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 Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:25 am Post subject: Research Asst/Fellow in Computational Linguistics for Human- |
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Research Assistant/Research Fellow in Computational Linguistics for
Human-Robot Interaction
School of Computer Science
Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences
University of Hertfordshire, UK
c 20,200 - 29,700 UK pounds sterling per annum, depending on
qualifications, skills and experience
Applications from postgraduate/postdoctoral candidates are invited for
a full-time research assistantship or research fellowship in
computational linguistics for human-robot interaction. The post offers
the opportunity to work within the Adaptive Systems Research Group, a
proactive and dynamic research team with an excellent international
research profile. You will work in the European project ITALK
(Integration and Transfer of Action and Language Knowledge in Robot).
The ITALK project aims to develop artificial embodied agents able to
acquire complex behavioural, cognitive, and linguistic skills through
individual and social learning. This will be achieved through the
development of cognitive robots that learn to handle and manipulate
objects and tools autonomously, to cooperate and communicate with
other robots and humans, and to adapt their abilities to changing
internal, environmental, and social conditions.
The main hypothesis behind the project is that the parallel
development of action, conceptualization and social interaction
permits the enhancement of language capabilities, which on their part
enrich cognitive development. This is possible through the integration
and transfer of knowledge and cognitive processes involved in
sensorimotor learning and the construction of action categories,
imitation and other forms of social learning, the acquisition of
grounded conceptual representations and the development of the
grammatical structure of language. Such a developmental approach
towards the integration of action, conceptualization, social
interaction and language has fundamental technological implications
for designing communication in robots and overcoming current
limitations of natural language interfaces and human-robot
communication systems. Different partners in the highly
interdisciplinary project consortium cooperate closely in the study of
different aspects of this challenging work.
The research team at University of Hertfordshire is involved in the
development of software and algorithms that will contribute to the
development of complex, compositional and hierarchical behaviour and
communication via scaffolded social learning, involving the use of
deixis, gesture, reference, negation, imitation, and constructional
grounding in embodied human-robot interaction. Processes centering on
social learning play an important part in child development in the
emergence of linguistic, communicative, and cognitive competencies,
and computational algorithms will be developed to study these issues
using leading-edge child-sized humanoid robot platforms (KASPAR
http://kaspar.feis.herts.ac.uk/ and the iCub http://www.robotcub.org/)
available in the group. The work will use the facilities available in
the Robotics and Interactive Systems Laboratory, as part of the
Adaptive Systems Research Group at University of Hertfordshire which
has a strong research record in adaptive behaviour, artificial life,
and robot-human interaction. The research involves working as part of
the ITALK team on: a) creating and/or extending developmental
computational linguistics methods for use in situated, embodied
interactions with robots, b) developing computational linguistics
software for deployment on humanoid robots, c) investigating the
acquisition of grammar and its relations to cognitive and behavioural
scaffolding, and to interaction and the sensori-motor loop, d)
designing, conducting and analysing human-robot interaction studies
into the development of behavioural and linguistic competences, and e)
writing and presenting scientific publications and reports documenting
the work.
Applicants are expected to have excellent qualifications and
experience in an appropriate area of Computational Linguistics,
Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life, Machine Learning, Autonomous
Robotics, or related disciplines. Mastery of programming skills, as
well as experience in natural language processing, cognitive and
computational linguistics, and/or communicative pragmatics, are also
essential. A specialist postgraduate degree or PhD, or other strong
evidence of research experience is required, as well as excellent
skills in presenting research and writing scientific documents in
English. You should also be very motivated to working in an
interdisciplinary and European research team.
The position is based on a fixed-term contract of up to three years.
The post is available full-time. Start date: December 2008 or later.
Informal enquiries can be made to Prof. Chrystopher L. Nehaniv
(C.L.Nehaniv@herts.ac.uk).
Closing Date: 30 October 2008 Quote Reference: EN8724AC
Interview Date: 13 November 2008
The University offers a range of benefits including a final salary
pension scheme, professional development, family friendly policies,
child care vouchers, waiving of course fees for the children of staff
at UH, discounted memberships at the Hertfordshire Sports Village and
generous annual leave.
Apply online at http://recruitment.herts.ac.uk/recruit or request an
application pack from Human Resources on +44-1707 284802 (24hr
voicemail), quoting the appropriate reference number.
Shortlisted for the Times Higher Education "University of the Year"
award 2008 |
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