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ISCApad #185 |
| Tuesday, November 12, 2013 by Chris Wellekens |
6 Jobs
| 6-1 | (2013-06-03) 2 Ph D's Université d'AvignonLe labex Brain and Language Research Institute (BLRI) financera à la rentrée prochaine deux sujets
de thèse dont l'un des sujets pourra être celui proposé ci-dessous (en fonction des candidatures
retenues).
Calendrier :. date limite des candidatures : 10 juin.
auditions des candidats retenus : 24 juin
Bourse : 1 684.93€ brut mensuel (1 368€ nets)
Dossier des candidats :. CV détaillé. Notes. Motivation et/ou projet scientifique correspondant au sujet Contact scientifique : Corinne Fredouille et Christine Meunier
Contact administratif : nadera.bureau@blri.fr
Description du sujet :
Titre : Détection de zones de déviance dans la parole pathologique : apport du traitement automatique face à l'expertise humaine Superviseurs : Corinne Fredouille, Christine Meunier Laboratoire d'accueil : Laboratoire Informatique d'Avignon (collaboration avec le Laboratoire Parole et Langage –Aix-en-Provence) Discipline et école doctorale : Informatique, école doctorale ED536 de l'Université d'Avignon Calendrier : . date limite des candidatures : 10 juin . auditions des candidats retenus : 24 juin Bourse : 1 684.93€ brut mensuel (1 368€ nets) Description scientifique Si la définition de l'étendue de la variabilité en parole normale est une question fondamentale pour les théories linguistiques actuelles, une façon d'aborder ses limites est d'essayer de déterminer ses frontières par le biais de la variation pathologique. Comme le soulignent Duffy et Kent, 2001 « Science often takes advantages of nature’s accidents to learn the principles of a process ». Sur ce principe, la connaissance de la parole pathologique s'appuyant sur la compréhension des phénomènes d'altération « observables » dans la production de parole de patients atteints de troubles de la parole devient une nécessité. La parole dysarthrique correspond à une altération de la commande motrice d’origine centrale ou périphérique des gestes de la parole. Des variations importantes existent dans la parole dysarthrique en relation avec un déficit de l’exécution temporo-spatiale des mouvements de la parole et qui peuvent affecter différents niveaux de production (respiratoire, laryngé et supralaryngé). La grande majorité des travaux ayant porté sur l'étude de la parole dysarthrique repose sur des analyses perceptives. La raison principale tient dans le fait qu'un patient dysarthrique est dysarthrique parce qu'il « s'entend/a l'air » dysarthrique. Les travaux les plus connus au niveau international sont ceux de Darley et al., 1975. Ils ont conduit à l'élaboration d'une organisation des dysarthries en 6 classes (complétée par deux classes supplémentaires par Duffy, 1995) sur la base de clusters physiopathologiques définis à partir de la concomitance de caractéristiques les plus déviantes perçues par un jury d'écoute. L’hypothèse sous-jacente à la construction de ces clusters est qu’un ensemble de paramètres perturbés simultanément, mis en relation avec l’atteinte neurologique, reflèterait un processus physiopathologique particulier. Si cette classification reste d'actualité encore aujourd'hui pour évaluer notamment la parole dysarthrique en pratique clinique, elle reste néanmoins sujette à controverses pour deux raisons principales : la subjectivité des évaluations perceptives d'une manière générale et la difficulté pour un être humain, même expérimenté, à distinguer et à juger perceptivement les multiples dimensions à prendre en compte dans l'évaluation de la parole dysarthrique. En conséquence, différents travaux ont été menés à partir des années 80 à aujourd'hui dans l'objectif de combiner ces analyses perceptives à des méthodes plus objectives et quantitatives telles que les analyses instrumentales basées sur des mesures acoustiques ou physiologiques (revue de la littérature dans Kay, 2012). Si les analyses instrumentales peuvent s'appuyer sur des traitements semi- voire entièrement automatiques, l'analyse acoustique fine nécessaire pour comprendre les phénomènes déviants inhérents à la dysarthrie dans le signal de parole demeure encore très coûteuse en temps par un expert humain. Dans ce contexte, une grande part des études présentes dans la littérature repose soit sur un nombre très restreint de patients ou sur une pathologie bien ciblée. Pourtant, la grande variabilité des phénomènes déviants observés dans la parole dysarthrique en fonction de la pathologie du patient, de l'avancement de la maladie ou de la sévérité de la dysarthrie requiert d'analyser une large population de patients. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier comment les outils du traitement automatique de la parole pourraient permettre de traiter de larges populations de patients dysarthriques et de focaliser l'attention des experts humains sur des zones de déviance bien identifiées du signal en vue d'analyses plus fines. Ces travaux reposeront notamment sur le système de transcription automatique du LIA et ses activités de recherche autour des mesures de qualité des transcriptions (Lecouteux, 2008 et Senay, 2011). La granularité de la détection des zones de déviance – ici potentiellement le mot ou la séquence de mots – sera dans un second temps affiner par des outils travaillant à des niveaux inférieurs allant jusqu'au phonème (Fredouille, 2011). Ces travaux devront tenter de répondre à différentes questions : • Face à la variabilité des phénomènes de déviance observés dans la parole dysarthrique et répertoriés dans la littérature, quels sont ceux qu'un système de détection automatique est capable de déceler ? • Est ce qu'un système automatique est capable de mettre en évidence les mêmes phénomènes de déviance qu'un expert humain lors d'une évaluation perceptive ? • Les déviances détectées par le système automatique sont-elles pertinentes pour les phonéticiens ? • Est-il possible de mettre en relation les déviances détectées avec la physiopathologie du patient (ex : indices hypokinéthiques pour la maladie de Parkinson, indices paralytiques pour la SLA, …) ? Les travaux autour du système de transcription automatique du LIA devraient également ouvrir des perspectives sur la mise en place d'un système de mesures objectives de l'intelligibilité des patients dysarthriques. Ces travaux de thèse seront réalisés dans le cadre d'une collaboration étroite entre le LIA (Corinne Fredouille) pour son expertise autour des systèmes automatiques, le LPL (Christine Meunier et Alain Ghio) pour son expertise sur les analyses acoustico-phonétiques et les évaluations perceptives, les hôpitaux de la Timone (Dr Danièle Robert) et des Pays d'Aix (François Viallet) pour leur expertise clinique. Ils seront basés sur le corpus de patients dysarthriques élaborés dans le cadre du projet ANR DesPhoAPady (2009-2012 – Fougeron, 2010). Ce corpus présente un large panel de patients souffrant de différentes pathologies (maladie de Parkinson, Sclérose Latérale Amiotrophique, syndrôme cérébelleux) et différents niveaux de sévérité de dysarthrie. Références : J. R. Duffy, R. D. Kent, « Darley's contributions to the understanding, differential diagnosis, and scientific study of the dysarthrias », Aphasiology 15(3):275 – 289, 2001. F. L. Darley, A. E. Aronson, J. R. Brown, « Motor Speech Disorders », Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1975. J. R. Duffy, « Motor speech disorders : substrates, differential diagnosis and management », Motsby- Yearbook, St Louis, 1e édition, 1995. T. S. Kay, « Spectral analysis of stop consonants in individuals with dysarthria secondary to stroke », PhD thesis, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, USA, 2012. B. Lecouteux, « Reconnaissance automatique de la parole guidée par des transcriptions a priori », Thèse de doctorat, Université d'Avignon et des Pays Vaucluse, 2008. G. Senay, « Approches semi-automatiques pour la recherche d’information dans les documents audio », Thèse de doctorat, Université d'Avignon et des Pays Vaucluse, 2011. C. Fredouille, G. Pouchoulin, « Automatic detection of abnormal zones in pathological speech », International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPHs'11), Hong Kong, 17-21 Août 2011. C. Fougeron et al., « Developing an acoustic-phonetic characterization of dysarthric speech in French », LREC'10 (international conference on Language Resources and Evaluation), Malte, Mai 2010. Dossier des candidats : . CV détaillé . Notes . Motivation et/ou projet scientifique correspondant au sujet Contact scientifique : Corinne Fredouille et Christine Meunier Contact administratif : nadera.bureau@blri.fr
Title: Detection of deviant zones in pathological speech : contribution of the automatic speech processing against the Human expertise Supervisor : Corinne Fredouille, Christine Meunier Host laboratory : Laboratoire Informatique d'Avignon (collaboration with the Laboratoire Parole et Langage – Aix-en-Provence) Field and doctoral school : computer sciences, doctoral school ED536 of the University of Avignon Date : . deadline for the application : 10th of june . auditions of chosen candidates : 24th of june Grant : 1 684.93€ montly gross (1 368€ net) Scientific description If the definition of the variability range in normal speech is a key issue for the current linguistic theories, a way of dealing with its limits is to attempt to determine its frontiers through pathological variation. As reported by Duffy and Kent, 2001 « Science often takes advantages of nature’s accidents to learn the principles of a process ». Based on this, the knowledge of the pathological speech, based on the understanding of alteration phenomena, « observable » on the speech production of patients suffering of speech disorders becomes a necessity. Dysarthria is a group of speech disorders resulting from neurological impairments of speech motor control. Substantial variations occur in dysarthric speech due to a deficit in the spatio-temporal execution of speech movements that affects different levels of speech production (respiratory, laryngeal and supralaryngeal). The vast majority of research work dedicated to the study of the dysarthric speech relies on perceptual analyses. The main reason is that a dysarthric patient is dysarthric because he/she sounds dysarthric. The most known study, at international level, was done by Darley et al., 1975. This work leads to organize dysarthria into 6 classes (completed with 2 additional classes by Duffy, 1995) on the basis of physiopathological clusters defined from the co-occurrences of the most deviant features perceived by a perceptual jury. The hypothesis underlying the building of these clusters is that a set of simultaneously disturbed features, connected with the neurological injuries, should reflect a typical physiopathological process. If this classification is still used nowadays to evaluate dysarthric speech in clinical practice notably, it remains controversal for a couple of reasons : the subjectivity of perceptual evaluation and the difficulty for a Human being, even with a high expertise, of distinguishing and assessing perceptually the multiple dimensions to take into account when dealing with dysarthric speech. Consequently, different research work has been conducted since the 1980s until now which aims at combining these perceptual analyses with more objective and quantitative approaches such as the instrumental analyses based on acoustic or physiological measure (review of the literature can be found in Kay, 2012). Contrary to the instrumental analyses which can rely on some semi- or full-automatic process, in-depth acoustic analysis of speech necessary to understand the deviant phenomena related to dysarthria still remains very timeconsuming for a Human expert. Based on this, a signifiant proportion of studies in the literature are conducted on a limited number of patients or on a focused pathology. However, the large variability of deviant phenomena observed in dysarthric speech according to the patient’s pathology, the stage of the disease, or the dysarthria severity require the analysis of a large patient population. The aim of this thesis is to study how the automatic speech processing tools could permit to treat large populations of dysarthric patients and to focus Human experts’ attention on speech zones well identified as deviant for further in-depth analyses. This work will rely on the automatic speech transcription developed at the LIA and its activities on the quality measure of transcriptions (Lecouteux, 2008 et Senay, 2011). The granularity of the deviant zone detection – here the word or set of words – will be refined, in a second step, by applying existing detection tools working at lower levels like the phoneme (Fredouille, 2011). This work will attempt to answer the following key issues : • Given the variability of deviant phenomena observed on dysarthric speech and reported in literature, which ones is an automatic detection system able to capture ? • Is an automatic system able to highlight the same deviant phenomena as a Human expert will detect perceptually ? • Are deviant speech zones detected by an automatic system relevant for a phonetician ? • Does a correlation between the type of deviant phenomena detected and the patient’s physiopathology exist (e.g : hypokinetic feature for the Parkinson disease, paralytic features for ALS, …) ? Studies relating to the automatic speech transcription should open up new perspectives on the implementation of an objective system dedicated to the evaluation of the dysarthric patient’s intelligibility. This thesis work will be carried out within a close collaboration between the LIA (Corinne Fredouille) for her expertise on the automatic system dedicated to speech processing, the LPL (Christine Meunier and Alain Ghio) for their expertise on acoustic-phonetic analyses and perceptual evaluations, both the hospitals of La Timone (Dr Danièle Robert) and desPays d’Aix (Pr. François Viallet) for their clinical expertise. It will be based on the dysarthric patient corpus designed for the ANR DesPhoAPady project (2009-2012 – Fougeron, 2010). This corpus includes a large population of patients suffering from various pathologies (Parkinson disease, ALS, cerebelar syndrom, …) and different levels of dysarthria severity. Bibliography : J. R. Duffy, R. D. Kent, « Darley's contributions to the understanding, differential diagnosis, and scientific study of the dysarthrias », Aphasiology 15(3):275 – 289, 2001. F. L. Darley, A. E. Aronson, J. R. Brown, « Motor Speech Disorders », Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1975. J. R. Duffy, « Motor speech disorders : substrates, differential diagnosis and management », Motsby- Yearbook, St Louis, 1e édition, 1995. T. S. Kay, « Spectral analysis of stop consonants in individuals with dysarthria secondary to stroke », PhD thesis, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, USA, 2012. B. Lecouteux, « Reconnaissance automatique de la parole guidée par des transcriptions a priori », Thèse de doctorat, Université d'Avignon et des Pays Vaucluse, 2008. G. Senay, « Approches semi-automatiques pour la recherche d’information dans les documents audio », Thèse de doctorat, Université d'Avignon et des Pays Vaucluse, 2011. C. Fredouille, G. Pouchoulin, « Automatic detection of abnormal zones in pathological speech », International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPHs'11), Hong Kong, 17-21 Août 2011. C. Fougeron et al., « Developing an acoustic-phonetic characterization of dysarthric speech in French », LREC'10 (international conference on Language Resources and Evaluation), Malte, Mai 2010. Candidate application form : . detailed CV . marks . Motivation and/or scientific project related to the topic Scientific Contact : Corinne Fredouille et Christine Meunier Administrative Contact : nadera.bureau@blri.fr
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| 6-2 | (2013-06-05) Specialist in speech processing, CUI/University of Geneva The CUI/University of Geneva seeks a qualified candidate for one
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| 6-3 | (2013-06-12) Specialist in speech processing- CUI/University of Geneva Switzerland The CUI/University of Geneva seeks a qualified candidate for one Jean-Philippe.Goldman@unige.ch
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| 6-4 | (2013-06-16) Faculty position at CSLP, Johns Hopkins University Baltimore CLSP Faculty Position
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| 6-5 | (2013-06-18) Thèse financée au GIPSA lab Grenoble Le Département Parole et Cognition du GIPSA-lab (www.gipsa-lab.inpg.fr/recherche/departement-parole-cognition.php) Le
Compétences recherchées :
Ce
Encadrement : Ce sujet sera co-dirigé par Anne Vilain du Département Parole et Cognition du laboratoire GIPSA-lab et Michel Hoen de l’équipe DYCOG (Dynamique Cérébrale et Cognition) du Centre de recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (U1028/UMR5292), en collaboration avec le Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition de Grenoble.
