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ISCApad Archive  »  2020  »  ISCApad #262  »  Jobs  »  (2019-12-07) 1 year post-doc/engineer position at LIA, Avignon France

ISCApad #262

Tuesday, April 14, 2020 by Chris Wellekens

6-23 (2019-12-07) 1 year post-doc/engineer position at LIA, Avignon France
  

 1 year post-doc/engineer position at LIA, Avignon France, in the Vocal Interaction Group

Multimodal man-robot interface for social spaces

keywords: AI, ML, DNN, RL, NLP, dialogue, vision, robotics

Starting job date (desired): March 2020.
==================================================================
## Work description

###Project Summary

Automation and optimisation of *verbal interactions of a socially-competent robot*,
guided by its *multimodal perceptions*

Facing a steady increase in the ageing population and the prevalence of chronic diseases,
social robots are promising tools to include in the health care system. Yet extant
assistive robots are not well suited to such context as their communication abilities
cannot handle social spaces (several meters and group of persons) but rather face-to-face
individual interactions in quiet environments. In order to overcome these limitations and
eventually aiming at natural man-robot interaction, the objectives of the work will be
multifold.

First and foremost we intend to leverage the rich information available with audio and
visual flows of data coming from humans to extract verbal and non-verbal features. These
features will be used to enhance the robot's decision-making ability such that it can
smoothly take speech turns and switch from interaction with a group of people to
face-to-face dialogue and back. Secondly online and continual learning of the advanced
system will be investigated.

Outcomes of the project will be implemented onto a commercially available social robot
(most likely a Pepper) and validated with several in-situ use cases. A large-scale data
collection will complement in-situ tests to fuel further researches. Essential
competencies to address our overall objectives lie in dialogue systems / NLP, yet
knowledges in vision and robotics would also be necessary. And in any case good command
of deep learning techniques and tools is mandatory (including reinforcement learning for
dialogue strategy training).

### Requirements

- Master or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computational Linguistics,
Mathematics, Engineering or related fields
- Expertise in NLP / Dialog systems. Strong knowledge of current NLP / Interactive /
Speech techniques is expected. Previous experience with dialogue and interaction and/or
vision data is a strong plus.
- Knowledge in Vision and/or Robotics are plusses.
? Strong programming skills, Python/C++ programmer of DNN models (preferably with pytorch)
- Expertise in Unix environments
- Good spoken and written command of English is required. *French is optional.*
- Good writing skills, as evidenced through publications at top venues (e.g., ACL, EMNLP,
SigDial etc) is a plus, for post-doc.

## Place

Bordered by the left bank of the Rhône Avignon is one of the most beautiful city in
Provence, for some time capital of Christendom in the Middle Ages. The important remains
of a past rich in history give the city its unique atmosphere: dozens of churches and
chapels, the ?Palais des Papes? (palace of the popes) the most important gothic palace in
Europe), the Saint-Benezet brigde, called the « pont d?Avignon » of worldwide fame
through its commemoration by the song, and the ramparts that still encircle the entire
city, ten museums from then ancient times to contemporary art.

The 94,787 inhabitants of the city, about 12,000 live in the ancient town centre
surrounded by its medieval ramparts. Avignon is not only the birthplace of the most
prestigious festival of contemporary theatre, European Capital of Culture in 2000, but
also the largest city and capital of the département of Vaucluse. The region offers a
high quality of urban life at comparatively still modest costs. In addition to this, the
region of Avignon also offers the opportunity to visit numerous monuments and natural
beauty sites easily accessible in a very short time: Avignon is the ideal destination for
visiting Provence.

LIA is the computer science lab of Avignon University: http://lia.univ-avignon.fr.

## Conditions

Net monthly salary: 1500-2100 ? (depending on the candidate's experience). Basic
healthcare coverage included (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_France).

The position carries no direct teaching load, but if desired, teaching BSc or MSc level
courses is a possibility (paid extra hours), as is supervision of student dissertation
projects.

Initial employment is 12 months, extension is possible. For engineer, shift to a PhD
position is possible.

## Applications

No deadline: applications are possible until the position is filled.

To apply, send the following documents *as a single PDF* to
fabrice.lefevre@univ-avignon.fr:

* Statement of research interests that motivates your application
* CV, including the list of publications if any
* Scans of transcripts and academic degree certificates
* MSc/PhD dissertation and/or any other writing samples
* Coding samples or links to your contributions to public code repositories, if any
* Names, affiliations, and contact details of up to three people who can provide
reference letters for you

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