PhD position in Data-Driven Computational Semantics and Geographic Information Systems (1.0 FTE)

Functieomschrijving

The Utrecht Institute of Linguistics (UiL OTS) invites applications for a PhD position in data-driven computational semantics. The project will develop computational models of spatial meaning that are theoretically grounded in linguistic and cognitive theories of meaning. This novel combination of semantic representation, data-driven learning and evaluation against a real-life problem is expected to substantially advance the ability of users to interact with geographic databases, including question-answering interactive systems.

The project will be supervised by Dr. Tejaswini Deoskar and Prof. Yoad Winter, in collaboration with Dr. Joost Zwarts and NLP researchers from the Language and Computation group at the ILLC, University of Amsterdam (Prof. Khalil Sima’an, Dr. Jelle Zuidema). The empirical study of elicited user data will be carried out in collaboration with Prof. James Hampton (Psychology, City, University of London). Work at the UiL OTS will be part of the ROCKY project, financed by an ERC Advanced grant to Prof. Yoad Winter.

Requirements
The successful applicant for this position should have a strong background in artificial intelligence, machine-learning and computer science as well as an interest in formal semantics. Applicants should ideally hold, or be about to complete, an excellent Master's degree in computational linguistics or a related domain (artificial intelligence, machine learning and/or computer science). Good programming skills, proficiency in spoken and written English, as well as a keen interest in problem solving and research are essential.

Tasks

Tasks for the PhD candidate will include:

• completion and defence of a PhD thesis within four years;
• regular presentation of intermediate research results at workshops and conferences;
• publication of peer-reviewed articles in established international journals or conference proceedings;
• help with organizational tasks connected to the project, such as the organization of conferences and workshops;
• participation in training programmes and expert meetings scheduled for the project;
• participation in selected training programmes scheduled for the Research Institute, Graduate School and the National Research School.

Functie-eisen