Les candidatures (CV détaillé + lettre de motivation sont à envoyer à Anne.Vilain@gipsa-lab.grenoble-inp.fr) avant le 25 juin 2013. Elles donneront lieu à une pré-sélection avant entretien.
Détail du sujet :
En
Le
Ces
Ce
Les
Mots-clés : handicap auditif - implant cochléaire – relations perception / production en parole – trouble du développement du langage – qualité de vie des enfants implantés
-- Anne Vilain Departement Parole et Cognition Laboratoire GIPSA-lab Universite Stendhal BP 25 38040 Grenoble cedex 9 tél: 00 33 4 76 82 77 85 fax: 00 33 4 76 82 43 35
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| 6-6 | (2013-06-19) PhD positions - Computer Science, Natural Language Processing - Marseille, France PhD positions - Computer Science, Natural Language Processing - Marseille, France
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| 6-7 | (2013-06-19) Post-doc au LIMSI-CNRS Orsay, FrancePost-doc au LIMSI-CNRS pour le projet ANR DIADEMS
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Profil de poste :
CDD de 24 mois au laboratoire LACITO-CNRS
Niveau : Ingénieur d’études Contribution à la constitution de corpus de langues rares : textes et
dictionnaires en ligne
CONTEXTE Le projet HimalCo, financé par l’Agence Nationale de la
(2013-2015), porte sur la constitution et l’exploitation de corpus pour dix langues à tradition orale.
Les corpus sont composés de ressources sonores (enregistrements audio), textuelles (transcription,
annotations) ainsi que de données lexicales
(dictionnaires et enregistrements de mots) : http://himalco.hypotheses.org/
Les corpus et les outils issus du projet HimalCo iront à terme alimenter la plateforme de
la collection Pangloss qui regroupe elle-même plus de 70 corpus de
langues rares : http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/archivage/index.htm
MISSIONS La personne recrutée en CDD travaillera en étroite collaboration avec l’ingénieur
responsable de la Collection Pangloss et participant au projet HimalCo. Elle devra rapidement
faire preuve d’autonomie dans la réalisation des tâches qui lui sont confiées. Les tâches à effectuer
pour le projet sont diverses. Voici une liste non exhaustive :
- traitement et mise en forme des corpus : suivi des tâches, gestion des contacts avec les déposants,
alignement texte/son, préparation et vérification de métadonnées...
- dépôt de documents à l’archivage pérenne et mise à jour des pages web correspondantes sur le
site de la Collection Pangloss
- développement de fonctionnalités en ligne pour la consultation des textes parallèles et des
dictionnaires
- développement d’outils et mise à jour d’outils existants pour la mise en forme, la diffusion et
la recherche dans les corpus
- dialogue avec les partenaires de la Collection Pangloss
- déploiement d’un outil logiciel de suivi des tâches (de la prise de contact initiale jusqu’au dépôt final) si le temps nécessaire peut être dégagé COMPETENCES - Connaissances en structuration de données textuelles (HTML, XML, XSL) et sonores (wav). - PHP - Perl - Java souhaité Capacité d’écoute pour comprendre les besoins et les pratiques des linguistes. Une expérience de l’étude et/ou du traitement de données linguistiques serait un plus. DUREE ET DATES La durée totale du contrat est de 24 mois. Les dates prévues sont : de novembre 2013 à octobre 2015 inclus. La date de début peut être avancée à septembre ou octobre 2013 si la personne recrutée le souhaite. Aucun engagement ne peut être pris concernant une prolongation du contrat au-delà de 24 mois : les possibilités sont soumises aux contingences des futurs Appels à projets de recherche (pour les CDD) et des créations de poste (pour les CDI).
Contact : guillaume@vjf.cnrs.fr
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The European Language resources Distribution Agency (ELDA), a company specialized in Human Language Technologies within an international context, acting as the distribution agency of the European Language Resources Association (ELRA), is currently seeking to fill an immediate vacancy for Technical Engineer/Scientist (Project Manager) position, specialized in Speech and Multimodal technologies.
Technical Engineer / Scientist (Project Manager) in Speech and Multimodal Technologies
Under the supervision of the CEO, the responsibilities of the Technical Engineer/Scientist include designing/specifying language resources, setting up production frameworks and platforms, carrying out quality control and assessment. He/she will be in charge of renovating the current language resources production workflows. This yields excellent opportunities for young, creative, and motivated candidates wishing to participate actively to the Language Engineering field. He/she will be in charge of conducting the activities related to language resources and Natural Language Processing technologies. The task will mostly consist in managing language resources production projects and co-ordinating ELDA’s participation in R&D projects while being also hands-on whenever required by the development team.
Profile :
- PhD in computer science, speech, audiovisual/multimodal technologies
- Experience and/or good knowledge in speech data collection, expertise in phonetics, transcription tools
- Experience in speech recognition, synthesis, speaker ID and the well-used packages (e.g., HTK, Julius, ...) and the tools to produce, collect and assess quality of resources and datasets
- Experience and/or good knowledge of the Language Technology area
- Experience with technology transfer projects, industrial projects, collaborative projects within the European Commission or other international frameworks
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team, in particular the ability to supervise members of a multidisciplinary team
- Dynamic and communicative, flexible to combine and work on different tasks
- Good knowledge of Linux and open source software
- Proficiency in C++, PhP, Java, Django is a plus
- Proficiency in French and English
- Citizenship of (or residency papers) a European Union country
Applications will be considered until the position is filled. The position is based in Paris.
Salary : Commensurate with qualifications and experience.
Applicants should email a cover letter addressing the points listed above together with a curriculum vitae to :
Khalid Choukri
ELRA / ELDA
55-57, rue Brillat-Savarin
75013 Paris
FRANCE
Fax : 01 43 13 33 30
Mail : job@elda.org
ELRA was established in February 1995, with the support of the European Commission, to promote the development and exploitation of Language Resources (LRs). Language Resources include all data necessary for language engineering, such as monolingual and multilingual lexica, text corpora, speech databases and terminology. The role of this non-profit membership Association is to promote the production of LRs, to collect and to validate them and, foremost, make them available to users. The association also gathers information on market needs and trends.
For further information about ELDA/ELRA, visit :
http://www.elda.org
http://www.elra.info
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aVisiting Research Engineer
Linguistics Research Labs
The School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has an opening for a full-time (100%) Visiting Research Engineer in its linguistics research labs. The Visiting Research Engineer works directly with faculty and graduate students to identify, implement and maintain appropriate hardware and software for research within the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics. Currently, the labs have facilities for high-quality audio and video capture, eye-tracking, speech aerodynamics, electropalatography, and event-related potentials: Phonetics and Phonology Lab (http://phonlab.linguistics.illinois.edu/); Second Language Acquisition Lab (http://www.bilingualismlab.illinois.edu/); Discourse, Social Interaction, and Translation Lab; Electrophysiology and Language Processing Lab. The position is renewable for an additional two years and is contingent on funding and strong annual performance reviews by the School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics. The position may become regular at a later date. The target starting date is September 1, 2013. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience.
Responsibilities will be research-related only and will include: Training faculty and graduate student researchers in the use of hardware and software for research purposes (including occasional workshops); Holding scheduled consultations with faculty and graduate student researchers on their research projects; Oversight of data acquisition hardware; Assisting faculty and graduate student researchers in problem-solving hardware and software issues; Providing support to faculty and graduate student researchers in procedural programming languages (e.g., Python, R, Matlab); Helping standardize computing and programming procedures across labs; Database management; Digital signal processing; and Assistance with initial setup of pilot experiments.
At a minimum, qualified applicants must have a MA/MS in linguistics or closely related fields, (e.g., neuroscience, psychology, speech and hearing science with a concentration in linguistics or speech-related research). The applicant should also have a solid background in a procedural programming language (e.g., Python, Matlab, and/or R) and statistical modeling. Preference will be given to candidates who have previously worked in a laboratory setting, have a demonstrated ability to work well as part of a research team, and have experience using advanced hardware for data acquisition.
To apply, create your candidate profile through the University of Illinois application login page at https://jobs.illinois.edu and upload your application materials: letter of application, CV, and names and contact information for three professional references. Referees will be contacted electronically upon submission of the application. Only electronic applications submitted through https://jobs.illinois.edu will be accepted.
To ensure full consideration, all required applicant materials must be received no later than July 22, 2013. Letters of reference must be received no later than July 29, 2013. The department highly recommends that complete applications be submitted prior to July 22, to ensure that referees have enough time to submit their letters of recommendation.
For additional information, please contact slcl-hr@illinois.edu. Applicants may be interviewed before the closing date; however, no hiring decision will be made until after that date.
Illinois is an Affirmative Action /Equal Opportunity Employer and welcomes individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and ideas who embrace and value diversity and inclusivity. (www.inclusiveillinois.illinois.edu).
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The Department of Speech, Music and Hearing at KTH, Stockholm, Sweden, will hire 1-2 Assistant Professors in Speech Technology (main focus Dialogue Systems)
http://www.kth.se/en/om/work-at-kth/vacancies/assistant-professor-in-speech-technology-with-specialization-in-dialogue-systems-1.398565
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VoiceBox is an acknowledged pioneer in the voice technology and application industry. Our
continued growth allows us to add to our diverse team of talented professionals.
