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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center"
align="center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:
"Calibri","sans-serif"">PhD position in
Neurocomputational Linguistics<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center"
align="center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">University
of Birmingham in collaboration with Google Research London<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Language
comprehension is critical for effective interactions in our
social world. In order to understand ‘who does what to whom’ in
natural language processing, the brain needs to assign a
syntactic structure to every sentence – a process coined
‘syntactic parsing’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:justify"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">This
interdisciplinary project will combine expertise from human
neuroscience (University of Birmingham) and computational
linguistics (Google Research London) to determine the neural
mechanisms underlying sentence comprehension in the human brain
and advance parsing algorithms in machines. To study natural
language processing and the underlying neural mechanisms in
humans, we will measure eye movements, behavioural
(psychophysics) and electrophysiological responses (EEG/fMRI) in
participants reading natural sentences from syntactically
annotated corpora. We will employ advanced machine learning
algorithms to characterize the computational operations and
neural mechanisms underlying syntactic processing in the human
brain. Conversely, the insights obtained from human neuroimaging
(EEG/fMRI) and eye tracking will provide critical constraints on
the parameters and algorithms used in machine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:justify"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">The
PhD position is designed to involve a 3 month internship at
Google Research London.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:justify"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">The
Computational Cognitive Neuroimaging Group (Uta Noppeney) in
collaboration with Google Research London (Bernd Bohnet, Ryan
McDonald) is seeking an enthusiastic PhD candidate with strong
analytical and quantitative abilities. Applicants should have a
background in computational linguistics, neuroscience, </span><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">computer
science, </span>psychology, physics or related areas. Prior
experience in statistical analysis and/or machine learning would
be an advantage. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:justify"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">The
Computational Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab is based at the
Department of Psychology and the Computational Neuroscience and
Cognitive Robotics Centre of the University of Birmingham, UK.
The centre provides an excellent multidisciplinary, interactive
and collaborative research environment combining expertise in
cognitive neuroimaging, psychophysics and computational
neuroscience. The psychology department was rated 5th in the UK
research assessment exercise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/psychology/research/labs/comp-cog-neuro/index.aspx">http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/psychology/research/labs/comp-cog-neuro/index.aspx</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/cncr/index.aspx">http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/cncr/index.aspx</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:justify"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p>Applications
will be considered until 8th January 2017. The starting date is
Sept/Oct 2017. iCASE students must fulfil the MIBTP entry
requirements and will join the MIBTP cohort for the taught
modules and masterclasses during the first term. They will
remain as an integral part of the MIBTP cohort and take part in
the core networking activities and transferable skills training.
For further information, please contact <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:u.noppeney@bham.ac.uk">u.noppeney@bham.ac.uk</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Check
eligibility and apply here: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.findaphd.com/common/clickCount.aspx?theid=79324&type=184&DID=148&url=https%3a%2f%2fwww2.warwick.ac.uk%2ffac%2fcross_fac%2fmibtp%2fpgstudy%2fphd_opportunities%2fapplication%2f"
target="_blank">https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp/pgstudy/phd_opportunities/application/</a></span>
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