Connectionists: Two ESR (PhD) positions in Cognitive Robotics (DCOMM Marie Curie ETN)

[Angelo Cangelosi]

Two 3-year ESR (PhD) positions at the Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems at Plymouth University, UK

DCOMM European PhD Training Network

DCOMM (dcomm.eu<http://www.dcomm.eu/>) is a new Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Training Network (ETN) with the primary aim to train the next generation of scientists in the full range of multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial methods necessary to make significant progress in understanding deictic communication, with direct synergies between basic research and application. Deictic communication is fundamental to understanding communication in both typical and atypical populations, and forms the key connection between language and objects/locations in the world. It is therefore critical to understanding human-human interaction, and human-system interaction in a range of technology applications – from mobile phones to cognitive robotics – and to the enhancement of clinical and educational interventions with typical and atypical populations.

The tho positions/project are:.

ESR Position 1. Developmental robotics architecture for the co-development of demonstratives and gestures. This PhD will target the important issue of the robot’s understanding of function words, as demonstratives (this, that), to go beyond current state of the art on the learning and understanding of words naming objects and actions in robots. The main objective is to design a developmental robotics cognitive architecture for the acquisition of demonstratives via deictic gestures, based on the developmental stages on the acquisition of gestures and demonstratives in children, and test it in human-robot interaction (HRI) experiments.

ESR Position 2. From single words to compositional language via gestures: Applications in robot language learning. Studies on sign language and language-gesture development have shown that children go through a gesture-word combination stage before they make a full transition to two-word and longer sentences. This PhD project will model the transition from single words to multiple-word sentences via the intermediate word-gesture combinations, and the exploitation of common compositional structure of language and action. A developmental robotics model will be developed to allow a robot like iCub to learn multi-word sentences with developmental transitions via gesture-word combinations.

Application requirements and criteria: Applicants must have a first degree in computer science, robotics, cognitive science or related discipline. A Masters level degree in the same disciplines is a desirable criterion. Good programming skills is also an essential requirement. Applicants with knowledge and skills on computational cognitive modelling (e.g. neural networks, robotics, artificial intelligence), and/or previous research experience, are particularly encouraged to apply.

For further information contact Professor Angelo Cangelosi (acangelosi at plymouth.ac.uk<mailto:acangelosi at plymouth.ac.uk>), the First Supervisor of the ESR PhD fellowship. Background information on the supervisors’ research profiles can be found on Plymouth University website.

The salary will be based on the standard Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early-Stage Researcher living and mobility allowances. Expected start date of the ESR/PhD positions is 1st October 2016.

The following conditions apply:

Early-stage researchers shall, at the time of recruitment by the host organisation, be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and not yet have been awarded a doctoral degree.

Mobility Rule: at the time of recruitment by the host organisation, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host organisation (UK) for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date. Compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays are not taken into account. As far as international European interest organisations or international organisations are concerned, this rule does not apply to the hosting of eligible researchers. However, the appointed researcher must not have spent more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to their recruitment at the host organisation.

Applicants should upload a CV, along with their application and provide 2 referees within their application.

This is a full-time position working 37 hours per week on a fixed-term basis for 36 months starting 1stOctober 2016.

The closing date for applications is 12 midnight, Sunday 6 March 2016

Plymouth University is committed to an inclusive culture and respecting diversity, and welcomes applications from all sections of the community and is a Stonewall diversity champion.

The University holds a Bronze Athena SWAN Award which recognises commitment to advancing women’s career in STEMM academia.

Apply via this link (each application will be considered for both posts)

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AMY136/early-stage-researcher-cognitive-robotics-dcomm-etn/


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