Our opportunity is
your opportunity!
Because we work with some of the most respected brands in the world, you’ll not only work to high
standards but you’ll also get that “hey, I worked on that product” feeling. Even better, we’re small
enough for you to make a real impact - you’ll learn and grow quickly and never have that cog-in-thewheel-feeling.
We’re glad you’re considering joining the team!
SPEECH SCIENTIST
A Speech Scientist at Voicebox’s Research and Advanced Development Team is responsible for work
on complex tasks and work packages independently and provide a solution to the team. Work
packages in the area of ASR, TTS and NLU in research as well as project related. Typical work
packages are:
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Tuning and maintaining speech applications
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Design and develop new speech applications
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Adapt speech resources for certain customers’ requirements
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Research, Development and Implementation of new algorithms in ASR, TTS and NLU.
•
Software Integration of third party ASR or TTS products in VoiceBox Engine
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Training and adaptation of acoustic models and language models
This position can be located in Germany, Munich or USA, Seattle Area
Key Requirements/Skills/Experience
•
Strong knowledge in ASR, TTS and NLU as well as statistical learning methods
•
Strong plus: Experience in ASR Training-Toolkits, like HTK
•
Strong plus: Working experience on ASR topics: e.g. as intern, for PHD
•
Deep knowledge in digital signal processing
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Deep knowledge in programming languages like: Ansi-C, C++
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Knowledge in scripting languages like: Perl, Python, Shell (bash, awk, sed)
•
Excellent communication skills, great attitude and team oriented
•
Good skills in English (Text and Spoken)
•
Foreign language skills a plus
•
Self-starter
To apply for this position, please send your resume to michaelw@voicebox.com.
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Two positions in the area human machine dialog at Saarland University
We anticipate the availability of funds for two positions in the area of
dialog modeling and dialogue system design, one position for a PhD
candidate and a second position for a postdoctoral researcher.
The aim of the research project is to the development and testing of a
multimodal dialogue system for highly adaptive and flexible dialogue
management. Dialogue system will be designed to support negotiation
training games with the real and virtual agents. The research will be
carried out together with a European consortium (FP7 Programme) of
high-profile research institutes and companies.
The successful candidate should have a degree in computer science,
computational linguistics or a discipline with a related background.
Excellent programming skills are reqired (preferably in Java and C++),
as well as strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Some experience
in math, logics and cognitive modelling is a plus. Very good oral and
written communication skills in English are also required.
The successful candidate for a postdoc position additionally should have
a strong publication record in relevant venues and strong collaborative
skills, including possibly supervision of junior researchers, students,
or equivalent industrial experience.
This work will be conducted at the Spoken Language Systems group
(http://www.lsv.uni-saarland.de/) at Saarland University.
Saarland University
Saarland University (http://www.uni-saarland.de/en/) is a European
leader in Computer Science research and teaching, and is particularly
well-known for its research in Computational Linguistics and Natural
Language Processing. In addition, the university campus hosts the
interdisciplinary MMCI Cluster of Excellence, Max Planck Institute for
Computer Science, Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and German
Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Students and
researchers come from many countries and the research language is
English.
Both positions are fully funded positions with a salary in the range of
37,000 Euros to 51,000 Euros per year depending on the qualification and
professional experience of the successful candidates. Starting date is
the November 1st. The PhD position is for three years. The postdoc
position is for 2 years with the possibility of extension for one more
year.
Each application should include:
* Curriculum Vitae including a list of publications
(if applicable)
* Transcript of records
* Short statement of interest (not more than half a
page)
* Names of two references
* Any other supporting information or documents
Applications (documents in PDF format in a single file) should be sent
no later than , Monday July 15th to:
Diana.Schreyer@LSV.Uni-Saarland.De
Further inquiries regarding the project should be directed to:
Olga.Petukhova@LSV.Uni-Saarland.De
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Postdoc position in the area of information retrieval and language
understanding at Saarland University
We are seeking a skilled postdoctoral researcher whose expertise
intersects information retrieval (IR) and human-computer interaction
(HCI).The researcher will work in a research team to create an automated
speech-based question-answering (QA) system for various scenarios. This
research will done in cooperation with high profile partners in the US
and Europe.
The successful applicant will have:
1) a doctoral degree in a relevant field of computational linguistics,
computer science, or a relevant discipline;
2) a strong publication record in relevant venues;
3) excellent programming skills;
4) strong collaborative skills, including possibly supervision of junior
researchers, students, or equivalent industrial experience;
5) a strong technical background in machine learning, natural language
processing, and human-computer interaction.
This work will be conducted at the Spoken Language Systems group
(http://www.lsv.uni-saarland.de/) at Saarland University.
Saarland University
Saarland University (http://www.uni-saarland.de/en/) is a European
leader in Computer Science research and teaching, and is particularly
well-known for its research in Computational Linguistics and Natural
Language Processing. In addition, the university campus hosts the
interdisciplinary MMCI Cluster of Excellence, Max Planck Institute for
Computer Science, Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and German
Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Students and
researchers come from many countries and the research language is
English.
The planned starting date is the November 1st (an earlier starting date
is negotiable). The position is for 2 years with the possibility of
extension for one more year. The position is a fully funded position
with a salary in the range of 37,000 Euros to 51,000 Euros per year
depending on the qualification and professional experience of the
successful candidates.
Each application should include:
* Curriculum Vitae including a list of publications (if applicable)
* Transcript of records
* Short statement of interest (not more than half a page)
* Names of two references
* Any other supporting information or documents
Applications (documents in PDF format in a single file) should be sent
no later than , Monday July 15th to:
Diana.Schreyer@LSV.Uni-Saarland.De
Further inquiries regarding the project should be directed to:
Olga.Petukhova@LSV.Uni-Saarland.De
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### Postdoctoral position at TTI-Chicago ###
A postdoctoral position is available at TTI-Chicago on topics at the intersection of speech processing and machine learning. The ideal candidate will have completed (or be about to complete) a PhD degree in computer science, electrical engineering, statistics, speech and language technologies, or a related field, and strong mathematical and experimental skills. The main duties of the postdoc will be his/her research activities in collaboration with his/her supervisor and other collaborators at TTI-Chicago and beyond; opportunities for teaching and advising may also be available if desired.
To apply, or for additional information, please contact Karen Livescu atmailto:klivescu@uchicago.edu.
TTI-Chicago is a philanthropically endowed academic computer science institute with an accredited PhD program situated on the University of Chicago campus.
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INRIA Nancy Grand-Est (Nancy, France) - Speech Group, LORIA
Postdoctoral position
Accurate 3D Lip modeling and control in the context of animating a 3D talking head
Scientific Context
The lips play a significant role in audiovisual human communication. Several studies showed the
important contribution of the lips to the intelligibility of visual speech (Sumby & Pollack, 1954; Cohen
& Massaro 1990). In fact, it has been shown that human lips alone carry more than half the visual
information provided by the face (Benoît,1996). Since the beginning of the development of 3D virtual
talking heads, researchers showed interest to model lips (Guiard-Marigny et al., 1996, Reveret &
Benoît, 1998), as the lips increase intelligibility of the visual message. The existing models are still
considered as pure parametric and numerical models and do not take into account the dynamic
characteristic of speech. As audiovisual speech is highly dynamics, we consider that modeling this
aspect is crucial to provide a lip model that is accurately animated, and reflects the real articulatory
dynamics as observed in human vocal tract. In fact, the movement of the lips, even subtle, can
communicate relevant information to the human receiver. This is even more crucial for some
population such as hard-of-hearing people.
Missions
The goal of this work is to develop an accurate 3D lip model that can be integrated within a talking
head. A control model will also be developed. The lip model should be as accurate dynamically as
possible. When designing this model, the focus will be on the dynamics. For this reason, one can
start from a static 3D lip mesh, using a generic 3D lip model, and then we will use MRI images or 3D
scans to obtain more realistic shape of the lips. To take into account the dynamic aspect of the lip
deformation, we will use an articulograph (EMA) and motion capture technique to track sensors or
markers on the lips. The mesh will be adapted to this data. To control the lips, we will consider
allowing a skeletal animation to be controlled by the EMA sensors or motion capture markers, using
inverse kinematic technique, widely used in 3D modeling. In line with conventional skeletal animation,
an articulated armature rigged inside the mesh is mapped to vertex groups on the lip mesh by a
weight map that can be defined automatically from the envelope of the armature's shape and
manually adjusted if required, where manipulating the armature's components deforms the
surrounding mesh accordingly. The main challenge is to find the best topology of the sensors or
markers on the lips, to be able to better capture accurately its dynamics. The main outcome is to
accurately model and animate the lips based on articulatory data. It is very important to have
readable lips in that can be lip-read by hard-of-hearing people.
Bibliography
C. Benoît (1996). On the Production and the Perception of Audio-Visual Speech by Man and Machine.
Multimedia Communications and Video Coding, pp 277-284.
M. M. Cohen & D. W. Massaro (1990), Synthesis of visible speech. Behavioral Research Methods and
Instrumentation, 22, 260-263.
T. Guiard-Marigny, N. Tsingos, A. Adjoudani, C. Benoit, M.-P. Cani (1996). 3D Models of the Lips for Realistic
Speech Animation. Computer Animation 80-89
L. Reveret, C. Benoit (1998). A New 3D Lip Model for Analysis and Synthesis of Lip Motion in Speech
Production. Proc. AVSP'98, Terrigal, Australia, Dec. 4-6, 1998.
Sumby, W. H., & Pollack, I. (1954). Visual contribution to speech intelligibility in noise. Journal of Acoustic
Society of America, 26, 212-215.
Q. Summerfield (1987), 'Some preliminaries to a comprehensive account of audio-visual speech perception', In:
B. Dodd and R. Campbell, Editors, Hearing by Eye: The Psychology of Lip-Reading, Lawrence Erlbaum,
Hillsdale, NJ.
Competences
Required qualification: PhD in computer science Appropriate candidate would have good knowledge
in 3D modeling, speech processing and data analysis, as well as solid java programming skills.
Additional Information
Application deadline: 11 June 2013
Supervision and contact:
Slim Ouni ( Slim.Ouni@loria.fr ) http://www.loria.fr/~slim
Duration:
1 year (possibly extendable)
Starting date:
between Sept. 1st 2013 and Jan. 1st 2014
Salary:
2.620 euros gross monthly (about 2.135 euros net) medical insurance included.
Application Procedure
The required documents for an INRIA postdoc application are the following:
- CV, including a description of your research activities (2 pages max) and a short description of
what you consider to be your best contributions and why (1 page max and 3 contributions max); the
contributions could be theoretical, implementation, or industry transfers. Include also a brief
description of your scientific and career projects.
- The report(s) from your PhD external reviewer(s), if applicable.
- If you haven't defended yet, the list of expected members of your PhD committee (if known) and the
expected date of defense (the defense, not the manuscript submission).
- Your best publications, up to 3.
- At least one recommendation letter from your PhD advisor, and possibly up to two other letters. The
recommendation letter(s) should be sent directly by their author to the prospective postdoc advisor
All these documents should be sent
before June 11th
About INRIA
Established in 1967, Inria is the only public research body fully dedicated to computational sciences.
Combining computer sciences with mathematics, Inria’s 3,400 researchers strive to invent the digital
technologies of the future. Educated at leading international universities, they creatively integrate
basic research with applied research and dedicate themselves to solving real problems, collaborating
with the main players in public and private research in France and abroad and transferring the fruits of
their work to innovative companies. The researchers at Inria published over 4,800 articles in 2010.
They are behind over 270 active patents and 105 start-ups. The 171 project teams are distributed in
eight research centers located throughout France.
http://www.inria.fr/en/centre/nancy
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The MxR Lab at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, located in Playa Vista, CA, is seeking a postdoctoral researcher. Applicants should have a Ph.D.in computer science or related field and a strong research background in HCI, virtual environments, virtual humans, data visualization, novel user interfaces, or a similar area.
