Speech and Language Processing

The cluster of excellence Hearing4all (https://hearing4all.eu/EN/) at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany, is seeking to fill the position of a

Research Associate (m/f/d)

in the Signal Processing Group (https://uol.de/en/mediphysics-acoustics/sigproc) at the Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics.

The position is available from May 1, 2020 until October 31, 2022, with a possible extension for 3 years. Salary will be according to TV-L E13 (100 %). The position is suitable for part-time work.

In the framework of the cluster of excellence Hearing4all the successful candidate is expected to contribute to the research goals of Research Thread II "IT-based diagnostics and rehabilitation" by developing and evaluating individualized signal processing solutions for virtual and real hearing devices. More in particular, in the envisaged project the main objective is to automatically optimize the parameter settings of acoustical signal processing algorithms for the individual user based on machine learning.

Candidates are required to have an academic university degree (Master or equivalent) in hearing technology and audiology, electrical engineering, physics or a related discipline, and have shown their ability to perform excellent scientific work, typically demonstrated by the outstanding quality of their doctoral thesis and an excellent publication record. We are seeking candidates with extensive knowledge in at least two of the following research fields: speech/audio signal processing, machine learning and auditory perception. In particular, for the envisaged project experience with hearing aid algorithms is beneficial. Excellent programming (e.g. Matlab, python), English language skills and experience with subjective listening experiments are mandatory.

The Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg is dedicated to increasing the percentage of women in science. Therefore, equally qualified female candidates will be given preference. Applicants with disabilities will be preferentially considered in case of equal qualification.

Please send your application (ref. SP194) including a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae, list of publications and a copy of the university diplomas and grades to Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Fakultät VI, Abt. Signalverarbeitung, Prof. Dr. Simon Doclo, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany, or electronically to simon.doclo@uni-oldenburg.de. Application by email is preferred.

The application deadline is 07.03.2020.

(http://gtts.ehu.es), University of the Basque Country, Spain

Applications are welcome for one graduate (Pre-Doc) research contract for the study, development, integration and evaluation of machine learning software tools, and the production of language resources for ASR tasks. The contract will be funded by an Excellence Group Grant by the Government of the Basque Country. Initially, the contract is for 3 months but, if performance is satisfactory, it will be extended at least to one year –or even more, depending on the available budget–, with a gross salary of around 30.000 euros/year. The workplace is located in the Faculty of Science and Technology (ZTF/FCT) of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in Leioa (Bizkaia), Spain.

PROFILE

We seek graduate (Pre-Doc) candidates with a genuine interest in computer science and speech technology. It will be required knowledge and skills in any (preferably all) of the following topics: machine learning (specifically deep learning), programming in Python, Java and/or C++ and signal processing. A master's degree in scientific and/or technological disciplines (especially computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning and/or signal processing) will be highly valued. All candidates are expected to have excellent analysis and abstraction skills. Experience and interest in dataset construction will be also a plus.

RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT

The Faculty of Science and Technology (ZTF/FCT) of the University of the Basque Country (https://www.ehu.eus/es/web/ztf-fct) is a very active and highly productive academic centre, with nearly 400 professors, around 350 pre-doc and post-doc researchers and more than 2500 students distributed in 9 degrees.

The research work will be carried out at the Department of Electricity and Electronics of ZTF/FCT in the Leioa Campus of UPV/EHU. The research group hosting the contract (GTTS, http://gtts.ehu.es) has deep expertise in speech processing applications (ASR, speaker recognition, spoken language recognition, spoken term detection, etc.) and language resource design and collection. If the candidate is interested in pursuing a research career, the contract would be compatible with master studies on the topics mentioned above or even a Ph.D. Thesis project within our research group, and further financing options (grants, other projects) could be explored.

The nearby city of Bilbao has become an international destination, with the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum as its main attractor. Still, though sparkling with visitors from worldwide, Bilbao is a peaceful, very enjoyable medium-size city with plenty of services and leisure options, and mild weather, not so rainy as the evergreen hills surrounding the city might suggest.

APPLICATION

Applications including the candidate's CV and a letter of motivation (at most 1 page) explaining their interest in this position and how their education and skills fit the profile should be sent by e-mail –using the subject "GTTS research contract APPLICATION ref. 1/2020"– to Germán Bordel (german.bordel@ehu.eus) by Wednesday, January 29, 2020. The contract will start as soon as the position is filled.

UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Speech and Language Technologies (SLT) and their Applications 

Department of Computer Science

Faculty of Engineering 

University of Sheffield

Fully-funded 4-year PhD studentships for research in Speech and Language Technologies (SLT) and their Applications

** Apply now for September 2020 intake. Up to 13 studentships available **

Deadline for applications: 31 January 2020. 

What makes the SLT CDT different:

• Unique Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) with Integrated Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) in SLT Leadership. 

• Bespoke cohort-based training programme running over the entire four years providing the necessary skills for academic and industrial leadership in the field, based on elements covering core SLT skills, research software engineering (RSE), ethics, innovation, entrepreneurship, management, and societal responsibility.  

• The centre is a world-leading hub for training scientists and engineers in SLT – two core areas within artificial intelligence (AI) which are experiencing unprecedented growth and will continue to do so over the next decade.

• Setting that fosters interdisciplinary approaches, innovation and engagement with real world users and awareness of the social and ethical consequences of work in this area.

The benefits:

• Four-year fully-funded studentship covering all fees and an enhanced stipend (£17,000 pa)

• Generous personal allowance for research-related travel, conference attendance, specialist equipment, etc.

• A full-time PhD with integrated PGDip incorporating 6 months of foundational SLT training prior to starting your research project 

• Supervision from a team of over 20 internationally leading SLT researchers, covering all core areas of modern SLT research, and a broader pool of over 50 academics in cognate disciplines with interests in SLTs and their application

• Every PhD project underpinned by a real-world application, directly supported by one of over 30 industry partners. Partners include Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Nuance, NHS Digital and many more

• A dedicated CDT workspace within a collaborative and inclusive research environment hosted by the Department of Computer Science

• Work and live in Sheffield - a cultural centre on the edge of the Peak District National Park which is in the top 10 most affordable and safest UK university cities.

About you:

We are looking for students from a wide range of backgrounds interested in Speech and Language Technologies. 

• High-quality (ideally first class) undergraduate or masters (ideally distinction) degree in a relevant discipline. Suitable backgrounds include (but not limited to) computer science, informatics, engineering, linguistics, speech and language processing, mathematics, cognitive science, AI, physics, or a related discipline. 

• Regardless of background, you must be able to demonstrate mathematical aptitude (minimally to A-Level standard or equivalent) and experience of programming.

• We particularly encourage applications from groups that are underrepresented in technology.

• Candidates must satisfy the UKRI funding eligibility criteria. Students must have settled status in the UK and have been ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the studentship. Full details of eligibility criteria can be found on our website.

Applying:

Applications are now sought for the September 2020 intake. Up to 13 studentships available.

We operate a staged admissions process, with application deadlines throughout the year. 

The first deadline for applications is 31 January 2020. The second deadline is 31 May 2020. 

We may be able to consider applications received after 31 May 2020 if places are still available. Equally, all places may be allocated after the first deadline therefore we encourage you to apply early.

Applications will be reviewed within 4 weeks of each deadline and short-listed applicants will be invited to interview. Interviews will be held in Sheffield. In some cases, because of the high volume of applications we receive, we may need more time to assess your application. If this is the case, we will let you know if we intend to do this.

See our website for full details and guidance on how to apply: slt-cdt.ac.uk 

For an informal discussion about your application please contact us by email at: sltcdt-enquiries@sheffield.ac.uk

By replying to this email or contacting sltcdt-enquiries@sheffield.ac.uk you consent to being contacted by the University of Sheffield in relation to the CDT. You are free to withdraw your permission in writing at any time.

Aalto University, Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics (Finland) invites applications for

Postdoc position in Speech Processing

The Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics is a part of School of Electrical Engineering at Aalto University (Finland). The department consists of four main research areas. The speech communication technology research group (led by Prof. Paavo Alku) works on interdisciplinary topics aiming at describing, explaining and reproducing communication by speech. The main topics of our research are speech production, particularly glottal source analysis, speech parameterization, speaking style conversion, and statistical parametric speech synthesis.

We are currently looking for a postdoc to join our research team to work on the team’s research themes. We are particularly interested in candidates with research interest in paralinguistic speech processing, especially related to human health, and in candidates with a background in machine learning –based acoustic-to-acoustic conversion (e.g. voice conversion). We also welcome strong candidates from other areas, particularly those with background in deep learning, but previous experience in speech technology research is a must.

