9 October: FYI -- PhD funding, Switzerland

Index of October 2015 | Index of year: 2015 | Full index



Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland

http://www.idiap.ch/education-and-jobs/


Idiap invites applications for several PhD and post-doctoral positions in
document-level machine translation and in multilingual speech recognition.
These positions are funded by a new 3-year EU Horizon 2020 project in big
data, which will develop solutions for monitoring a massive number of media
streams through their automatic analysis and aggregation into a dynamic
knowledge base.

This announcement is for a PhD position in document-level MT, within Idiap's
Natural Language Processing Group (http://www.idiap.ch/nlp). The successful
candidate will be supervised by Dr. Andrei Popescu-Belis and will have the
opportunity to collaborate with other members of the NLP Group, who have made
significant contributions to document-level MT and information filtering in
the recent past.


Description of work

Statistical machine translation systems have shown impressive robustness,
adaptability and efficiency. Recently, the community started to consider that
document-level knowledge can be used to improve MT at both local and document
levels. Numerous open questions remain, regarding the nature of such features
and their optimal integration into the training and decoding processes.

The goal of this PhD thesis is to design models for entity-aware machine
translation, tailored to the multilingual media streams provided by project
partners. These models should improve the translation of entity mentions by
hypothesizing story-level coherence and taking advantage of correlations
across streams. The models should also accommodate the high input volume
characteristic of the project.

The successful candidate will be registered as a PhD student in the EPFL EDEE
doctoral program (typically for 4 years), to which he/she will apply with
support from Idiap.


Required profile

Candidates should have a strong background in computer science, engineering,
or a related discipline. Previous experience with statistical MT is an
advantage. Candidates should have strong programming skills (e.g. in Python,
Perl, Java or C/C++) as well as good knowledge of English as a working
language. Knowledge of several other languages is an advantage. A strong
academic record and a clear aptitude for creative research will be priority
selection criteria.


Dates

Review of the applications will start on October 31st, 2015, and will continue
until the position is filled. The appointment will start on February 1st,
2016 or at a date to be discussed. The position is for a maximum duration of
four years.


How to apply

Please fill in and submit your application through the Idiap online
recruitment system, by clicking on the position's title at
www.idiap.ch/education-and-jobs.


Contact information

Further information about this position can be requested via the Idiap online
recruitment system (http://www.idiap.ch/education-and-jobs/) or by contacting
Dr. Andrei Popescu-Belis, head of the NLP group.


About the host institution

Idiap is an independent, non-profit research institute recognized and
supported by the Swiss Government, and affiliated with the Ecole Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Geneva. Idiap is located in
the town of Martigny in Valais, a scenic region in the south of Switzerland,
surrounded by the highest mountains of Europe, and offering exciting
recreational activities, including hiking, climbing and skiing, as well as
varied cultural activities. It is within close proximity to Geneva and
Lausanne. Although Idiap is located in the French part of Switzerland, English
is the working language. Free French lessons are provided.

Idiap offers competitive salaries and conditions at all levels in a young,
dynamic, and multicultural environment. Idiap is an equal opportunity employer
and is actively involved in the "Advancement of Women in Science" European
initiative. The Institute maintains a principle of open competition (on the
basis of merit) to appoint the best candidate, provides equal opportunity for
all candidates, and equally encourage both genders to apply.


Andrei Popescu-Belis
--
Idiap Research Institute | tel: (41 27) 721 7729
Centre du Parc, CP 592 | fax: (41 27) 721 7712
CH-1920 Martigny | name.surname@idiap.ch
Switzerland | www.idiap.ch/~apbelis

Index of October 2015 | Index of year: 2015 | Full index