The University of Southern California (USC), founded in 1880, is located in the heart of downtown L.A. and is the largest private employer in the City of Los Angeles. As an employee of USC, you will be a part of a world-class research university and a member of the 'Trojan Family,' which is comprised of the faculty, students and staff that make the university what it is.
Initial appointment will be for one year with the possibility of renewal for subsequent years. Please direct all inquiries to Evan Suma (suma@ict.usc.edu).
Applicants can apply online at:
http://jobs.usc.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=70781
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un poste d'ATER en informatique est disponible à l'UFR de Sociologie et d'Informatique pour les Sciences Humaines de l'Université Paris Sorbonne.
Le candidat enseignera l’Informatique dans les différentes formations de licence et de master du département d’Informatique, Mathématiques et de Linguistique appliquées. Il devra s'inscrire dans un ou plusieurs axes de l'équipe de linguistique computationnelle (www.stih.paris-sorbonne.fr/) : Sémantiques et connaissances, Paralinguistique de la parole et du texte, Jugements d’évaluation, opinions et sentiments.
La date limite de candidature est le 4 septembre 2013.
Personne à contacter : Claude.Montacie@Paris-Sorbonne.fr
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PhD Title: Birdsong Forensics for Species Identification and Separation
Studentship: Full Scholarship, including fees (EU/Non EU) plus annual stipend of €16,000.
Start Date: Sept 2nd 2013
PhD Supervisor: Dr. Naomi Harte, Sigmedia Group, Electronic & Electrical Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Collaborator: Dr. Nicola Marples, Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Background:
The analysis of birdsong has increased in the speech processing community in the past 5 years. Much of the reported research has concentrated on the identification of bird species from their songs or calls. Smartphone apps have been developed that claim to automatically identify a bird species from a live recording taken by the user. A lesser reported topic is the analysis of birdsongs from subspecies of the
same bird. Among experts, bird song is considered a particularly effective way of comparing birds at species level. Differences in song may help uncover cryptic species. In many species, such as those living in the high canopy, catching the birds in order to obtain morphological (e.g. weight, bill length, wing length etc.) and genetic data may be time consuming and expensive. Identifying potentially interesting populations by the detection of song differences, allows any such effort to be better targeted.
Birdsong presents many unique challenges as a signal. The use of signal processing and machine learning techniques for birdsong analysis is at a very early stage within the ornithological research community. This PhD project seeks to lead the way in defining the state of the art for forensic birdsong analysis. Comparing birdsongs will push out the boundaries of feature analysis and classification techniques in signal processing. The research will develop new algorithms to systematically quantify levels of similarity in birdsong, transforming the comparison of birdsong in the natural sciences arena. The results will be of importance internationally for the study, monitoring, and conservation of bird populations.
Requirements:
The ideal candidate for this position will:
Have a primary degree (first class honours) in Electronic Engineering, Electronic and Computer Engineering or a closely related discipline.
Possess strong written and oral communication skills in English.
Have a strong background and interest in digital signal processing (DSP)
Be mathematically minded, and be curious about nature.
Experience in Matlab is a distinct advantage.
Application:
Interested candidates should send an email to Dr. Naomi Harte at nharte@tcd.ie. The email
MUST include the following:
Candidate CV (max 2 pages)
A short statement of motivation (half page)
Scanned academic transcripts
Name and contact details for TWO academic referees
Incomplete applications may not be considered.
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About the Sigmedia Group at TCD Dr. Naomi Harte is an expert in Human Speech Communication. Her principal areas of focus are audio visual speech processing, speaker verification for biometrics and forensics, emotion in speech, speech processing in hearing aids and speech quality. She is a leader of the Sigmedia Group at TCD (www.sigmedia.tv) within the School of Engineering. Over the past 5 years, Sigmedia has been awarded research income of over €3million and published 73 peer reviewed papers. The group currently has 3 academic and 3 post-doctoral staff along with 12 research students. The work of Sigmedia is supported by research grants from Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Irish Research Council, Google and DTS.
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Research Assistant in Computational Psycholinguistics
The Department of Linguistics at the University of Maryland is looking to fill a full-time
position for a post-baccalaureate researcher, starting September 1, 2013 or as soon as
possible thereafter. Salary is competitive, with benefits included. This person will be
involved in computational psycholinguistics research, with a focus on using techniques
from automatic speech recognition to better understand human speech perception. The
person will have the opportunity to develop skills in Bayesian modeling and signal
processing and will be part of a vibrant language science community that numbers 200
faculty, researchers, and graduate students across 10 departments.
The position would be ideal for individuals with a BA degree who are interested in
gaining significant research experience in a very active research group as preparation for
a research career. Applicants must be US or Canadian citizens or permanent residents,
and should have completed a BA or BS degree by the time of appointment. Previous
experience in cognitive science as well as familiarity with mathematics, computer
science, or signal processing is preferred. This is a 1 year initial appointment with
possibility of extension.
Applicants should submit a cover letter outlining relevant background and interests, a
current CV, and names and contact information for 3 potential referees. Reference letters
are not needed as part of the initial application. Applicants should also send a writing
sample. Applications should be submitted by email to Dr. Naomi Feldman,
nhf@umd.edu
, with 'Research Assistantship' in the subject line. Review of applications
will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.
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Research Assistant in Computational Psycholinguistics
The Department of Linguistics at the University of Maryland is looking to fill a full-time
position for a post-baccalaureate researcher, starting September 1, 2013 or as soon as
possible thereafter. Salary is competitive, with benefits included. This person will be
involved in computational psycholinguistics research, with a focus on using techniques
from automatic speech recognition to better understand human speech perception. The
person will have the opportunity to develop skills in Bayesian modeling and signal
processing and will be part of a vibrant language science community that numbers 200
faculty, researchers, and graduate students across 10 departments.
The position would be ideal for individuals with a BA degree who are interested in
gaining significant research experience in a very active research group as preparation for
a research career. Applicants must be US or Canadian citizens or permanent residents,
and should have completed a BA or BS degree by the time of appointment. Previous
experience in cognitive science as well as familiarity with mathematics, computer
science, or signal processing is preferred. This is a 1 year initial appointment with
possibility of extension.
Applicants should submit a cover letter outlining relevant background and interests, a
current CV, and names and contact information for 3 potential referees. Reference letters
are not needed as part of the initial application. Applicants should also send a writing
sample. Applications should be submitted by email to Dr. Naomi Feldman,
nhf@umd.edu
, with 'Research Assistantship' in the subject line. Review of applications
will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.
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SPEECH RESEARCHER A Speech Researcher at VOCALIZE will be responsible for complex tasks and for providing solutions to the team. The work will be related to the area of Text-to-Speech, Transcription, Speech Recognition, Speech Analytics and Natural Language Processing. Typical works will be: •Research, Development and Implementation of new algorithms in Text-to-Speech, Transcription, Speech Recognition,Speech Analytics and Natural Language Processing; •Create/develop new innovative solutions/products/applications; •Training and adaptation of acoustic models and language models; Key Requirements/Skills/Experience •PhD or Master degree in Engineering, Computer Science or Computational Linguistics; •Strong knowledge in Text-to-Speech, Transcription/Speech Recognition/Speech Analytics and Natural Language Processing as well as statistical learning methods; •Strong plus: Experience in Speech Recognition Training-Toolkits, like HTK, etc; •Deep knowledge in digital signal processing; •Deep knowledge in programming languages like: Ansi-C, C++; •Knowledge in scripting languages like: Python, Shell (bash, awk, sed); •Excellent communication skills, great attitude and team oriented; •Good skills in English (Text and Spoken); •Good skills in Portuguese and Spanish is a plus.
To apply for this position, please send your CV and cover letter to: vocalize.oportunidades@e-vocalize.com.br.
VOCALIZE is a growing and dynamic Speech and Language Technology Company located in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil (http://www.e-vocalize.com.br). We are looking for talented Speech Researchers to create/develop New Algorithms to be added to our Core Technologies and to create Innovative solutions/products/applications to both the Brazilian and the Global market. We’re glad you’re considering joining the VOCALIZE team!
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PhD vacancy in project CHASING
Vacancy for a PhD in the project CHASING: CHAllenging Speech training In
Neurological patients by interactive Gaming
For more (up-to-date) information, see:
http://hstrik.ruhosting.nl/chasing-phd-vacancy/
http://hstrik.ruhosting.nl/chasing/
* Requirements
+ Degree in Computational or Applied Linguistics, Computer Science,
Artificial Intelligence, Informatics, Cognitive Science, or Education
+ Programming skills, e.g. Python, Java, html5, php, javascript,
flash, C[++]
+ An interest in e-Health, esp. gaming and speech technology for
speech training
+ A good command of the English language. Knowledge of Dutch is
considered an advantage.
+ Good communicative abilities
+ Willingness to work in an international, multidisciplinary team
* Job description
As a PhD student you will take part in the research project CHASING:
‘CHAllenging Speech training In Neurological patients through
Interactive Gaming’. The goal of this project is to investigate the
potentials of e-Health applications for speech training for neurological
patients. Current results indicate the need to develop advanced,
motivating training devices that provide guidance on articulation
improvement and that allow the integrated benefits of intensified,
independent speech training. Serious games are known to have strong
motivational power. In this research project we aim to investigate to
what extent serious games and game principles motivate and support
neurological patients in speech training. To this end, an interactive,
intuitive, user adaptive game for speech training which employs advanced
speech technology and which is compatible with mobile platforms will be
developed and tested.
You will first develop dedicated speech technology, esp. ‘automatic
speech recognition’ (ASR) technology, and integrate it in the game.
Next, you will carry out experiments with neurological patients, to
study the effects of the game and how the game (incl. the speech
technology) can be improved.
You are expected to start in the fall of 2013. It is a full time
position for 4 years.
You will be part of a dynamic international and interdisciplinary team
and will work in an inspiring research environment.
* Contact persons
+ Helmer Strik
w.strik@let.ru.nl
+31 24 3616104
+ Lilian Beijer
L.beijer@maartenskliniek.nl
+31 24 3659718 / 3659140
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Doctoral/Post-Doctoral Position (E13) in the field of Computational Pragmatics,
up to three years, starting autumn 2013
at the Center of Excellence ‘Cognitive Interaction Technology’ (CITEC) at
Bielefeld University, Germany,
in the project:
“Computational Pragmatics -- Multimodal Intention Processing”.
We are seeking a highly-motivated candidate with a degree (Master‘s or Ph.D.)
in Linguistics/Psycholinguistics or Cognitive Science/Artificial Intelligence with experience
in computational modeling of interactive systems. The successful applicant should have
a theoretical or applied background in dialogue, intention recognition/pragmatics, as well
as interpretation or generation of multimodal communicative behavior. Experiences
with conducting empirical studies and experiments would be favorable. Given
the multidisciplinary nature of the project, the ideal candidate should be prepared to
acquire new knowledge in the fields of psycholinguistics/computational linguistics,
cognitive science, and especially speech-accompanying gestures. Excellent command of
English is required.
The Center of Excellence 'Cognitive Interaction Technology' (CITEC) at Bielefeld
University, Germany, conducts interdisciplinary research into understanding the
functional processes of cognitive interaction with the goal of replicating them in technical
systems, including developing relevant evaluation methodologies and toolkits. For more
details, see
www.cit-ec.de. Within CITEC, this interdisciplinary project involves the
research groups “Psycholinguistics” (Faculty of Linguistics & Literary Studies) and
'Sociable Agents' (Faculty of Technology). General information about the labs can
be found at
http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/lili/personen/jruiter and http://www.techfak.unibielefeld.
de/ags/soa/
respectively.
Applicants should submit the following documents:
• a cover letter indicating research interests, academic education and past research
• curriculum vitae including list of publications
• sample publications (if available)
• letters of recommendation (if available)
Applications from suitably qualified handicapped and severely handicapped persons are
expressly encouraged.
Bielefeld University has received a number of awards for its achievements in the provision
of equal opportunity and has been recognised as a family friendly university. The
University welcomes applications from women. This is particularly true with regard both to
academic and technical posts as well as positions in Information Technology and trades
and crafts. Applications are handled according to the provisions of the state
equal opportunity statutes.
