[humaine news] job openings: several PhDs in Human-Robot Interaction

[Kruijff Geert-Jan]

JOB OPENINGS

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH) is  
seeking for its Language Technology Lab several

                                                                                     PhD 
  positions / Junior Researchers

in the area of cognitive systems.

The research positions are for ongoing and new EU projects on human- 
robot interaction (HRI). DFKI is involved in investigating fundamental  
aspects of HRI (EU FP7 CogX), HRI for urban search & rescue (EU FP7  
NIFTi [pending]), and HRI for long-term interaction with children (EU  
FP7 ALIZ-E [pending]). The research positions concern HRI directly, or  
the interfaces between HRI and other cognitive capabilities of a robot  
such as memory, or inferencing.

The themes for the open PhD positions are in the areas of adaptive  
situated dialogue for HRI, belief models and long-term memory, skill  
learning in USAR scenarios.

Ideal candidates will have a background in Artificial Intelligence,  
Robotics, or Computational Linguistics, and have experience with  
practical system development. The candidate should have experience in  
Java and/or C/C++ programmer, and feel confident with using UNIX-based  
platforms. A broader interest in issues related to cognitive aspects  
of language comprehension and production, embodied agents and  
communication, cognitive vision, (probabilistic) robotics, machine  
learning, and the relation between communication and other cognitive  
processes such as vision and action planning would be highly welcome.  
Highly valued personal qualities include creativity, open-mindedness,  
team spirit, and a willingness to address novel challenges in unknown  
scientific territory.

The applicant must have a completed MSc degree in Computer Science or  
a related discipline.

The envisioned starting date of the positions is around January 2010  
(pending funding for NIFTi, ALIZ-E). The duration of the contract will  
be until the end of the project (CogX: july 2012; NIFTi and ALIZ-E end  
in 2014, pending funding).

DFKI GmbH [ http://www.dfki.de ] is located on the campus of Saarland  
University in Saarbrucken, Germany. The university's research groups  
and curricula in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Computer  
Science are internationally renowned. The LT-Lab [ http://www.dfki.de/lt/ 
  ] offers excellent working conditions in a well-established research  
group. The position provides opportunities to collaborate in a variety  
of international projects. The competitive salary is calculated  
according to qualifications based on DFKI GmbH scales.

For more about research on human-robot interaction at DFKI, see [ http://talkingrobots.dfki.de 
  ]. For more on the CogX project in general, see [ http://cogx.eu ].  
For more information on NIFTi or ALIZ-E, please contact Geert-Jan  
Kruijff (email below).

Please send your electronic application (preferably in PDF format) to lt-jobs at dfki.de 
, referring to job opening number 33-09, not later than October 1,  
2009. A meaningful application should include a cover letter, a CV, a  
brief summary of research interests, a statement of interest in the  
areas/position(s)  offered, and contact information for three  
references.

For questions concerning this job opening, please contact Dr.ir. Geert- 
Jan Kruijff gj at dfki.de / http://www.dfki.de/~gj.





-- 
Dr.ir. Geert-Jan M. Kruijff
Senior researcher/Project leader

Language Technology Lab,
DFKI GmbH,
Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3,
D-66123 Saarbruecken, Germany

Email:     gj at dfki.de
Phone:   +49.681.302.5153
Fax:         +49.681.302.5338
Mobile:    +49.179.479.5892

http://www.dfki.de/~gj/
http://talkingrobots.dfki.de/
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Deutsches Forschungszentrum fuer Kuenstliche Intelligenz GmbH
Firmensitz: Trippstadter Strasse 122, D-67663 Kaiserslautern

Geschaeftsfuehrung:
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Wahlster (Vorsitzender)
Dr. Walter Olthoff

Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats:
Prof. Dr. h.c. Hans A. Aukes

Amtsgericht Kaiserslautern, HRB 2313
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