28 August: fyi -- research funding (x5), Nijmegen

Index of August 2008 | Index of year: 2008 | Full index


Postdoc 'A Memory-Prediction Model of Language Acquisition' (1.0 fte)

Faculty of Arts
Vacancy number: 23.30.08
Closing date: 14-09-2008

Job description
The NWO project A Computational Model of Language Acquisition aims to
develop a computational model of language acquisition. The project
team will comprise a postdoc and two PhD students.
The postdoc will develop a computational infrastructure, based on the
memory-prediction theory of intelligent behaviour which will form the
core of the eventual computational model. In addition, she/he will
conduct simulation experiments with real infant directed speech
signals as input for the learning system. In addition, the postdoc
will contribute to the supervision of PhD students.

Requirements:
The successful candidate has a PhD degree in Artificial Intelligence,
Pattern Recognition, or Computer Science. Experience in software
design and implementation is mandatory. Experience in supervising PhD
students or Master's students is a definite advantage. She/he has
excellent writing skills and is fluent in English.

Organization
The Faculty of Arts consists of eleven departments in the area of
language and culture, history, history of arts, linguistics and
business communication, which together cater for about 2,700 students
and collaborate closely in teaching and research. The project will be
carried out at the research institute Centre for Language Studies as
part of the Linguistic Information Processing and Grammar and
Cognition research programmes.

Conditions of employment
The total duration of the contract is 3 years. The post-doc will
receive an initial contract for the duration of one year with the
possibility of prolongation for another 2 years.

Additional information
The starting gross salary is ? 3.129 per month based upon a full-time
employment.

For further information and a copy of the project proposal, please
contact prof. dr. Lou Boves (l.boves@let.ru.nl).

Application letters, including extensive CV and PhD thesis or other
publications,
(with vacancy number: 23.30.08, preferably by e-mail) can be sent to:

Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Arts,
Department of Human Resources, attn. of Ms. A. Graat
P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, the Netherlands
E-mail: vacatures@let.ru.nl

-------------------------------------------------

PhD student 'Emergence of Structures in Speech Signals' (1.0 fte)

Faculty of Arts
Vacancy number: 23.31.08
Closing date: 14-09-2008

Job description
The NWO project A Computational Model of Language Acquisition aims to
develop a computational model of language acquisition. The project
team will comprise a postdoc and two PhD students. The PhD student
will conduct computer simulations to investigate the emergence and
development of neural representations of speech signals. In the first
year the focus will be on representations of rhythm and intonation
that a foetus is already able to form. The following years will be
devoted to research addressing the segmentation of continuous speech
signals into word-like units and the emergence of sub-word
representations. In addition to designing and conducting the computer
simulations, the PhD student is expected to have completed a PhD
thesis on the topic by the end of the contract.

Requirements:
The successful candidate has a Master's degree in Artificial
Intelligence, Cognitive Psychology, Pattern Recognition, or Computer
Science. She/he has excellent writing skills and is fluent in English.

Organization
The Faculty of Arts consists of eleven departments in the area of
language and culture, history, history of arts, linguistics and
business communication, which together cater for about 2,700 students
and collaborate closely in teaching and research. The project will be
carried out at the research institute Centre for Language Studies as
part of the Linguistic Information Processing and Grammar and
Cognition research programmes.

Conditions of employment
The total duration of the contract is 3.5 years. The PhD student will
receive an initial contract for the duration of 1.5 year with the
possibility of prolongation for another 2 years.

Additional information
The starting gross salary is ? 2.000 per month based upon a full-time
employment.

For further information such as a copy of the project proposal, please
contact prof. dr. Lou Boves (l.boves@let.ru.nl).

Application letters, including extensive CV and MA thesis or other
publications,
(with vacancy number: 23.31.08, preferably by e-mail) can be sent to:

Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Arts,
Department of Human Resources, attn. of Ms. A. Graat
P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, the Netherlands
E-mail: vacatures@let.ru.nl

--------
PhD student 'Development of Phonetic Contrasts' (1.0 fte)

Faculty of Arts
Vacancy number: 23.32.08
Closing date: 14-09-2008

Job description
The NWO project A Computational Model of Language Acquisition aims to
develop a computational model of language acquisition. The project
team will comprise a postdoc and two PhD students.
The PhD student will conduct experimental research and computer
simulations to shed light on a number of related issues in the early
(pre-lingual) language acquisition phase. For example, it needs to be
explained why 8-month old infants can reliably distinguish between /d/
and /b/ in non-words, but can no longer do so at 14-months, except if
they know the words. Another research topic is the asymmetry in the
role of phonological features: alveolars cannot substitute bilabials,
whereas the opposite is quite possible, i.e. bilabials can substitute
alveolars. Also, differences between the roles of consonants and
vowels in early language acquisition need to be investigated.

In addition to designing and conducting suitable experiments, the PhD
student is expected to have completed a PhD thesis on the topic by the
end of the contract.

Requirements:
The successful candidate has a Master's Degree in Language
Acquisition, Phonetics or Experimental Psychology. She/he has an
affinity with interdisciplinary experimental research, has excellent
writing skills and is fluent in English. Because the experiments will
focus on the acquisition of Dutch, command of the Dutch language is a
definite advantage.

