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<h1 class="entry-title">Gender and vocal alignment in speakers and
robots</h1>
<div class="entry-content">
<h2>PhD fellowship</h2>
<p><strong>The deadline for the submission of applications is <u>31
March 2020</u>, 5 pm GMT.</strong></p>
<h3>Objectives: </h3>
<p>In the context of the European ITN Project Cobra (<a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.cobra-network.eu/">https://www.cobra-network.eu/</a>),
the ESR14 (Phd Project) will focus on acoustic-prosodic
alignment at the discourse level. In addition to playing a
crucial role in speakers’ joint understanding of what they are
talking about, vocal alignment may also have an important social
dimension. Thus, previous work reveals that vocal alignment
tends to occur to a greater extent in women than in men. Recent
studies on human-robot interactions, however, suggest that there
is a tendency for both women and men to disalign with respect to
the robot’s voice, regardless of the robot’s voice gender. This
may be attributable to the fact that humans do not treat robots’
voices as human voices or, alternatively, because of the robots’
current limited capacities to align themselves with human
voices. The goal of ESR14’s project will be to provide a fuller
characterization of acoustic-prosodic in humans and robots with
a focus on gender and the communicative situation.</p>
<p>The net salary for ESR14 will be about<strong> €2.300-2.700 </strong>according
to her/his situation.</p>
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-default">
<p><strong><em>Based in </em></strong><em>Stockholm, Sweden</em></p>
<p><strong><em>Full-time three-year contract,</em></strong><em>
starting September 2020</em></p>
<p><strong><em>PhD enrolment at:</em></strong><em> Aix-Marseille
University, France</em></p>
<p><strong><em>Main supervisors’ institutions: </em></strong><em>Furhat
Robotics, Stockholm, Sweden, and Aix-Marseille University,
France</em></p>
<p><strong><em>Main supervisors:</em></strong><em> Prof Gabriel
Skantze and Dr Magalie Ochs</em></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Expected results: </h3>
<ul>
<li>Better understanding of the social function of vocal
alignment; </li>
<li>New techniques for adapting a spoken dialogue management
system to the user’s gender characteristics.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Secondments:</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Aix-Marseille University</strong>: training in
designing naturalistic gender-based and situation specific
speech elicitation techniques (5,5 months); </li>
<li><strong>IISAS</strong>, Bratislava: training in fine-grained
acoustic-prosodic alignment informed by dialogue progression
(5 months). </li>
</ul>
<h3>Co-supervisor’s institution:</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>IISAS</strong>, Bratislava, Slovakia</li>
</ul>
<h3>Benefits</h3>
<p> The ESR will be contractually employed for 36 months by the
main institution, and will be covered under the social security
scheme of the enrolling country. She/he will monthly receive a
Living Allowance, a Mobility Allowance and a Family Allowance
(if applicable) compliant with the applicable EC Marie
Skłodowska-Curie Actions-ITN general conditions.</p>
<p class="has-text-color has-background has-very-light-gray-color
has-vivid-cyan-blue-background-color">The net salary for ESR14
will be about<strong> €2.300-2.700 </strong>according to
her/his situation.</p>
<h3>Eligibility criteria:</h3>
<p>Experience eligibility requirement: Eligible applicants must be
in the first 4 years of their research careers (full-time
equivalent research experience) at the signature of the contract
(measured from the time the Master’s degree has been obtained).</p>
<p>Eligible applicants must not hold a Doctoral Degree yet. </p>
<h3>Mobility eligibility requirement </h3>
<p>The fellow must not have resided in the main institution’s
country for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior
to the recruitment date, and not have carried out their main
activity (work, studies, etc.) in that country. </p>
<h3>Selection process</h3>
<h4>February 2020: Opening of the call</h4>
<p> Applications must contain the following:</p>
<ol>
<li>An up-to-date CV, without gaps, in order for the selection
committee to easily check the mobility and experience
requirements. CVs that either do not clearly show the
applicant’s past experience, or have gaps, will be considered
ineligible;</li>
<li>A letter exposing her/his motivation for a COBRA PhD
fellowship, and her preference for two of the fifteen PhD
projects proposed in COBRA;</li>
<li>At least 1 reference letter (in English) from one former
supervisor and/or professor;</li>
<li>The scan of the degree (usually the master’s degree) which
would formally entitles her/him to embark on a doctorate,
either in the country in which the degree was obtained, or in
the country in which the researcher will be recruited. If the
degree has not been obtained yet, the applicant will have to
provide a declaration of her/his university stating that the
degree will be obtained before the expected starting date;</li>
<li>Transcripts of records (document indicating the applicant’s
ranking and marks within her/his master’s degree as well as
the courses/modules she/he has followed).</li>
</ol>
<p>The complete application should be provided in the form of one
single pdf file, named as follows: lastname-firstname.pdf.</p>
<p>To apply :
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.cobra-network.eu/the-project/topics/esr14-gender-and-vocal-alignment-in-speakers-and-robots/">https://www.cobra-network.eu/the-project/topics/esr14-gender-and-vocal-alignment-in-speakers-and-robots/</a><br>
</p>
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