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<p class="MsoNormal">PhD studentship (4 years full-time, funded) on Multimodal dialogue system for pair programming<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Open University, School of Computing and Communications, Milton Keynes, UK<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> and<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Cambridge Research Laboratory - Toshiba Europe<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Closing Date for applications: 31 March 2021<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Interviews: 27 April <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Studentship start: September 2021<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Project information<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This PhD research project will be in the context of an ongoing collaboration between the NLP/Software Engineering teams at the Open University and the Speech Technology Group at Toshiba Europe. It is funded by an EPSRC doctoral training
partnership grant and Toshiba Europe. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The project will involve investigating and developing an AI buddy/dialogue system for pair programming, which can collaborate with a software developer on solving a programming problem (either from scratch or by completing a skeleton program).
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A distinctive aspect of the project will be the exploration of multimodal communication by the AI buddy, specifically voice in combination with screen (text/code and mouse pointer) interaction. The project will make use of data on multimodal
pair programming interactions and aim to collect additional corpus data. The project budget includes significant separate funding for data collection and annotation (i.e. remuneration of participants and annotators).
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Keywords: dialogue modelling, question generation, pair programming, multimodality, multimodal corpus<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Key skills: 1st class computer science degree, knowledge of Artificial Intelligence techniques, ideally including NLP and multimodality<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Practical information<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This 4-year studentship covers tuition fees and a stipend to cover your living costs. Additionally, accommodation and travel for a 3-month internship at Toshiba in Cambridge are covered.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Open University's campus is located in Milton Keynes (fastest train connection to London: 30 minutes).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Supervisors <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dr Paul Piwek (http://www.open.ac.uk/people/pp2464) <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dr Svetlana Stoyanchev (https://www.linkedin.com/in/svetlana-stoyanchev/)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dr Michel Wermelinger (http://www.open.ac.uk/people/mw4687)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If you are interested in this opportunity, do get in touch via email with Paul.Piwek at open.ac.uk for information on applying for this funded studentship.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><img width="117" height="80" style="width:1.2187in;height:.8333in" id="Picture_x0020_9" src="cid:image002.png@01D7142B.5FB7CFB0" alt="ou_master_logo_dark_blue_31mm"></span><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1E4B9B;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Dr Paul Piwek</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1E4B9B;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">
| Senior Lecturer <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<br>
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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(0) 1908 85 89 14 <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#44546A;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Please do not feel obliged to respond outside of
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