
        - Institut des sciences du digital, management et cognition
        - Master
        - M1-Traitement Automatique des Langues (TAL) (NANCY) (FI)
           or
        - M2-Traitement Automatique des Langues (TAL) PT Informatique, langue, parole et
connaissances (NANCY) (FI)

More information:
http://institut-sciences-digitales.fr/application-process-nlp-master-degree/#application


Academic Year 2019-2020
-----------------------------------
From 3rd to 13th September 2019: Refresher courses in
mathematics (probability theory and statistics) and computer
science (algorithms and programming).

M1:
        1st semester from September 2nd to January 10th
        2nd semester from January 13th to June 5th
M2:
        1st semester from September 2nd to March 27th
        Internship from February to August


In brief
----------
? A program with strong national and international visibility
? Taught entirely in English
? A high quality research environment with two research centers
covering a wide range of disciplines (linguistics, computer
science, speech and language processing) and applications
(human-machine interfaces, speech processing, knowledge
extraction, statistical machine translation, etc.)
? Studies in a vibrant, human-size city


Course Description
---------------------------
M1 Semester 1
---------------------------
PROBABILITIES, STATISTICS AND ALGORITHMS FOR AI
        ? Elementary mathematical tools, statistics, algorithms
        to define and solve artificial intelligence problems
        ? Case study approach towards mastering both theoretical
        and practical aspects of a topic

DESIGN AND ACQUISITION OF CORPORA
        ? Written corpora
        ? Speech corpora

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        ? Collecting, analysing and formalizing customers' needs
        ? Software design and development
        ? Functional analysis and specifications
        ? Project management

LINGUISTICS FOR NLP (1)
        ? Methods for Natural Language Processing
        ? Phonology
        ? Morphology

PROJECT AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE
        ? Hands-on project
        ? Foreign language (French)

---------------------------
M1 Semester 2
---------------------------
MACHINE LEARNING AND SEMANTIC WEB
        ? Machine learning theory
        ? Data mining
        ? Knowledge extraction

FORMAL TOOLS
        ? Logic
        ? Formal languages
        ? Calculability and complexity

DATA PROCESSING
        ? Storage and retrieval
        ? Data analysis

LINGUISTICS FOR NLP (2)
        ? Lexicology : lexical units and phraseology
        ? Syntax
        ? Semantics

PROJECT AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE
        ? Hands-on project
        ? Scientific communication
        ? Foreign language (French)

---------------------------
M2 Semester 1
---------------------------
DEEP LEARNING AND DATA MINING
        ? Neural Networks, Deep Neural Networks
        ? Data mining (structured data and text)
        ? Collaborative filtering

TEXT AND SPEECH PROCESSING
        ? Processing Textual Data
        ? Speech processing
        ? Terminology and ontology

NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING AND DISCOURSE
        ? Application to text
        ? Computational semantics
        ? Discourse and Dialog modeling

LEXICONS AND GRAMMARS FOR NLP
        ? Diachronic and synchronic lexicology
        ? Lexical resources
        ? Syntactic framework

PROJECTS AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE
        ? Software project
        ? Law and ethics
        ? Research methods
        ? Professional integration
        ? Foreign language (French)

---------------------------
M2 Semester 2
---------------------------
Paid internship (company or research lab)

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Call for Proposals

2021 IEEE International Workshop on
Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP)

IEEE Signal Processing Society?s Machine Learning for Signal Processing Technical Committee (MLSP TC) is soliciting proposals from researchers interested in organizing the 2021 MLSP Workshop. The deadline for submission of proposals is July 15, 2019.  The MLSP Workshop is a four-day event, and usually includes tutorials.

The proposals will be reviewed by MLSP TC and proposal finalists will be invited to present at MLSP 2019 be held from Oct 13-16 in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Proposing teams are asked to create a proposal that follows the following outline:

1. Location and Venue - Give an idea on the venue size and facilities  
2. Conference Dates - Ensure they do not conflict with major holidays, or other SPS conferences and workshops. Typically the workshop is held during the period of mid September to mid October. 
3. Organizing Committee Members- Build the organizing committee considering the following representation: active SPS members; diversity including geographical, industry and academia, age, and gender; conference and/or workshop experience; Management experience 
4. Professional Conference Organizer (PCO) - Include brief summary about PCO and services they will provide 
5. Technical Program ? consider the overall structure and conference model; innovative initiatives; Student and Young Professional initiatives; and Industry-related initiatives 
6. Hotels 
7.  Travel and Transportation 
8.  Any other relevant information

Please submit your proposal to the MLSP TC Chair, Bhaskar Rao, at brao@ucsd.edu,
by July 15, 2019 for consideration.

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