Applications in PDF format will be considered until the position has been filled. For
full consideration please submit applications by 30.09.2013. Please send applications to:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Kopp
Sociable Agents Group, Faculty of Technology
Email:
stefan.kopp@uni-bielefeld.de
Prof. Dr. Jan De Ruiter
Psycholinguistics, Faculty of Linguistics & Literary Studies
Email:
jan.deruiter@uni-bielefeld.de
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PhD Title: Birdsong Forensics for Species Identification and Separation
Studentship: Full Scholarship, including fees (EU/Non EU) plus annual stipend of €16,000.
Start Date: Sept 2
nd, 2013
PhD Supervisor: Dr. Naomi Harte, Sigmedia Group, Electronic & Electrical Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Collaborator: Dr. Nicola Marples, Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Background:
The analysis of birdsong has increased in the speech processing community in the past 5 years. Much of the reported research has concentrated on the identification of bird species from their songs or calls. Smartphone apps have been developed that claim to automatically identify a bird species from a live recording taken by the user. A lesser reported topic is the analysis of birdsongs from subspecies of the
same bird. Among experts, bird song is considered a particularly effective way of comparing birds at species level. Differences in song may help uncover cryptic species. In many species, such as those living in the high canopy, catching the birds in order to obtain morphological (e.g. weight, bill length, wing length etc.) and genetic data may be time consuming and expensive. Identifying potentially interesting populations by the detection of song differences, allows any such effort to be better targeted.
Birdsong presents many unique challenges as a signal. The use of signal processing and machine learning techniques for birdsong analysis is at a very early stage within the ornithological research community. This PhD project seeks to lead the way in defining the state of the art for forensic birdsong analysis. Comparing birdsongs will push out the boundaries of feature analysis and classification techniques in signal processing. The research will develop new algorithms to systematically quantify levels of similarity in birdsong, transforming the comparison of birdsong in the natural sciences arena. The results will be of importance internationally for the study, monitoring, and conservation of bird populations.
Requirements:
The ideal candidate for this position will:
Have a primary degree (first class honours) in Electronic Engineering, Electronic and Computer Engineering or a closely related discipline.
Possess strong written and oral communication skills in English.
Have a strong background and interest in digital signal processing (DSP)
Be mathematically minded, and be curious about nature.
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UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND: POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER IN SPEECH TECHNOLOGY
The Speech and Image Processing Unit (SIPU) research group (
http://www.uef.fi/fi/sipu) at the School of Computing (http://www.uef.fi/cs) announces POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER IN SPEECH
POSTDOCTORAL POSITION IN SPEECH TECHNOLOGY
The position is filled in Academy of Finland project '
Reliable speaker recognition and modification', with focus on text-independent speaker recognition, but including also voice conversion and anti-spoofing topics. The post-doc will focus on core research in one of these technologies together with a speech processing group consisting of project leader, another postdoc and several PhD students. In addition to core research activities, the postdoc is expected to take part (10% to 15% of time) in practical supervision tasks of PhD/MSc students working on similar topics. There are no class-room teaching duties.
University of Eastern Finland (UEF) is a multidisciplinary university formed as a union of universities of Joensuu and Kuopio in 2010. UEF ranks among the best 100 universities in Times Higher Education evaluation of universities less than 50 years old (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013/one-hundred-under-fifty). The postdoc position is filled up in Joensuu campus. School of Computing is located at the facilities of Joensuu Science Park, providing modern research facilities.
The candidate should have a doctoral degree in spoken language technology, electrical engineering, computer science, pattern recognition or a closely related field. The candidate should be comfortable with Unix/Linux tools and Matlab/Octave with good skills in signal processing or pattern recognition. Previous exposure to technology benchmarks (e.g. NIST evaluations, Blizzard challenge) is a plus.
The position is filled for a period of 1 to 2 years, with preference for the 2-year post. The salary will be placed on level 5 according to Finnish university salary system. In addition, the appointees will be paid a salary component based on their personal performance, which can be a maximum of 46.3 per cent of the job requirement component. Additionally, at least one conference trip per year is supported.
The application consisting of the following documents should be sent or delivered to the Registry Office of the University of Eastern Finland. Postal address: Itä-Suomen yliopisto, Kirjaamo, PL 111, 80101 Joensuu or Itä-Suomen yliopisto, Kirjaamo, PL 1627, 70211 Kuopio. Street address: Yliopistokatu 2 (Joensuu) and Yliopistonranta 1 E (Kuopio). The deadline for applications is
September 30, 2013 (at 3.00 pm Finnish time). The applications with verification of document originality (signatures) can also be sent as scanned PDF files to kirjaamo@uef.fi.
The application should include:
A cover letter indicating the position to be applied for and a free-worded application describing the special qualities of the applicant and his or her reasons for applying to the position
Full curriculum vitae (CV), including a list of publications (if any)
Copies of relevant diplomas and transcripts of academic records. The diplomas should be in English or Finnish, and the grading system should be described.
The names and contact information of at least two referees.
All enquiries related to the positions should be addressed to Dr. Tomi Kinnunen, email: tkinnu@cs.uef.fi, tomi.kinnunen@uef.fi, Tel. +358 50 442 2647.
www:
http://cs.joensuu.fi/pages/tkinnu/webpage/
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Emerson College
Post Doctoral Research Associate
Post Doctoral Research Associate in Autism
The Facial Affective and Communicative Expression (FACE) Lab at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts announces the availability of a Postdoctoral Research Associate position, funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIH-NIDCD). The position is for two years, renewable up to four years.
The FACE lab investigates social communication, specifically facial and vocal expressions of children with and without autism, using several methodologies. We collect and analyze acoustic measures of speech, infrared motion capture data of facial feature movement, eyetracking data on gaze behavior to social stimuli, and subjective measures of how typical individuals perceive the facial and vocal expressions of individuals with high-functioning autism. The FACE lab is affiliated with the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, which has active research programs in the study of communication and communication disorders in several different populations.
Emerson College is located in the center of Boston, surrounded by major health care and research centers, which provide a wide range of collaborative clinical and research opportunities. It is the nation’s only four year institution dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts. The program in Communication Sciences & Disorders is one of the oldest and most respected in the country, and is highly ranked among the most competitive graduate programs in communication disorders in the US. The department offers state-of the-art research facilities, on-campus clinical facilities and is easily reached by public transportation.
Campus Location
Boston Campus
Primary Duties, Responsibilites, and Tasks
The position involves interacting with children with and without autism and their families, recruiting participants and coordinating research activities in the lab, collecting and analyzing eyetracking, speechacoustic, motion-capture, and behavioral data, and disseminating research results through conferences and journal publications. The successful candidate is expected to develop and implement independent projects as well.
Required Knowledge, Skills, and Education (including hardware, software, and equipment)
Applicants should have a doctorate in speech and hearing sciences, linguistics, computer science, engineering, or a related field. Familiarity with autism, computer programming, and strong writing skills are required.
Required Prior Work Experience
Doctoral level research experience in autism or related field is also required.
Special Instructions to Applicants
Interested candidates should submit a cover letter describing their research interests and relevant experience, Curriculum Vitae, and contact information for three references to Dr. Ruth Grossman at ruth_grossman@emerson.edu.
Diversity Statement
Emerson College values and has placed an institutional priority on multiculturalism in the campus community. Through its constantly evolving curriculum it seeks to prepare students for success in an increasingly multicultural society. The successful candidate must have the ability to work effectively with faculty, students, and staff from diverse backgrounds. Members of historically underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply.
Open Date
09/02/2013
Open Until Filled
Yes
Job Title
English Language Learning (ELL) Faculty Member
Primary Duties, Responsibilities, and Tasks
Responsibilities
• Teach undergraduate- and graduate-level English writing, speaking, listening and reading to international students.
• Assess the level of student writing and oral skills.
• Work cooperatively with faculty members on pedagogies to address international student communication needs.
• Participate with the faculty in on-going curriculum review and development with an emphasis on ELL skills and their alignment with student needs and faculty requirements.
• Work with the Office of Admissions and the iGrad Transition program on assessing international student competencies.
• Work with the Office of Internationalization and Global Engagement to help articulate intercultural program development and research goals; facilitate the internationalization of the curriculum; and build additional support programs for international students.
• Work with the Lacerte Family Writing and Academic Resource Center (WARC) staff to develop strategies and programs to address international student communication needs.
Minimum Qualifications
• Three-to five years of experience teaching university level ELL courses.
• Expertise in ELL curricular development.
• Master’s Degree and TESL/TEFL/TESOL certification and/or degree.
• Fluency in a foreign language and experience living abroad.
• Strong work ethic, positive attitude (flexibility and optimism), and analytical/organizational skills.
• The ability to work independently as well as part of a team, multi-task, take initiative and set priorities to accomplish various instructional and operational tasks.
Emerson College is the nation’s only four-year institution dedicated exclusively to majors in communication and the arts in a liberal arts context. It is located in the theater district in the dynamic multi-cultural city of Boston in close proximity to major media outlets, arts institutions, and research centers. The college enrolls 3,662 undergraduate students and 830 graduate students from 75 countries and all 50 states.
jeid-5ed1a427fb5d2cb480e4cfa9c142be51
To apply, please visit: www.emerson.edu
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Postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience for speech recognition
We are seeking a skilled postdoctoral fellow (PDF) whose expertise intersects automatic speech recognition (ASR) and neuroscience to develop a next-generation model of speech production.
Approximately 10% of North Americans have some sort of communication disorder. It is imperative that technology is used to mitigate difficulties these individuals have in being understood. This research involves building a model of how speech is produced physically and in the brain, and translating it directly into automatic speech recognition. Specifically, we propose to build an advanced neural network that relates words and phrases across electroencephalographic (EEG) data, acoustic data, and measurements of how the important articulators in speech (e.g., the lips and tongue) move. This model of speech production will be built from data recorded with people with cerebral palsy and healthy controls.
The PDF will work with a team of internationally recognized researchers in computer science, speech-language pathology, and neuroscience. Work will involve programming, data analysis, dissemination of results (e.g., papers and conferences), and partial supervision of graduate and undergraduate students. Some data collection will also be involved.
The successful applicant will have:
1) A doctoral degree in a relevant field of computer science, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, or a relevant discipline;
2) Evidence of impact in research through a strong publication record in relevant venues;
3) Evidence of strong collaborative skills, including possibly supervision of junior researchers, students, or equivalent industrial experience;
4) Excellent interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills;
5) A strong technical background in machine learning, natural language processing, robotics, and human-computer interaction.
This work will be conducted at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the University of Toronto.
About the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
One of North America’s leading rehabilitation sciences centres, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute is revolutionizing rehabilitation by helping people overcome the challenges of disabling injury, illness or age related health conditions to live active, healthier, more independent lives. It integrates innovative patient care, ground-breaking research and diverse education to build healthier communities and advance the role of rehabilitation in the health system. Toronto Rehab, along with Toronto Western, Toronto General and Princess Margaret Hospitals, is a member of the University Health Network and affiliated with the University of Toronto.
Applicants should send 1) a full CV, 2) a representative sample of their work, and 3) a 1-page statement of purpose to Frank Rudzicz at frank@cs.toronto.edu by 1 December 2013.
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Voxygen SAS, a young and innovative company, is looking for an American
English language technician to work in one of its Text-to-Speech projects.
Voxygen develops speech synthesis products and services for World-wide
markets, with a particular focus on the creation of
expressive voices for industrial and entertainement purposes. For more
information on the company, please visit:
www.voxygen.fr
Job description:
- Validation of sentences correctness for script creation:
verification of orthography, grammar, readability and phonetic
transcription.
- Participate in the voice-talent casting.
- Assist company experts with native language expertise during script
recording sessions.
- Revision of automatic phonetization and segmentation of recorded script sentences.
Job Requirements:
- Fluent in spoken American English.
- Thorough knowledge of the language grammar and orthography.
- Keen ear for phonetic nuances.
- A degree in any language-related field such as linguistics, translation,
language teaching, will be helpful.
- Knowledge of the target language phonetics or previous experience with
TTS will be a definite plus.