Organization
The Faculty of Arts consists of eleven departments in the area of
language and culture, history, history of arts, linguistics and
business communication, which together cater for about 2,700 students
and collaborate closely in teaching and research. The project will be
carried out at the research institute Centre for Language Studies as
part of the Linguistic Information Processing and Grammar and
Cognition research programmes.

Conditions of employment
The total duration of the contract is 3.5 years. The PhD student will
receive an initial contract for the duration of 1.5 year with the
possibility of prolongation for another 2 years.

Additional information
The starting gross salary is ? 2.000 per month based upon a full-time
employment.

For further information such as a copy of the project proposal, please
contact prof. dr. Paula Fikkert (p.fikkert@let.ru.nl).

Application letters, including extensive CV and MA thesis or other
publications,
(with vacancy number: 23.32.08, preferably by e-mail) can be sent to:

Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Arts,
Department of Human Resources, attn. of Ms. A. Graat
P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, the Netherlands
E-mail: vacatures@let.ru.nl
------

PhD student for 'Anaphora Resolution in Technical Texts' (1.0 fte)

Faculty of Arts
Vacancy number: 23.34.08
Closing date: 14-09-2008


Job description
The Text Mining for Intellectual Property (TM4IP) project aims to
develop a text mining application which is geared to searching for
information in the domain of intellectual property as held in English
language patent documents and corroborative publications such as
technical journal articles. The project is carried out in
collaboration with the Department of Computer science in the Faculty
of Science. Currently the project has vacancies for 4 PhD positions,
two in the area of linguistics and two in computer science.
The PhD student employed on the PhD project entitled 'Anaphora
Resolution in Technical Texts' will be developing an anaphora
resolution system that will contribute to improving the recall
obtained in search processes conducted on English technical texts. The
system will make use of a thesaurus and a database of dependency
triplets that have been observed in actual language use. In addition
to developing the anaphora resolution system, the PhD student is
expected to have completed a PhD thesis on the topic by the end of the
contract.

Requirements:
The successful candidate has a background in natural language
processing, with an interest in syntax. She/he has an affinity with
interdisciplinary research, has excellent writing skills and is fluent
in English.

Organization
The Faculty of Arts consists of eleven departments in the area of
language and culture, history, history of arts, linguistics and
business communication, which together cater for about 2,700 students
and collaborate closely in teaching and research. The above-mentioned
project will be carried out at the research institute Centre for
Language and Speech Technology as part of the Linguistic Information
Processing research programme.

Conditions of employment
The total duration of the contract is 3.5 years. The PhD student will
receive an initial contract for the duration of 1.5 years with the
possibility of prolongation for another 2 years.

Additional information
The starting gross salary is ? 2.000 per month based on full-time employment.

For further information, please contact dr. Nelleke Oostdijk
(n.oostdijk@let.ru.nl).

Application letters, including extensive CV and MA thesis or other
publications,
(with vacancy number: 23.34.08, preferably by e-mail) can be sent to:

Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Arts,
Department of Human Resources, attn. of Ms. A. Graat
P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, the Netherlands
E-mail: vacatures@let.ru.nl

-----------


PhD student for 'Hybrid Dependency Parsing of Technical Texts' (1.0 fte)

Faculty of Arts
Vacancy number: 23.33.08
Closing date: 14-09-2008

Job description
The Text Mining for Intellectual Property (TM4IP) project aims to
develop a text mining application which is geared to searching for
information in the domain of intellectual property as held in English
language patent documents and corroborative publications such as
technical journal articles. The project is carried out in
collaboration with the Department of Computer Science in the Faculty
of Science. Currently the project has vacancies for 4 PhD positions,
two in the area of linguistics and two in computer science.
The PhD student employed on the PhD project entitled 'Hybrid
Dependency Parsing of Technical Texts' will be developing a highly
accurate hybrid dependency parser suitable for parsing complicated
English technical texts. The parser will make use of a database of
dependency triplets that have been observed in actual language use. In
addition to producing the hybrid parser, the PhD student is expected
to have completed a PhD thesis on the topic by the end of the
contract.

Requirements:
The successful candidate has a background in natural language
processing, with an interest in syntax. She/he has an affinity with
interdisciplinary research, has excellent writing skills and is fluent
in English.

Organization
The Faculty of Arts consists of eleven departments in the area of
language and culture, history, history of arts, linguistics and
business communication, which together cater for about 2,700 students
and collaborate closely in teaching and research. The above-mentioned
project will be carried out at the research institute Centre for
Language and Speech Technology as part of the Linguistic Information
Processing research programme.

Conditions of employment
The total duration of the contract is 3.5 years. The PhD student will
receive an initial contract for the duration of 1.5 years with the
possibility of prolongation for another 2 years.

Additional information
The starting gross salary is ? 2.000 per month based on a full-time employment.

For further information, please contact dr. Nelleke Oostdijk
(n.oostdijk@let.ru.nl).

Application letters, including extensive CV and MA thesis or other
publications,
(with vacancy number: 23.33.08, preferably by e-mail) can be sent to:

Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Arts,
Department of Human Resources, attn. of Ms. A. Graat
P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, the Netherlands
E-mail: vacatures@let.ru.nl

Index of August 2008 | Index of year: 2008 | Full index