LINGUIST List 13.1942

Thu Jul 18 2002

Jobs: Computational Ling: Researchers U/Sheffield UK

Editor for this issue: Heather Taylor <heatherlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Gillian Callaghan, Computational Ling, Language Processing: Researchers, U/Sheffield, UK

THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

Department of Computer Science

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES in LANGUAGE PROCESSING

Seven researchers are required to work on four projects within the
Natural Language Processing Group at the Sheffield University
Department of Computer Science. These positions include opportunities
for candidates who both do and do not have a specific language
processing background.

The Department of Computer Science at Sheffield University is a
leading European centre for research in the area of Computational
Linguistics and Language Engineering. The Natural Language Processing
Group (http://nlp.shef.ac.uk/) was founded nine years ago under the
leadership of Professor Yorick Wilks, and now has over thirty members
(including faculty, researcher staff, postgraduate students, and
administrative and technical support staff). The group has special
expertise in a range of areas, including information extraction,
software architectures for natural language processing, dialogue and
conversational systems, and lexicons and ontologies.

Membership of such a large and well-funded research group brings many
advantages. The group provides an excellent research environment, with
the benefits of shared expertise, opportunities for intellectual
exchange and collaboration, and a good computing, research and
administrative infrastructure. In addition, the group's success in
winning research funding provides the potential for longer-term
employment, through researchers being hired onto further grants.

A brief sketch of the projects and positions follows.

Project 1 - CLEF

The Clinical E-Science Framework (CLEF) project seeks to advance the
handling of healthcare information about cancer patients to better
support both clinical care and research. Funded by the UK Medical
Research Council, this three year project starts in October 2002, and
includes both partners having a focus on technological issues (the
universities of Manchester, Sheffield and Brighton) and on clinical
issues (UCL/CHIME, the Royal Marsden NHS Trust, the Judge Institute of
Management at Cambridge).
Lead investigators: Robert Gaizauskas, Mark Hepple.

Position 1 (Ref Number PR560)
A person with experience in language processing, preferably with a PhD
in Computer Science or a related area. Background in either
information extraction or computational terminology will be an
advantage. Role: evelopment/adaptation of language technology for
information extraction from clinical report texts.

Position 2 (Ref Number PR561)
This researcher will contribute to the analysis of the work of
clinical data managers and the purposes that information extracted
from clinical reports can serve, and will contribute to the design
(and possibly implementation of) the language processing system
interface. Knowledge of the following areas will be an advantage:
human-centred issues in information systems design, clinical domains
and clinical language, software technology for interface construction.

Project 2 - CUB REPORTER

This project aims to advance the state of the art of several language
processing technologies (information extraction, question answering,
multidocument summarisation) through the development of a system to
find and collate relevant background information from archival sources
for use by a journalist in the context of a "breaking" news
story. Funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council (EPSRC), this three year project is a collaboration between
the departments of Computer Science and Journalism at Sheffield
University and the Press Association, the major UK domestic newswire
service. Its start-date, yet to be fixed, will be sometime late 2002
or early 2003. Lead investigator: Robert Gaizauskas.

Position 1 (Ref Number PR562)
A person with experience in language processing, preferably with a PhD
in Computer Science or a related area. Background in either
information extraction, question answering, or summarisation will be
an advantage. Role: development and integration of novel language
technologies for information extraction, question answering and
multidocument summarisation over newswire texts.

Position 2 (Ref Number PR563)
This researcher will contribute to the analysis of the work of
journalists and how they synthesise background information when
writing, and will contribute to the design (and possibly
implementation of) the language processing system interface. Knowledge
of the following areas will be an advantage: human-centred issues in
information systems design, software technology for interface
construction, corpus construction and text analysis.

Project 3 - DOT.KOM

This research project aims to design and implement innovative
methodologies and services for the Semantic Web, based on adaptive
information extraction (IE) from web documents. Dot.kom is funded by
the European Commission and will last 30 months, starting from October
2002. Partners are: the University of Sheffield (main contractor),
the Open University (UK), the University of Karlsruhe (D), ITC-Irst
(I), Quinary (I) and Ontoprise (D) plus a number of user companies
organised in a user group.
Lead investigator: Fabio Ciravegna.

Position 1 (Ref Number PR564)
A person with experience in language processing (possibly IE) or
machine learning, preferably with a PhD in Computer Science or related
area. Role: high-level research and application development for
adaptive IE for the Semantic Web.

Position 2 (Ref Number PR565)
A person with a degree in Computer Science or related area with
excellent programming skills, preferably in Java. Experience in
language processing and/or machine learning are a plus. Role: research
and development for services for the Semantic Web based on IE; system
integration.

For both positions, knowledge of Italian and/or German are a plus.

Project 4 - FASiL

The FASiL project seeks to advance the processing of spoken dialogue,
through the development of a spoken language system that embodies
conversational and multi-modal interaction via a mobile
device. Partners in this European Commission funded project include
Vox Generation and Speechworks. The project will last two years,
starting around October 2002.
Lead Investigator: Yorick Wilks

Position (Ref Number PR566)
An experienced researcher, preferably with a PhD, who has an interest
in/experience of some of the following topics: machine learning,
dialogue processing and grammar induction.

For all posts

Salaries: within range of 17,626 to 36,491 euros, depending on
qualifications and experience.
Terms & Conditions: Research Staff
Length of contract: See individual projects above (ranging from 2 to 3
years).
Start Date: 1 October 2002 (or as soon as possible thereafter
depending on project)
Closing date: 7 August 2002, although applications received after this
date will be considered until the posts are filled.

All positions are subject to final confirmation of project contracts.

 Informal enquiries for all posts:
 Ms Linda Perna
 Research Coordinator
 Tel: +44 (0)114 222 1815
 Email: l.pernadcs.shef.ac.uk


How to apply

To apply for a one of the above vacancies first obtain an Application
Pack from Personnel Services via one of the following methods:

online: - see http://www.shef.ac.uk/jobs/how_to_apply.php

by phone: - call the 24 hour telephone answering

service:- +44 (0)114 222 1631.

by post: - write to Personnel Services, Firth Court, Western Bank,
Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom.

by fax: - +44 (0)114 222 1624.
 
collect in person: - Personnel Services reception, 10 - 12 Brunswick
Street, Sheffield, S10 2FN.

Please ensure that you include the reference number of the post and
your full postal address when requesting details, otherwise you will
incur added delay in the information being sent out to you.

Requests for packs to be posted will normally be mailed out on the
working day following that on which the request is received.