- Attention to detail.
- Keen interest for language and technology.
This is a temporary position for 6 months. The job will be located in Brittany,
France (near Rennes or Lannion).
This is a great opportunity to participate in an exciting state-of-the-art
project and to colaborate with world-class experts in the field of TTS.
If this sounds interesting to you, please send us your CV to: jobs@voxygen.fr
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Post-doctoral position in Multimedia Indexing
Location: EURECOM, Multimedia Communications Department, Sophia Antipolis, France
Duration: 12 months
Description
We have an open position for a post-doc to work on several aspects of
Multimedia Indexing, in particular Multimedia fusion and co-training. We
are looking for candidates who are highly motivated to conduct high
quality research, propose and evaluate innovative solutions for the
difficult problems that arise when automatically analyzing Multimedia
content. This research is conducted in partnership with other French
laboratories and companies.
Candidates should have a PhD Degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science,
or a closely related area, with a good knowledge of Machine Learning
techniques, and possibly an experience on multimedia analysis. Good
programming skills are expected. A good level of written and spoken
English is mandatory.
Application
Screening of applications will begin immediately, and the search will
continue until the position is filled. Applicants should send, to the
email address below (i) a CV, (ii) a motivation letter, (iii) contact
details for three referees, (iv) a two page statement of research
interests and motivation.
Postal address :
EURECOM,
Campus SophiaTech,
450 route des Chappes,
06410 Sophia Antipolis,
France
Contact : Prof. Bernard Merialdo, Bernard.Merialdo@eurecom.fr
Web page : http://www.eurecom.fr/mm/
Phone number : +33 4 93 00 81 29
Fax number : +33 4 93 00 82 00
EURECOM is a French graduate school and a research center in
communication systems based in the international science park of Sophia
Antipolis, which brings together renowned universities such as Télécom
ParisTech, Aalto University (Helsinki), Politecnico di Torino,
Technische Universität München (TUM), Norwegian University of Science
and Technology (NTNU) and Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh Ville
(VNU). The Principality of Monaco is a new institutional member. The
Institut Mines-Télécom is EURECOM’s founding member.
EURECOM benefits from a strong interaction with the industry through its
specific administrative structure: Economic Interest Group (kind of
consortium), which brings together international companies such as:
Swisscom, SFR, Orange, ST Microelectronics, BMW Group Research &
Technology, Symantec, Monaco Telecom, SAP, IABG. EURECOM deploys its
expertise around three major fields: Networking and security, Multimedia
Communications and Mobile Communications. EURECOM is particularly active
in research in its areas of excellence while also training a large
number of doctoral candidates. Its contractual research is recognized
across Europe and contributes largely to its budget.
Thanks to its strong ties set up with the industry, EURECOM was awarded
the “Institut Carnot” label jointly with the Institut Telecom right from
2006. The Carnot Label was designed to develop and professionalize
cooperative research. It encourages the realization of research projects
in public research centers that work together with socioeconomic actors,
especially companies.
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TWO Post‐Doc positions
in the Psycholinguistics research group at the University of Geneva (http://www.unige.ch/fapse/recherche/groupes/psycho/cognitive/langage.html) ,
to work on a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation:
- in the field of reading acquisition in children;
or
- in the field of language production in healhy and brain damaged (aphasic) speakers
Qualifications requested :
- PhD in psychology or neuroscience or related field
- Experience in the field of psycholinguistics and/or acquisition and/or neuropsychology of language
- Experience with EEG/ERP acquisition and analysis
Starting January 2014 or later.
Applicants should submit a CV and a mail with statement of research interests till October 31 to:
Marina.Laganaro@unige.ch or to Pascal.Zesiger@unige.ch
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Post-Doctoral Scholar: Computational Linguistics/Automated Speech Recognition
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Description:
Applications are invited for a full-time postdoctoral position in computational linguistics/automated speech recognition through the Department of English at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. This project will focus on extracting intonation features applicable to automated scoring systems and develop algorithms to measure the degree of nativeness of accented speech.This new position has guaranteed funding for two calendar years commencing on the date of appointment, with continued appointment upon availability of funds. Minimum Education: Ph.D. in Natural Language Processing, Electrical and Computer Engineering, or Computational Linguistics by the time of appointment, with an emphasis on speech technology. Required Qualifications
Preferred Qualifications
To Apply:
Candidates should email letter of application, CV, and names & contact information for 3 references to Dr. Okim Kang (okim.kang@nau.edu). For the complete job announcements, visit (Job ID#600539):https://hr.peoplesoft.nau.edu/psp/ph90prta/EMPLOYEE/HCM/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_HM_PRE&Action=A&SiteId=1
Deadlines: Open until further notice; review of applications will start on November 5, 2013.
Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a 25,000-student institution with its main campus is in Flagstaff, a four-season community of about 62,000 at the base of the majestic San Francisco Peaks. NAU is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, and applications from minority and women candidates are especially welcome. The position is open to non-US citizens or non-permanent residents. |
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Tenure-track Faculty Position in Human-Computer Interaction Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech The Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech (www.cs.vt.edu) invites applications for a
full-time tenure-track position, at the rank of Assistant Professor, from candidates with expertise
in human-computer interaction (HCI). The department is especially interested in sub-areas of
HCI involving human interaction with big data or advanced technologies, such as large-scale data
visualization and human-robot interaction, but candidates from all areas of HCI are encouraged
to apply. Candidates should have a PhD in Computer Science or related discipline at the time of
appointment; a strong record of scholarship in human-computer interaction and interdisciplinary
areas; demonstrated ability to contribute to teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels in
HCI and related subjects; sensitivity to issues of diversity in the campus community; and the
skills to establish and grow a multidisciplinary research group. Selected candidates are expected
to travel occasionally to attend professional conferences/meetings. VT CS faculty have been involved in HCI research since the early days of the field, and lead the
interdisciplinary Center for Human-Computer Interaction (hci.vt.edu), a university-wide effort
that brings together faculty with strengths in multi-sensory interactive communication, ecologies
of displays and devices, social/collaborative computing, and human aspects of
data/information/knowledge. Within CS, there are rich opportunities for collaboration in data
mining/machine learning, parallel and distributed computing, computational biology and
bioinformatics, information retrieval, software engineering, cyber security, cyber arts, and CS
education. Beyond the department, HCI faculty members collaborate with researchers in design
and the arts (the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology), in engineering and science (the
Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science), and in education, business, and liberal arts.
The Department of Computer Science has 36 research oriented tenure-track faculty and 11
research faculty. There are a total 12 NSF/DOE CAREER award winners in the department.
Research expenditures during FY2013 were $11.7 million; total research funding at the beginning
of FY2014 was $34 million. BS, MS, and PhD degrees are offered, with an enrollment of over
550 undergraduate majors (12% women) and over 200 PhD/MS students. In 2010, CS@VT was
ranked 5th in the country in recruiting quality of CS undergrads by the Wall Street Journal. The
department is in the College of Engineering, whose undergraduate program was ranked 6th and
graduate program was ranked 12th among public engineering schools in 2013 by US News and
World Report. Other research centers associated with the department include the new
interdisciplinary Discovery Analytics Center (dac.cs.vt.edu), which focuses on ‘big data’ problems
in areas of national interest including intelligence analysis, sustainability and health informatics,
and the Center for High End Computing Systemswww.checs.eng.vt.edu known for its expertise
in high performance computing, including energy efficient and/or heterogeneous supercomputers. Recently, we designed and acquired HokieSpeed, a CPU/GPU 200+ node machine for use by computational scientists and engineers across campus through a $2M NSF MRI grant. HokieSpeed ranked 11th in the world on the Green 500 List in November 2011. CS faculty also participate in the Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and Technology (www.hume.ictas.vt.edu), a cyber security center. Virginia Tech is a comprehensive research university with over 31,000 students. This hire is for
the main campus in Blacksburg, consistently ranked among the country’s best places to live www.hr.vt.edu/great-place-to-work/culture-community. Salary for suitably qualified applicants is competitive and commensurate with experience.
Selected candidates must pass a criminal background check prior to employment. Applications must be submitted online to https://jobs.vt.edu for posting #117036. We welcome
applications from women and minorities. Applicant screening will begin December 15, 2013 and
continue until the position is filled. Early applications are encouraged. Inquiries should be directed
to Dr. Doug Bowman, HCI Search Committee Chair, bowman@vt.edu. Virginia Tech is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution. | Top |
Primary Location: United States-California-San Francisco Bay Area - Foster City
Description:
Sony PlayStation
® US R&D is looking for an individual who will contribute to voice recognition system and technologies for current and future Sony PlayStation® platforms. The Senior Software Engineer (voice recognition) for the R&D team will contribute to one or more of the following fields:
Automatic generation of pronunciation and voice recognition grammar for 10+ languages.
Language modeling (LM) for large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR)
Robust automatic speech recognition (ASR) technologies to various kinds of distortions and variations such as channel and environment distortions, emotional speech, variety of speaking rate and speaking style for multiple languages.
Acoustic model training and adaptation.
Keyword spotting and voice search technologies are plus.
Speech synthesis experience is a plus.
Improve runtime voice recognition and sample voice applications on PS3 and PlayStation future platforms for many languages.
Qualifications:
At least 5 years’ experience and solid understanding in voice recognition and digital signal processing technologies.
At least 5 years’ experience and strong skills in scripting languages and C/C++ programming.
Experience of multi-lingual speech and language processing is preferred.
Good written and oral communication skills.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Electrical Engineering, related engineering discipline, or equivalent
Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science/Electrical Engineering or equivalent is preferred
Fresh yet outstanding PhD graduates are also encouraged to apply.
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To apply send email to 'AAGroup@playstation.sony.com' Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) is home to the PlayStation® family of products, including the PlayStation®3 (PS3™, PlayStation® Vita (PS Vita), PlayStation® Mobile and PlayStation®Network. Founded in 1994, SCEA has grown into a leading global computer entertainment brand and continues to redefine interactive consumer entertainment. Since the original PlayStation® first revolutionized the world of gaming, SCEA has repeatedly set the benchmark for innovation in home and portable entertainment through amazing gameplay experiences that inspire people across the world. Based in Foster City, CA, SCEA serves as headquarters for all North American operations and employs over 2,104 people in offices located in Foster City, CA, San Diego, CA, Santa Monica, CA and Bend, OR. It is SCEA's policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. SCEA does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, marital status, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. SCEA also makes reasonable accommodations for disabled applicants and employees.
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Dans le cadre du projet ANR ContNomina (2013-2016), nous proposons une thèse (36 mois), financée par ce projet sur le sujet suivant :
Exploitation du contexte pour la reconnaissance de noms propres dans les documents diachroniques
Début : novembre-décembre 2013 Lieu : Nancy LORIA/INRIA et LIA Avignon
Résumé : L'adaptation des systèmes de reconnaissance de la parole vise à rapprocher les modèles des conditions d'utilisations présumées ou observées : au locuteur, à l'environnement acoustique, au domaine, etc. Tandis que les adaptations acoustiques peuvent être réalisées de façon supervisée ou non-supervisées, sur des collections de données de tailles variables, les adaptations du modèle de langage requièrent des grandes quantités de données et sont appliquées dans la phase de conception du système.
Dans cette thèse, nous nous concentrerons sur la contextualisation des systèmes, opération qui consiste à réaliser une adaptation rapide et non supervisée des ressources linguistiques (lexique et modèle de langage) d'un reconnaisseur de parole. On traitera en particulier du problème de la reconnaissance des noms propres, pour lesquels une bonne couverture lexicale est très difficile à obtenir alors qu'ils participent significativement à l'intelligibilité du discours. Ce travail comporte deux parties qui concernent respectivement la modélisation des contextes et l'intégration de ces modèles dans un processus de reconnaissance multi-passes.
