[iva] PhD fellowship - Gender and vocal alignment in speakers and robots - Sweden -France

[Magalie Ochs]

  Gender and vocal alignment in speakers and robots


    PhD fellowship

*The deadline for the submission of applications is _31 March 2020_, 5 
pm GMT.*


      Objectives:

In the context of the European ITN Project Cobra 
(https://www.cobra-network.eu/), 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.

The net salary for ESR14 will be about*€2.300-2.700 *according to 
her/his situation.

    */Based in /*/Stockholm, Sweden/

    */Full-time three-year contract,/*/starting September 2020/

    */PhD enrolment at:/*/Aix-Marseille University, France/

    */Main supervisors’ institutions: /*/Furhat Robotics, Stockholm,
    Sweden, and Aix-Marseille University, France/

    */Main supervisors:/*/Prof Gabriel Skantze and Dr Magalie Ochs/


      Expected results:

  * Better understanding of the social function of vocal alignment;
  * New techniques for adapting a spoken dialogue management system to
    the user’s gender characteristics.


      Secondments:

  * *Aix-Marseille University*: training in designing naturalistic
    gender-based and situation specific speech elicitation techniques
    (5,5 months);
  * *IISAS*, Bratislava: training in fine-grained acoustic-prosodic
    alignment informed by dialogue progression (5 months).


      Co-supervisor’s institution:

  * *IISAS*, Bratislava, Slovakia


      Benefits

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.

The net salary for ESR14 will be about*€2.300-2.700 *according to 
her/his situation.


      Eligibility criteria:

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).

Eligible applicants must not hold a Doctoral Degree yet.


      Mobility eligibility requirement

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.


      Selection process


        February 2020: Opening of the call

Applications must contain the following:

 1. 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;
 2. A letter exposing her/his motivation for a COBRA PhD fellowship, and
    her preference for two of the fifteen PhD projects proposed in COBRA;
 3. At least 1 reference letter (in English) from one former supervisor
    and/or professor;
 4. 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;
 5. 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).

The complete application should be provided in the form of one single 
pdf file, named as follows: lastname-firstname.pdf.

To apply : 
https://www.cobra-network.eu/the-project/topics/esr14-gender-and-vocal-alignment-in-speakers-and-robots/

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