Fwd: [LCT-alumni] Two PhD positions in CL/NLP at University of Stuttgart

[Ali Reza Ebadat]

The independent research group on

  "Computational Models of Misunderstanding for Complex Instructional Text"

invites applications for two PhD positions. The positions are funded
through a grant in the Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research
Foundation (DFG---Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), which funds projects
similar to an ERC Starting Grant or NSF CAREER Award. The group is headed
by Michael Roth and located at the Institute for Natural Language
Processing ("IMS") at the University of Stuttgart, Germany [1].

The project is concerned with the systematic analysis and computational
modelling of text passages that can lead to misunderstandings. A
substantial amount of previous work has studied misunderstandings in
dialogue, but suitable resources for written language are scarce because
misunderstandings cannot be observed directly from a text. Since readers
and writers typically do not interact, it is important for authors to
ensure that texts leave no room for misinterpretation. Otherwise, for
example, medical instructions may be followed incorrectly, and route
directions may not guide navigators to their desired destination. The goal
of this project is to create the resources and methods necessary to
prevent such outcomes.

The announced positions are part of a long-term research effort, which
started in 2019. Over the course of this year, we published three papers
in CL/NLP conferences [2,3,4], which form the basis of ongoing and future
work in the project. The successful applicants for the two new posts will
focus on investigating lingustic causes of potential misunderstandings
(e.g., specific cases of implicit or underspecified language), improving
classification models by incorporating additional information (e.g.,
commonsense knowldge or multi-modal context), and testing such models in
downstream tasks (e.g., ambiguity detection or machine translation). Both
positions will be available for up to three years, starting in early/mid
2021. Salary will be based on the German TV-L E13 scale 75% (approx.
3,000 EUR _gross_ per month).

Successful applicants will have a background in linguistics, machine
learning, and/or computational linguistics, with a particular interest in
semantics and pragmatics. Programming skills and the ability to work in a
group are taken for granted. The candidate should be able to work and
communicate in English (no proficiency of German is required).
Applications should include a brief motivation letter including research
interests, a CV, a list of publications (if applicable), and contact
information of one or two references. Applications should be sent _as a
single PDF file_ to Michael Roth by email. Applications received by 3 Jan
2021 will receive full consideration, but the positions will remain open
until filled.

Candidates who identify as female, trans* and/or non-binary are
particularly encouraged to apply. Feel free to contact Michael Roth (head
of group) or Talita Anthonio (PhD student) for any question regarding the
group or positions.


[1]https://www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/en/institute/researchgroups/mist/  <https://www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/en/institute/researchgroups/mist/>
[2]https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/2020.lrec-1.702/  <https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/2020.lrec-1.702/>
[3]https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/2020.emnlp-main.675/  <https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/2020.emnlp-main.675/>
[4]https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/2020.coling-main.117/  <https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/2020.coling-main.117/>


--
Dr. Michael Roth
Emmy Noether Group Leader
Institute for Natural Language Processing
University of Stuttgart