Liste des personnes à contacter : Irina Illina , Responsable du projet ANR ContNomina , INRIA-LORIA , Nancy , équipe Parole, tel 03 54 95 84 90, illina @ loria . fr Dominique Fohr , tel 03 83 50 20 27, fohr @ loria . fr
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TOPIC: Embodied cognitive modeling of language processing and dialogue ----------------------------------------------------------------------
We are seeking highly qualified candidates who want to participate as a PhD student researcher in a larger scale project at Bielefeld University's Center of Excellence on Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) [1,2]. The project aims to investigate how a robot can familiarize itself with novel objects and actions through exploratory manual interaction in its environment under guidance of a human tutor. The goal is to develop deep representations of objects and actions, using language to engage in dialogue with the tutor to guide the ongoing interaction and familiarization process. Language processing and dialogue shall thereby be grounded in embodied cognitive processes.
In particular, we are searching for a PhD student working on the language aspects of this project. The task is to build a cognitively motivated representation system which interconnects different levels of abstraction and is grounded in the (already present) lower-level sensorimotor capabilities of the robot. The researcher will have to develop an intermediate type of conceptual representation which should be based on or is connected to schema theories and should in particular focus on dynamic representation of action. The targeted outcome is an implemented formalism for action semantics that links up lower-levels of sensorimotor processing with linguistic processing of syntax and semantics, as e.g. provided by construction grammar based approaches. A second goal is to build dialogue strategies on top of this formalism, e.g. to enable clarification questions geared to reduce uncertainty in this mental simulation.
The successful candidate has a background in Cognitive Science/A.I. and Linguistics, and is in particular familiar with, or motivated to learn about a deep understanding of cognition within holistic approaches to complex embodied cognitive systems. Knowledge on cognitive linguistic formalism and schema theory will be helpful.
Overview --------
The successful candidate is expected to have a strong background in at least two of the following areas:
* Cognitive Science * Computational Linguistics * Mental Representation * Cognitive Robotics
Candidates with expertise in several topics will be given preference. Applicants are expected to have strong programming skills, the ability to work independently, strong interpersonal skills as well as strong English language skills. Candidates should be qualified for and willing to perform state-of-the-art research. Knowledge of German is not required.
The project will provide the chance to perform cutting-edge research in an international context. The PhD applicant will be primarily associated with two research groups participating in this project: The Sociable Agents Group [3] (Prof. Dr. Stefan Kopp) developing cognitive systems capable of multimodal communication and social interaction, and the Emergentist Semantics Group [4] (PD Dr. Katharina Rohlfing) investigating the emergence of meaning in children and learning systems. Within these groups, the applicant will receive supervision and support in developing the necessary skills to produce high-quality research necessary to earn a PhD Degree.
The salary for the position is around 3.300 Euro per month (pre taxes), according to scale TV-L E 13 in the German University System and can vary depending on age, marital status, tax class, etc. [5]. The salary increases with the duration of the employment.
The position is available for two years and can be prolonged for one more year. Candidates are expected to start on January 1st, 2014. Applications from suitably qualified handicapped and severely handicapped persons are expressly encouraged.
Bielefeld University has received a number of awards for its achievements in the provision of equal opportunity and has been recognised as a family friendly university. The University welcomes applications from women. This is particularly true with regard both to academic and technical posts as well as positions in Information Technology and trades and crafts. Applications are handled according to the provisions of the state equal opportunity statutes.
Applications are invited until 31.10.2013 and will be processed as they are received. Interviews will be scheduled via Skype in the first half of November.
Applicants will be informed of the outcome of the selection in the second half of November.
Applications should be sent by email to
Prof. Stefan Kopp Sociable Agents Group, Faculty of Technology Email: stefan.kopp@uni-bielefeld.de
preferably as *one* PDF document including a CV, motivation letter, publication record (if applicable), record of teaching activities (if applicable) and any other relevant information in addition to the names of two referees.
Or by mail to the following address:
Bielefeld University, CITEC Inspiration 1 33619 Bielefeld Germany
The application should highlight the expertise in the areas mentioned above and express the research interests of the applicant.
Location --------
Bielefeld is one of the 20 largest cities in Germany (with close to 330.000 inhabitants) [6]. It is a lively city with a lot of cultural and entertainment opportunities. It is located in the heart of the Teutoburg Forest [7], offering many opportunities for outdoor and leisure activities.
[1] http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/ [2] http://www.cit-ec.de/ [3] http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/ags/soa/ [4] http://www.cit-ec.de/de/es [5]https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarifvertrag_für_den_öffentlichen_Dienst_der_Länder [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutoburg_Forest
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Un poste d'ATER rattaché au département de sciences du langage et au laboratoire Parole et Langage à Aix-Marseille Université a été ouvert dans le cadre d'une campagne de recrutement au fil de l'eau.
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Postdoctoral Research Positions in
Speech Synthesis and Speech Recognition
The Centre for Speech Technology Research, University of Edinburgh
http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/opportunities/
Closing date: 18th November 2013
We have open postdoctoral research positions in speech recognition and speech
synthesis, which are part of the large UK project
Natural Speech Technology.
The topics of research to be undertaken in these positions is flexible. We encourage
applicants with their own research agenda, provided that it fits within the objective of the
project, which is to advance the state of the art in speech technology by making it more
natural, approaching human levels of reliability, adaptability, and conversational richness.
Speech Synthesis:
Our specific interests in speech synthesis include – but are not limited
to – the following:
• Machine learning for vocoding.
• Fluent speech synthesis.
• Shallow stochastic natural language generation to improve fluency.
• Beyond decision tree parameter tying, including neural network approaches or tree
intersect models.
• Use of synthetic speech in assistive technologies.
Speech Recognition:
Our specific interests in speech recognition include – but are not
limited to – the following:
• Wide domain coverage and models which make use of rich contexts.
• Cross-lingual speech recognition.
• Neural network models.
• Adaptation and canonical modelling techniques for acoustic or language modelling.
• Distant speech recognition.
• Approaches based on models incorporating articulatory data.
The
Centre for Speech Technology Research (CSTR) is an exciting, vibrant,
interdisciplinary research centre and a great place to work. We are part of the
University of
Edinburgh
(QS world ranking 17th) linking the world-class subject areas of Informatics /
computer science (QS world ranking 15th) and
Linguistics (QS world ranking 5th).
Founded in 1984, CSTR is concerned with research in all areas of speech technology
including speech recognition, speech synthesis, speech signal processing, information
access, multimodal interfaces and dialogue systems. We have many significant
collaborations with the wider community of researchers in speech science, language,
cognition and machine learning for which Edinburgh is renowned, and a wide network of
collaborators across the globe.
For further details, and links to the online application procedure please visit
http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/opportunities/
Informal enquiries about these positions should be made to Prof Steve Renals
(
s.renals@ed.ac.uk) or to Prof Simon King (Simon.King@ed.ac.uk).
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R·I·T
Rochester Institute of Technology, College of Liberal Arts
FACULTY POSITION POSTING FORM©
Position Title: Instructional Faculty
Faculty Rank: Assistant Professor
Faculty Type: Tenure Track
Department: English
PC# 8735 Requisition# 797BR
Anticipated Start Date: August 13, 2014
BRIEF JOB DESCRIPTION:
The Department of English at the Rochester Institute of Technology invites applications for an Assistant Professor of English tenure-track positionto begin August 13, 2014 with specialization in computational linguistics and/or innovative technical methods in language science, with a focus on one or more areas of application. Possible areas include:
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Cultural or social analytics
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Speech technology
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Human-computer communication
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Clinical, assistive, and/or access technology
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Cognitive modeling of linguistic processes (for example reading)
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Games and/or social media
The applicant should demonstrate a fit with our commitment to collaborate with colleagues across the university on curricular and research initiatives in digital humanities and language science.
DETAILED JOB DESCRIPTION:
The successful applicant will be a teacher and a researcher with an agenda that emphasizes innovative technical methods in linguistics, for instance natural language processing, corpus-based studies, linguistic/multimodal sensors, speech technology, and/or other computational approaches. We are seeking a scholar who engages in disciplinary and interdisciplinary teamwork and has a coherent plan for grant seeking activities. The right candidate will contribute to our department’s profile in the digital humanities, in addition to furthering our interdisciplinary language science curriculum in a college of liberal arts at a technical university. Contributions that build students’ global education experiences are additionally valued.
Teaching assignments may include Introduction to Language Science, Language Technology, Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Advanced Topics in Computational Linguistics, Language & Brain, self-designed courses, and other courses in the linguistics or general education frameworks such as Dialects & Identity, Text & Code, or Evolving English Language. The course teaching load is 3/2.
We are seeking an individual who has the ability and interest in contributing to a community committed to Student Centeredness; Professional Development and Scholarship; Integrity and Ethics; Respect, Diversity and Pluralism; Innovation and Flexibility; and Teamwork and Collaboration. Select to view links to RIT’s core values,honor code, and diversity commitment.
THE UNIVERSITY AND ROCHESTER COMMUNITY:
RIT is a national leader in professional and career-oriented education. Talented, ambitious, and creative students of all cultures and backgrounds from all 50 states and more than 100 countries have chosen to attend RIT. Founded in 1829, Rochester Institute of Technology is a privately endowed, coeducational university with nine colleges and institutes emphasizing career education and experiential learning. With approximately 15,000 undergraduates and 3,000 graduate students, RIT is one of the largest private universities in the nation. RIT offers a rich array of degree programs in engineering, science, business, and the arts, and is home to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. RIT has been honored by The Chronicle of Higher Education as a “Great Colleges to Work For” for four years. RIT is responsive to the needs of dual career couples by our membership in the Upstate NY HERC.
Rochester, located on Lake Ontario, is the 79th largest city in the United States and the third largest city in New York State. The Greater Rochester region, which is home to nearly one million people, is rich in cultural and ethnic diversity, with a population comprised of approximately 16% African and Latin Americans and another 7% of international origin. It is also home to the largest deaf community per capita in the U.S. Rochester ranks 3rd best metropolitan regions for Raising a Family' by Forbes Magazine; 6th among 379 metropolitan areas as “Best Places to Live in America” by Places Rated Almanac; 1st in Expansion Management Magazine’s ranking of metropolitan areas having the best “Quality of Life in the Nation”; and is among Essence Magazine’s “Top 10 Cities for Black Families.”
REQUIRED MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
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Ph.D. in Linguistics (or an allied field) in hand prior to appointment date
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Advanced graduate coursework in language science and technical methods
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Evidence of outstanding teaching
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Experience teaching or mentoring diverse or multi-disciplinary students
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Evidence of publication and a coherent plan for research and grant seeking activities
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Ability to contribute in meaningful ways to the college’s continuing commitment to cultural diversity, pluralism, and individual differences.
HOW TO APPLY:
Apply online at http://careers.rit.edu/faculty. Search: 797BR. Please submit your cover letter; CV; copy of transcripts of graduate coursework; a research statement; a teaching statement; writing sample/portfolio; Contribution to Diversity Statement; and the names, addresses and phone numbers for three references.
CONTACT:
Please direct questions to Dr. Cecilia Ovesdotter Alm at: coagla@rit.edu or (585) 475-7327.
APPLICATION DEADLINE:
Review of applications will begin on November 15, 2013.
RIT does not discriminate. RIT promotes and values diversity, pluralism and inclusion in the work place. RIT provides equal opportunity to all qualified individuals and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, age, marital status, sex, gender, religion, sexual orientations, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, veteran status or disability in its hiring, admissions, educational programs and activities.
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Part-time Position (E13, 50%) in the field of “Adaptive Speech Synthesis”, Bielefeld University, Germany
The Excellence Cluster Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) [1] at Bielefeld University [2], Germany offers an open part-time (PhD) position in the field of 'Adaptive Speech Synthesis”. The position (TV-L E13, 50%) is part of the interdisciplinary large scale project “Cognitive Service Robotics Apartment as Ambient Host” funded by CITEC.
One research focus lies investigates the interaction of psychological, linguistic and situational factors influencing human perception, interpretation and behavior. Here, our research pertains to questions relating to social categories, linguistic style and adaptive behavior. In our second research strand on social awareness we investigate how to determine classes of situations that are relevant for behavior adaptation. Methods for automatically recognizing such situations from large-scale sensoric input will be developed. Verbal and non-verbal interaction capabilities are investigated and modeled in the third research dimension enabling interaction with ambient interfaces and combining multi-modal dialogue with physical interaction. Finally, to achieve 24/7 operation we address issues of software architecture and extend existing system engineering approaches to our research environment. We further focus on questions of data management to deal with the large amounts of data and their efficient storage for further research.
