Job opening: 1 post-doc position on developing online games to collect
data for NLP
University of Essex, United Kingdom
Applications are welcome for one 3-year post-doc position funded by a 5-year
European Research Council Advanced Grant awarded to the project
DALI: Disagreements in Language Interpretation. The project will address a
fundamental question for computational linguistics, psycholinguistics and
theoretical linguistics: namely, the extent to which humans disagree on
language interpretation (in particular, on the interpretation of anaphoric
expressions), and the implications of such disagreements, e.g., on the
development of computational models of anaphoric interpretation. We will do
this by using online games-with-a-purpose to collect numerous
interpretations for very large numbers of anaphoric expressions, building on
the successful experience with the Phrase Detectives GWAP, by analyzing
these data using Bayesian annotation models, and by developing methods for
training taking disagreements into account.
PROFILES
We seek outstanding researchers with a genuine interest in developing
exciting games to support this project.
In particulary we are looking for someone with superior skills in the
development of games for mobile devices who can develop with us exciting
games-with-a-purpose for mobile phones or social media platforms that can
attract and be used by thousands of players to collect data for
computational linguistics. Advanced programming skills are required.
Applications from outside academia, e.g., the gaming industry, are welcome.
The successful candidate is expected to have excellent analysis and
abstraction skills, and an interest in working in an interdisciplinary
environment.
If you think that your background is relevant to the research program of the
project and you have good programming and quantitative skills, please do get
in touch even if you do not fit the profiles above.
Further details on the position can be found at:
RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT
The University of Essex is a research-oriented University ranked among the
top 20 Universities in the UK. It is the location of one of the oldest
research groups in computational linguistics in the country, established
over forty years ago, and currently known as the Language and Computation
Group:
composed of over 20 computational linguists from the School of Computer
Science and Electronic Engineering (CSEE), the Department of Language and
Linguistics, and the Data Archive. It is also the base for an established
Game Intelligence group:
The University of Essex is located in beautiful countryside made famous by
Constable and little changed since, near to the coast, and with easy access
to London.
DATES AND APPLICATION
Applications should be made through the University of Essex’s website,
either following the link above, or looking for REQ00557.
*The deadline for application is May 8th*.
Prior inquiries to Massimo Poesio (poesio AT essex.ac.uk) are encouraged.