PhD / Postdoc position at Saarland University
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Vera
Dec 18, 2018, 7:55:49 AM12/18/18
to Machine Learning News
The Collaborative Research Center "Foundations of Perspicuous Systems" (SFB-TR 248; https://www.perspicuous-computing.science/) is pleased to invite applications for a highly motivated researcher in computational linguistics, psycholinguistics or HCI for project E2: "Safe Handover in Mixed-Initiative Control".
The mission of project E2 is to better understand how machines can safely hand over control to humans in mixed-initiative control settings. In a drone scenario for instance, drones may deal with typical situations autonomously, but may require an operator to intervene in situations that cannot be handled automatically. Operators then need to quickly understand the situation and problem of the drone, in order to successfully take over control.
The project will build technical support for handover situations by using description logics and planning techniques to characterise situations where a handover is necessary. It will also use these techniques to increase the advance notice for handovers at run time. Methods from human-computer interaction and natural language generation will be combined to develop solutions for safe and smooth handovers. A focus will lie on how to explain the relevant situation aspects effectively to the user. Ultimately, we strive to make human aspects of the human-machine system more accessible to formal analysis, thereby ensuring operational safety.
The project has several PhD/Postdoc positions. The NLP position supervised by Prof. Vera Demberg will comprise experimental components related to identifying successful handover strategies, as well as the development of machine learning techniques for automatic task-oriented dialog methods that support the hand-over via language interaction.
See also https://www.uni-saarland.de/lehrstuhl/demberg/home.html
Mandatory conditions for employment are:
For Post-Doc: PhD in computational linguistics, computer science or related area.
For PhD Student: Master of Science in psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, human computer interaction or a related discipline.
Applicants with the qualifications noted below will be preferred:
For Post-Doc: Publications at first-tier international venue(s).
For both: Experience in experimental methodology and statistical analysis is expected, experience with machine learning methods for NLP is expected. Fluent English.
The position will be paid following pay scale TV-L E 13 (75% for PhD student; 100% for Postdoctoral researcher).
Closing date for applications is Jan 6th, 2019. Please, submit your CV, letter of motivation outlining your research interests, list of publications and names of two referees in electronic form (one single pdf-file) to: ve...@coli.uni-saarland.de.
Project E2 is part of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 248 „Foundations of Perspicuous Software Systems“, which aims at enabling comprehension in a cyber-physical world with the human in the loop.
Mission statement of SFB-TR 248:
"From autonomous vehicles to Industry 4.0, from smart homes to smart cities – increasingly computer programs participate in actions and decisions that affect humans. However, our understanding of how these applications interact and what is the cause of a specific automated decision is lagging far behind. With the increase in cyber-physical technology impacting our lives, the consequences of this gradual loss in understanding are becoming severe. Systems lack support for making their behaviour plausible to their users. And even for technology experts it is nowadays virtually impossible to provide scientifically well-founded answers to questions about the exact reasons that lead to a particular decision, or about the responsibility for a malfunctioning. The root cause of the problem is that contemporary systems do not have any built-in concepts to explicate their behaviour. They calculate and propagate outcomes of computations, but are not designed to provide explanations. They are not perspicuous. The key to enable comprehension in a cyber-physical world is a science of perspicuous computing."
CRC 248 comprises experts at Technische Universität Dresden and at Saarland Informatics Campus – Universität des Saarlandes, Max Planck Institute for Informatics, and Max Planck Institute for Software Systems. Supervision of students is possible if wanted.
Saarland University offers a lively academic environment which emphasises interdisciplinary research between computational linguistics, computer science, and cognitive sciences. We entertain active collaborative links with the Department of Language Science and Technology, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and the German Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).
Saarland University is an equal opportunity employer. Applications of women are strongly encouraged; applications of disabled persons will be given preferential treatment to those of other candidates with equal qualifications.
The mission of project E2 is to better understand how machines can safely hand over control to humans in mixed-initiative control settings. In a drone scenario for instance, drones may deal with typical situations autonomously, but may require an operator to intervene in situations that cannot be handled automatically. Operators then need to quickly understand the situation and problem of the drone, in order to successfully take over control.
The project will build technical support for handover situations by using description logics and planning techniques to characterise situations where a handover is necessary. It will also use these techniques to increase the advance notice for handovers at run time. Methods from human-computer interaction and natural language generation will be combined to develop solutions for safe and smooth handovers. A focus will lie on how to explain the relevant situation aspects effectively to the user. Ultimately, we strive to make human aspects of the human-machine system more accessible to formal analysis, thereby ensuring operational safety.
The project has several PhD/Postdoc positions. The NLP position supervised by Prof. Vera Demberg will comprise experimental components related to identifying successful handover strategies, as well as the development of machine learning techniques for automatic task-oriented dialog methods that support the hand-over via language interaction.
See also https://www.uni-saarland.de/lehrstuhl/demberg/home.html
Mandatory conditions for employment are:
For Post-Doc: PhD in computational linguistics, computer science or related area.
For PhD Student: Master of Science in psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, human computer interaction or a related discipline.
Applicants with the qualifications noted below will be preferred:
For Post-Doc: Publications at first-tier international venue(s).
For both: Experience in experimental methodology and statistical analysis is expected, experience with machine learning methods for NLP is expected. Fluent English.
The position will be paid following pay scale TV-L E 13 (75% for PhD student; 100% for Postdoctoral researcher).
Closing date for applications is Jan 6th, 2019. Please, submit your CV, letter of motivation outlining your research interests, list of publications and names of two referees in electronic form (one single pdf-file) to: ve...@coli.uni-saarland.de.
Project E2 is part of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 248 „Foundations of Perspicuous Software Systems“, which aims at enabling comprehension in a cyber-physical world with the human in the loop.
Mission statement of SFB-TR 248:
"From autonomous vehicles to Industry 4.0, from smart homes to smart cities – increasingly computer programs participate in actions and decisions that affect humans. However, our understanding of how these applications interact and what is the cause of a specific automated decision is lagging far behind. With the increase in cyber-physical technology impacting our lives, the consequences of this gradual loss in understanding are becoming severe. Systems lack support for making their behaviour plausible to their users. And even for technology experts it is nowadays virtually impossible to provide scientifically well-founded answers to questions about the exact reasons that lead to a particular decision, or about the responsibility for a malfunctioning. The root cause of the problem is that contemporary systems do not have any built-in concepts to explicate their behaviour. They calculate and propagate outcomes of computations, but are not designed to provide explanations. They are not perspicuous. The key to enable comprehension in a cyber-physical world is a science of perspicuous computing."
CRC 248 comprises experts at Technische Universität Dresden and at Saarland Informatics Campus – Universität des Saarlandes, Max Planck Institute for Informatics, and Max Planck Institute for Software Systems. Supervision of students is possible if wanted.
Saarland University offers a lively academic environment which emphasises interdisciplinary research between computational linguistics, computer science, and cognitive sciences. We entertain active collaborative links with the Department of Language Science and Technology, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and the German Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).
Saarland University is an equal opportunity employer. Applications of women are strongly encouraged; applications of disabled persons will be given preferential treatment to those of other candidates with equal qualifications.
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