<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12.8px">*Apologies for multiple posting*</span><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><b>Post-Doctoral Researcher in Natural Language Dialogue Processing at ADAPT Centre, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.</b></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"> <div class="gmail-page" title="Page 2"> <div class="gmail-section"> <div class="gmail-layoutArea"> <div class="gmail-column"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">The Science Foundation Ireland ADAPT Research Centre (</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Gautami;color:rgb(41,41,41)"> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(17,85,204)"><a href="http://adaptcentre.ie">adaptcentre.ie</a></span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Gautami;color:rgb(17,85,204)"> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Gautami;color:rgb(41,41,41)"> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">), seeks to appoint a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to conduct research in the areas of stochastic/neural network natural language (spoken) dialogue processing and personalisation for human computer interaction with an emphasis on social/informal dialogue in conversational relational agents/virtual companions. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">The researcher will support research in the ADAPT Research Theme “Personalising the User Experience”, working towards creating dramatic improvements in how users engage with content by enriching the user experience, while alleviating current frustrations of cognitive overload when performing diverse actions on content. The work is motivated by the volume and veracity of information that end users are tasked with trying to make sense of on a daily basis. The theme is revolutionising how users discover, share and work with multimodal content as part of the global conversation by focusing on pertinent content/actions. There is a strong connection with the theme entitled “Interacting with Global Content” which overall seeks to empower people to interact with digital content in ways that are more intuitive and that mimic the richness of human perception in all interaction. The candidate should have a mature personal research plan in a relevant area of dialogue processing that complements the overall research goal. The researcher will also be responsible for supporting research in in a number of areas including: </span></p> <ul style="list-style-type:none"> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">○ </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">interactive (dialogic) information retrieval </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">○ </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">user modeling<br> Thus, the ideal researcher will typically have specific expertise in dialogue processing, and be able to identify how they can contribute to wider research in (multimodal) dialogue systems. Reporting to a Principal Investigator, the successful candidate will work within a large group of Postdoctoral Researchers, PhD students and Software Developers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri">We live in a world of global digital connectivity where individuals, communities and businesses are communicating globally at incredible speed, in enormous volumes, across the world’s languages and over an ever-increasing range of devices. ADAPT’s vision is to l</span><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:12pt">everage this torrent of digital content to enable unprecedented levels of global engagement among people, companies and communities. This is achieved through a unique collaboration between world-class research groups in multilingual natural language processing (NLP), multimedia content analysis and transformation, personalisation and multimodal interaction. Within ADAPT and its affiliated group of international and commercialisation projects, these posts will deliver the advances in linked data and semantic technologies that are key to efficiently manage the content, language and knowledge assets that underpin intelligent global customer engagement. </span></p></li></ul><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:12pt;font-weight:700">Background on the ADAPT Centre</span><br></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-page" title="Page 3"><div class="gmail-section"><div class="gmail-layoutArea"><div class="gmail-column"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;font-weight:700">Why join ADAPT @ TCD? </span></p> <ul style="list-style-type:none"> <li> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:ArialMT">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri">Work on hard problems in an interdisciplinary and exciting research environment. The ADAPT Centre combines the expertise of more than 150 researchers at Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, University College Dublin, and Dublin Institute of Technology. As well as conducting core research we have an active industry engagement programme and working on exciting and successful applied research projects with some of the world’s leading brands. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:ArialMT">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri">Work in a University where excellence of research is valued. Trinity is Ireland’s No. 1 University and is ranked in 88th position in the top 100 world universities (QS World University Rankings 2017/18). </span></p> </li> </ul><p style="font-size:12.8px;display:inline!important"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:ArialMT">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri">Work in a centre focussed on advancing your career. Whether you want to take an academic, industrial, or entrepreneurial career path, ADAPT prides itself in the support and mentoring that enables all its postdocs to reach their full potential. This year alone ADAPT’s postdoc-to-PI programme has helped three postdocs transition to be Principal Investigators on their own H2020 projects, while four other have recently won funding with ADAPT support to realise the commercialisation of their research through spin outs and licensing. </span></p><p style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri">For further information, please contact Prof. Vincent Wade (<a href="mailto:vwade@scss.tcd.ie">vwade@scss.tcd.ie</a>). </span></p><p style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;font-weight:700">Standard Duties and Responsibilities of the Post </span></p><p style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Reporting to his/her Principal Investigator the Researcher will:</span></p><ul style="list-style-type:none"> </ul> </div></div> </div> </div> <div class="gmail-page" title="Page 4"> <div class="gmail-section"> <div class="gmail-layoutArea"> <div class="gmail-column"> <ul style="list-style-type:none"><li>● <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Conduct a specified programme of research under the supervision and direction of the </span><span style="color:rgb(41,41,41);font-family:Calibri;font-size:12pt">Principal Investigator (PI)</span><br></li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Support the PI and research group in the design, development and implementation of the research programme. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Research solutions to problems in a number of areas of interest, including: </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Dialogue policy modeling </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Belief state tracking<br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Natural language understanding and generation </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Semantic embedding<br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Integration of external task/activity controllers </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Memorisation and recall<br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Ontology acquisition<br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Question answering<br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Summarisation<br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Turn taking<br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:CourierNewPSMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">o </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Incremental learning </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Substantially contribute to the identification of external funding sources and assist in the writing of grant proposals. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Mentor, assist and supervise postgraduate research students as required. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Assist the PI in the management/co-ordination of key aspects of the research programme </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">(e.g. financial management, reporting, equipment management etc.). </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Engage in the dissemination of the results of the research in which he/she is engaged to </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">the wider research community with the support and under the supervision of the Principal </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Investigator. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Engage in appropriate training and development opportunities as required by the Principal </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Investigator, the School or Research Centre, or the University. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Engage with internal and external stakeholders including academic and industry </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">partners/collaborators as appropriate. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Carry out administrative work associated with the programme as necessary. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Participate in ADAPT Centre activities, such as industry showcases and annual reviews. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Report on progress at meetings and in writing to ADAPT Centre Management. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Produce top-quality journal and conference publications, in collaboration with the </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Principal Investigator (PI).</span></p></li></ul></div></div> </div> </div> <div class="gmail-page" title="Page 5"> <div class="gmail-section"> <div class="gmail-layoutArea"> <div class="gmail-column"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;font-weight:700">Funding Information </span></p> </div> </div> <div class="gmail-layoutArea"> <div class="gmail-column"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri">The position is funded through the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) ADAPT Research Centre. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;font-weight:700">Person Specification </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;font-weight:700">Qualifications </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Candidates must have a PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics or related, with a strong dialogue processing and machine learning foundation. Applicants should have a minimum of 2-3 years relevant postdoctoral research experience. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;font-weight:700">Knowledge & Experience (Essential & Desirable) </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;font-weight:700">Essential </span></p> <ul style="list-style-type:none"> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">A strong record of international peer-reviewed publication and presentation in top-tier conferences in Natural Language Dialogue Systems/Processing </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">A strong record of international peer-reviewed publication in top-tier journals, commensurate with career stage </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Extensive Machine Learning and Deep Learning experience, with Reinforcement Learning a plus </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">In depth understanding of Relational Agents/Virtual Companions </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Excellent programming skills in Python, C/C++ </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Good command of a current deep learning framework e.g. TensorFlow, MXNet </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Participation in writing of grant applications </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Mentoring of research students </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Excellent written and oral proficiency in English </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Strong communication and interpersonal skills, both written and verbal </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Desire to learn about new products, technologies and keep abreast of new products and </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">technical and research developments </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;font-weight:700">Desirable (i.e. the following would be advantageous) </span></p> </li> </ul> <ul style="list-style-type:none"> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Dialogue corpus design, collection and annotation </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Experience of high-performance computing facilities </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:ArialMT;color:rgb(41,41,41)">● </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(41,41,41)">Exposure to commercialisation of research</span></p></li></ul></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-page" title="Page 13"><div class="gmail-section"><div class="gmail-layoutArea"><div class="gmail-column"> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="gmail-page" title="Page 14"> <div class="gmail-section"> <div class="gmail-layoutArea"> <div class="gmail-column"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;font-weight:700">Application Procedure </span></p> </div> </div> <div class="gmail-section" style=""> <div class="gmail-layoutArea" style=""> <div class="gmail-column" style=""> <p style=""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Candidates should submit a cover letter (1xA4 page maximum) explaining why you are suitable for the position together with a full curriculum vitae to include the names and contact details of 3 referees (email addresses required) to: </span></p> <p style=""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Name: Jenny Walsh<br> Email Address: <a href="mailto:jenny.walsh@adaptcentre.ie">jenny.walsh@adaptcentre.ie</a> Contact Telephone Number: +353 1 896 1797 </span></p> <p style=""><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri">Please include the job reference </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Gautami"> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri;font-weight:700">AD1A-PD1</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Gautami"> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri">in the subject heading. </span></span></p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Further details attached.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Speech Communication Lab<br>School of Computer Science and Statistics <br>Trinity College Dublin <br>Dublin 2 <br>Ireland <br>Éire<div></div></div></div></div> </div>