The overall approach builds on a highly dynamic process of evaluation and implementation, thus requiring excellent team qualities from all researchers.
Work in the open position will concentrate on the further development of a speech synthesizer as part of an incremental dialogue system and its integration into a cognitive robotic apartment. The speech synthesis will be able to adapt its voice and speaking style according to situational needs (background noise, interaction role), across different embodiments (as robot, as part of the ambient interaction components of the apartment) and interaction partner (guest, familiar person). The various situations lend to a set of interaction primitives along with the necessary stylistic adaptations that need to be empirically investigated and defined. As the apartment will be equipped with a variety of verbal and non-verbal interaction capabilities, an optimal interaction strategy needs to be determined based on the situational needs. The adaptive speech synthesis will be evaluated throughout its development as part of the project.
QUALIFICATIONS The successful candidate is expected to have a strong background in:
- Speech Synthesis and/or Speech Enhancement
- Prosody
- Experimental Phonetics
Candidates with expertise in several of the topics mentioned above will be given preference. Applicants are expected to have strong programming skills, the ability to work independently but as part of a larger team, to be open for interdisciplinary collaboration and to have strong English language skills. Knowledge of German is not required.
The position is embedded in the Work Group Phonetics and Phonology within the Faculty of Linguistics and Literature. The group’s research focus lies in multimodal interaction, discourse prosody, rhythm and prosodic prominence in natural and synthetic speech. An overview of the ongoing workgroup projects and publications can be found here: [5].
Postdoc applicants will have the chance to perform independent research on the topics of the group that qualifies them for an academic career and allows them to position themselves as independent researchers in the community. PhD applicants will receive extended supervision and support through the collaboration with the project partners at CITEC, in particular Prof. Dr. Petra Wagner.
The salary is according to scale TV-L E 13 (50%) in the German University System and can vary depending on age, marital status, tax class etc. The salary increases with the duration of the employment. An online tool to calculate the post-tax income can be found at [3] (indicating E 13, 50%).
The position is funded for three years. Candidates are expected to start on 01.03.2014. Applications are invited until 23.12.2013 and will be processed as they are received.
Applications from suitably qualified handicapped and severely handicapped persons are expressly encouraged. Bielefeld University has received a number of awards for its achievements in the provision of equal opportunity and has been recognized as a family friendly university. The University welcomes applications from women. This is particularly true with regard both to academic and technical posts as well as positions in Information Technology and trades and crafts. Applications are handled according to the provisions of the state equal opportunity statutes.
Bielefeld is one of the 20 largest cities in Germany (with approx. 330.000 inhabitants). It is a lively city with a lot of cultural and entertainment opportunities [4]. Located in the heart of the Teutoburg Forest, it offers opportunities for outdoor and leisure activities.
CONTACT AND APPLICATION Informal inquiries can be sent to petra.wagner@uni-bielefeld.de. A full application shall consist of (i) detailed resume or CV and (ii) a concise statement why you are interested in this research project., preferably given in one pdf-document.
Please submit your application via email to: alexandra.kenter@uni-bielefeld.de. [1] http://www.cit-ec.de
[2] http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/International/
[4] http://www.bielefeld.de/en/index.html
[5] http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/lili/forschung/ag_fachber/phonetik/ (German)
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PhD Stipend in Sound Scene Analysis for Hearing Aid Applications ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the Faculty of Engineering and Science, Department of Electonic Systems a PhD stipend in Sound Scene Analysis for Hearing Aid Applications is available within the general study programme Electrical and Electronic Engineering. The stipend is open for appointment from December 1, 2013, or as soon as possible thereafter.
Job description --------------------- The PhD researcher will work on the research project 'Sound Scene Analysis for Hearing Aid Applications'.
This research project focuses on the problem of statistically optimal sound scene analysis. Specifically, the problem is to optimally determine the number and physical location of sound sources and furthermore analyze the sound scene in terms of background noise level, reverberation level, etc. Mother Nature imposes fundamental limits on the accuracy with which this information can be extracted from time-limited, noisy microphone signals: the project is concerned with determining what these limits are and designing algorithms which approach them.
While initial phases of the project focus on 'local' sound scene analysis algorithms which make use of the microphones in a given hearing aid, later stages encompass emerging wireless technologies, which allow hearing aids to communicate with external, wirelessly connected, microphones.
You may obtain further information concerning the scientific aspects of the position from Professor Jesper Jensen, Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University and Oticon A/S, phone: +45 39138981, email: jje@es.aau.dk and jsj@oticon.dk.
The research project is a cooperation between Aalborg University, Aalborg and Oticon A/S, Copenhagen who is a world-leading hearing aid manufacturer. The successful applicant will be enrolled at Aalborg University; the research will be carried out partly at Aalborg University and partly at Oticon.
The Department of Electronic Systems at Aalborg University and Oticon A/S offer an attractive scientific environment in an international team of scientists and access to state-of-the-art equipment and labs.
We are looking for a candidate with a Master (or equivalent) degree in electrical engineering, computer science, physics, or a related field. Documented excellence is necessary in statistical signal processing (preferably including estimation and detection theory). Ideally, the applicant has a solid background in acoustics and/or auditory perception. Familiarity with scientific tools and programming languages such as MATLAB or C, as well as excellent English language skills are required. Knowledge about hearing aid technology is desirable.
The application must include - application and a letter of motivation, - CV, - a copy of your university diplomas and grades, - one-page description of the candidates research ideas within the research area, - three named references incl. contact information, - relevant publications, if any.
Application Deadline: November 15, 2013.
PhD stipends are allocated to individuals who hold a Masters degree. PhD stipends are normally for a period of 3 years. It is a prerequisite for allocation of the stipend that the candidate will be enrolled as a PhD student at the Doctoral School of the Faculty of Engineering and Science, in accordance with the regulations of Ministerial Order No. 18 of January 14, 2008 on the PhD Programme at the Universities. According to the Ministerial Order, the progress of the PhD student shall be assessed every six months. It is a prerequisite for continuation of salary payment that the previous progress is approved at the time of the evaluation.
The qualifications of the applicant will be assessed by an assessment committee. On the basis of the recommendation of the assessment committee, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Science will make a decision for allocating the stipend.
For further information about stipends and salary as well as practical issues concerning the application procedure contact Ms. Lisbeth Diinhoff, The Faculty of Engineering and Science, email: ld@adm.aau.dk , phone: +45 9940 9589.
The faculty have a research school, The Doctoral School of Engineering and Science: www.phd.teknat.aau.dk and a Network for all PhD students: www.pau.aau.dk.
The application is to be submitted at http://www.vacancies.aau.dk
Agreement ---------------- Appointment and salary as a PhD fellow are according to the Ministry of Finance Circular of March 26, 2012 on the Collective Agreement for Academics in Denmark, Appendix 5, regarding PhD fellows, and with the Ministry of Finance Circular of June 13, 2007 on the employment structure at Danish Universities.
Deadline: 15/11/2013 ------------------------------
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http://www.ircam.fr/71.html#job_135
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Orange Labs cherche d'urgence un doctorant en dialogue.
Offre de thèse : http://intelliagence.fr/Page/Offer/ShowOffer.aspx?OfferId=53058
Contact : remi.bars@orange.com
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Le LABEX Empirical Foundations of Linguistics cherche un Ingénieur de Recherche en Linguistique empirique
CONTACT:
Barbara Hemforth, LLF
ADRESSE DU RESPONSABLE:
barbara.hemforth_ at_univ-paris-diderot.fr
UNIVERSITÉ:
Université Paris 7
NIVEAU:
ingénieur
DURÉE:
23 mois (1er février 2014-31 décembre 2015), renouvelable
SALAIRE:
Entre 1600 et 2000 € par mois (net) en fonction de la qualification
SPÉCIALITÉS:
Linguistique empirique, Psycholinguistique, Mouvement oculaire, EEG, Techniques comportementales
DATE LIMITE DE CANDIDATURE:
15/12/2014
ADRESSE POUR LA CANDIDATURE:
barbara.hemforth_at_univ-paris-diderot.fr
RÉFÉRENCE DE CANDIDATURE:
EFL-EM3/4
Description
Les candidats sont appelés à travailler dans le cadre d'un projet en linguistique sur 10 ans intitulé 'Empirical foundations of linguistics' C'est un travail à temps plein. Il est possible d'envisager deux ingénieurs à temps partiel en fonction des candidatures.
Le candidat retenu devra présenter ses diplômes en linguistique et psycholinguistique du niveau Master. Un doctorat sera un atout supplémentaire. Le français pourra s'avérer utile mais pas nécessaire. Les candidats seront auditionnés par un comité d'experts. L'accent sera mis sur les qualités du candidat pour la recherche empirique (bonnes connaissances de paradigmes expérimentaux et statistiques), attestées par un mémoire de Master ou équivalent, ou une thèse de doctorat (ou PhD) ou d'autres travaux de recherche. Joindre à la candidature :
• un CV
• deux noms de référents (avec leur adresse email)
• Adresse email et publications
Le candidat travaillera avec une équipe interdisciplinaire composée de linguistes, de psycholinguistes et de linguistes informaticiens. L'activité consistera :
-
à harmoniser et mutualiser les techniques expérimentales du Labex
-
à développer de nouveaux paradigmes (surtout mouvements oculaires et EEG).
-
Le candidat participera à la coordination du travail empirique et à l'enseignement.
-
Nous recherchons un candidat ayant une formation solide en linguistique et psycholinguistique et de hautes aptitudes techniques et sociales.
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The Signals and Interactive Systems Lab (University of Trento, Italy) is looking for top-candidates
for funded PhD research fellowships. We are looking to cover the following areas of interest:
- Signal Processing for Speech and BioSignals
- Automatic Speech Recognition
- Natural Language Understanding (Text/Speech/Multimodal)
- Dialog Modeling and Systems (Text/Speech/Multimodal )
- Machine Learning
Candidates will be working on research domains such as Mobile Interactive Agents,
Question Answering Systems, Speech/Text Mining, Statistical Machine Translation,
Human Behavior Understanding, Crowd Computing and ICT applications to teaching and learning.
The SIS Lab research is driven by interdisciplinary approach to research, attracting researchers
from disciplines such as Digital Signal Processing, Speech Processing, Computational Linguistics,
Psychology, Neuroscience and Machine Learning. The mission of the lab is to :
A) understand diverse signal ( e.g. speech, text, biosignals, multimodal ) generated by humans
in their interactions with machines, humans and complex systems including both.
B) to train and design machines that are able to support humans in their interactions in a social,
physical and virtual space. For more info on the research carried out, visit the lab
website: http://sisl.disi.unitn.it. The official language ( research and teaching ) of the department
is English. FELLOWSHIP Gross amount of the fellowship is 1.607.48/month. PhD students
benefit from reduced campus lodging, transportation and cafeteria reduced rates.
For more information about please visit the graduate school website.
DEADLINES: January 31, 2014 HOW
TO APPLY: Master level degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering (or similar )
as well Computational Linguistics ( or similar ). Students with other background (Physics,
Applied Math) may apply as well. Background in at least one of the posted research areas is
preferable. All applicants should have good very programming and math skills and used to
project team work. Interested applicants should send their
1) CV along with
2) their statement of research interest and
3) have three reference letters sent to: Email: sisl-jobs@disi.unitn.it
For more info: Lab web page: http://sisl.disi.unitn.it/
PhD School : http://ict.unitn.it/
Department : http://disi.unitn.it/
Information Engineering and Computer Science Department (DISI) DISI has a strong focus
on Interdisciplinarity with professors from different faculties of the University (Physical Science,
Electrical Engineering, Economics, Social Science, Cognitive Science, Computer Science)
with international background. DISI aims at exploiting the complementary experiences present
in the various research areas in order to develop innovative methods and technologies,
applications and advanced services. University of Trento The University of Trento is ranked
as premiere Italian university institution. University of Trento is an equal opportunity employer. | Top |