Connectionists: Two PhDs in Language Games for Ontology and Computational Construction Grammar and Procedural Semantics for Multi-modal, Linguistic, Human-machine Interaction
Benoît Frénay
benoit.frenay at unamur.be
Wed May 18 06:14:43 EDT 2022
Dear all,
We are looking for *excellent candidates to fill two PhD positions that
are currently available at the University of Namur in the field of
artificial intelligence*, financed by the ARIAC project. The two
positions focus on the following research topics:
* *Language games for ontology alignment under partial observability*
* *Computational construction grammar and procedural semantics for
multi-modal, linguistic, human-machine interaction*
The deadline for applying for these positions is *July 1st 2022*.
Soon-to-be graduating master students are welcome to apply provided that
they will have graduated before the start of the position. A more
detailed description of the project and the application procedure is
included here below.
Thank you for helping us spread the word.
Best wishes,
Katrien Beuls, Anthony Cleve and Bruno Dumas
##########################################################################################
*Title*
Full-time PhD researcher in artificial intelligence - Université de Namur
/Language games for ontology alignment under partial observability
(ARIAC project)/
https://jobs.unamur.be/emploi.2022-05-17.7380520887
https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/785563
*Project*
ARIAC by DigitalWallonia4.ai is a research project funded by the Walloon
Region bringing together the five French-speaking universities and four
Walloon research centres with the primary objective of accelerating the
development of artificial intelligence technologies in Wallonia. The
project is part of the TRAIL (Trusted AI Labs) initiative, launched in
September 2020, which aims at enhancing the development of artificial
intelligence technologies in Wallonia.
In the context of this position, you will investigate how a population
of agents can autonomously develop a new language for exchanging
information. The information held by each agent might be stored in
entirely different formats and according to different ontologies.
Through task-based communicative interactions, the agents invent, adopt
and align the building blocks of an emergent language. This language can
then be used by all agents in the population to exchange information, as
it forms an abstraction layer over the individual ontological
organisations and storage formats.
You will carry out this PhD project both individually and in
collaboration with other researchers in the field. It is conceived as a
4-year program, starting with a 2-year contract that is renewable for up
to 2 additional years. You will be supervised by Prof. dr. K. Beuls and
Prof. dr. A. Cleve.
*Profile*
* You have obtained a master’s degree in artificial intelligence,
computer science, linguistics, mathematics or a related domain. You
have a solid academic track record.
* You are passionate about building intelligent systems that are
capable of interacting with their users and environment through
natural language.
* You strive for excellence and have a scientific mindset.
* You are a loyal team player, who can work autonomously and deliver
solid scientific work.
* You have strong communication skills and a good command of English.
Knowledge of French is considered as a plus.
*Additional information*
For additional information please do not hesitate to contact Prof. K.
Beuls or Prof. A. Cleve (see addresses below).
*Important dates*
Submission deadline: *July 1st, 2022 (11h59 pm AoE).*
Expected starting date: September 1st, 2022.
*How to apply?*
Applications should be sent by e-mail to secretariat.info at unamur.be,
katrien.beuls at unamur.be AND anthony.cleve at unamur.be and contain the
following:
* A motivation letter describing your interest in the research topic
* Your CV
* A copy of your diplomas (Bachelor and Master, if available)
* A transcript with the grades you obtained for each course taken on
each university year
* The name and e-mail address of two references to be contacted upon
request
##########################################################################################
*Title*
Full-time PhD researcher in artificial intelligence - Université de Namur
/Computational construction grammar and procedural semantics for
multi-modal, linguistic, human-machine interaction (ARIAC project)/
https://jobs.unamur.be/emploi.2022-05-17.2794384091
https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/785573
*Project*
ARIAC by DigitalWallonia4.ai is a research project funded by the Walloon
Region bringing together the five French-speaking universities and four
Walloon research centres with the primary objective of accelerating the
development of artificial intelligence technologies in Wallonia. The
project is part of the TRAIL (Trusted AI Labs) initiative, launched in
September 2020, which aims at enhancing the development of artificial
intelligence technologies in Wallonia.
Current techniques for linguistic human-machine interaction focus on
either speech signals, textual data or gestures. However, communication
between humans is multi-modal in nature. In particular, spoken
utterances are accompanied by gestures, pointing, eye gaze, facial
expressions, and prosody amongst others. These multi-modal channels are
of great importance to supporting the basic function of language, i.e.
exchanging information between individuals. A great challenge for
human-machine interaction resides thus in the integration of multi-modal
signals into a single device for comprehending and producing natural
language expressions. Within the ARIAC project, we will develop a novel
methodology for multi-modal language comprehension and production. This
methodology will be situated within the framework of computational
construction grammar, a family of linguistic theories which is
well-suited to accommodate the representation and processing of
linguistic knowledge that combines different sources of information.
While the representation of the form of linguistic expressions will
consist in abstractions over data captured through different feature
channels, the representation of the meaning of linguistic expressions
will be formalised using procedural semantics. In this way, the
information captured in the multi-modal linguistic expressions can be
executed by a machine, or a machine can produce multi-modal expressions
based on procedural semantic representations. The primary application
domain of this research will be systems for multi-modal human-machine
interaction, i.e. systems where humans can give instructions to a
machine by simultaneously speaking and gesturing.
You will carry out this PhD project both individually and in
collaboration with other researchers in the field. It is conceived as a
4-year program, starting with a 2-year contract that is renewable for up
to 2 additional years. You will be supervised by Prof. dr. K. Beuls and
Prof. dr. B. Dumas.
*Profile*
* You have obtained a master’s degree in artificial intelligence,
computer science, linguistics, mathematics or a related domain. You
have a solid academic track record.
* You are passionate about building intelligent systems that are
capable of interacting with their users and environment through
natural language.
* You strive for excellence and have a scientific mindset.
* You are a loyal team player, who can work autonomously and deliver
solid scientific work.
* You have strong communication skills and a good command of English.
Knowledge of French is considered as a plus.
*Additional information*
For additional information please do not hesitate to contact Prof. K.
Beuls or Prof. B. Dumas (see addresses below).
*Important dates*
Submission deadline: *July 1st, 2022 (11h59 pm AoE).*
Expected starting date: September 1st, 2022.
*How to apply?*
Applications should be sent by e-mail to secretariat.info at unamur.be,
katrien.beuls at unamur.be AND bruno.dumas at unamur.be and contain the following:
* A motivation letter describing your interest in the research topic
* Your CV
* A copy of your diplomas (Bachelor and Master, if available)
* A transcript with the grades you obtained for each course taken on
each university year
* The name and e-mail address of two references to be contacted upon
request
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