Postdoc: max. 2.5 years. Starting date: January-May 2020  

In Helsinki you will join the innovative international computational data analysis and ICT community. Among European cities, Helsinki is special in being clean, safe, Scandinavian, and close to nature, in short, having a high standard of living. English is spoken everywhere. See, e.g., http://www.visitfinland.com/

How to apply

If you are interested in this opportunity, apply by submitting the following documents in English and in electrical form (use the pdf format only!) by December 31, 2019. Send your application, CV, a transcript of academic records and references directly by email to Professor Paavo Alku. Please insert the subject line “Aalto postdoc recruitment, 2019”.

Additional information

Paavo Alku, paavo.alku@aalto.fi

At Aalborg University two fully funded PhD stipends are now available on the project “Effortless Hearing in Noise by Brain Feedback”. 

One of the most common complaints among hearing aids users is the mental fatigue they undergo after relatively short conversations in noisy situations due to increased levels of listening effort. The overall goal of this research project is to develop a new concept of hearing assistive devices that continuously monitor the brain activity, and adapts the signal processing in the hearing assistive devices in order to minimize the listening effort. The project combines signal processing and auditory neuroscience and include theoretical and experimental research:

• Signal processing algorithms for extracting correlates of listening effort from electroencephalography (EEG).
• Research involving aspects of neuroscience that relates to the functional connectivity of the brain in response to natural speech.
• Acoustically controlled experiments with portable EEG devices in anechoic chambers where real-life acoustic environments can be simulated using arrays of loudspeakers.
• Speech enhancement algorithms that minimize the listening effort.

The project is fully funded by The Independent Research Fund Denmark under the project entitled “Effortless Hearing in Noise by Brain Feedback”. 

The project is a collaboration between the Department of Electronic Systems and the Department of Health, Science and Technology, at Aalborg University, and there will be collaboration with international universities and industry. 

To apply for the positions, please use the following links:
• PhD 1: Acoustic Signal Processing for Minimizing Listening Effort Using Brain Feedback (https://www.vacancies.aau.dk/show-vacancy/?vacancy=1065107)

• PhD 2: Cortical Characterization of Listening Effort (https://www.vacancies.aau.dk/show-vacancy/?vacancy=1065182)

You may obtain further information from Professor (MSO) Jan Østergaard, Department of Electronic Systems, phone: +45 99408693, email: jo@es.aau.dk, or Professor Ole Kæseler Andersen, Department of Health Science and Technology, phone: +45 9940 8816, email: oka@hst.aau.dk concerning the scientific aspects of the stipend. 

Aalborg University wishes to reflect the diversity of society and welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background or belief.

Summary:

Biamp Systems is seeking an intelligent and motivated DSP Engineer that is passionate about digital audio theory and algorithm implementation.  In this role, the DSP Engineer designs, develops, maintains, and tests DSP audio algorithms and applications used to provide novel solutions in teleconferencing, video conferencing, and sound reinforcement systems. The DSP Engineer may also contribute to audio centric machine learning projects, designing and creating data sets and managing machine learning infrastructure systems.

Essential Functions:

• Design, recommend, and implement innovative audio DSP algorithms to meet product definition and feature requirements.  Develop modular, maintainable, and understandable code.  Debug logically and systematically
• Develop Python based repeatable tests and simulations to evaluate the performance of advanced digital audio-conferencing algorithms, such as noise reduction, beamforming microphones, and acoustic echo cancellation.  Use objective measures to evaluate speech quality    
• Prepare and design digital audio datasets for DSP and machine\deep learning projects.  Maintain, manage, and upgrade machine learning infrastructure systems and code bases   
• Design and implement algorithms for digital audio (speech) feature extraction 
• Use high level scripting languages to automate builds, releases, and unit tests of DSP code. 
• Create written documentation of algorithm designs.  As needed, explain audio algorithm behavior to non-engineering audiences.   
• Other duties as assigned by your Supervisor.

Qualifications:

The successful candidate will possess the following combination of experience, knowledge and skills:

• Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent, with focus on digital audio and signal processing preferred. 
• 2-4 years of experience in a professional engineering development team.    
• Fundamental understanding of digital audio theories and concepts.  Familiar with digital speech signal processing techniques.  Familiar with commonly used temporal & spectral features for audio (speech) signal analysis 
• Proficient using MATLAB for audio signal processing analysis, filter design, prototyping, etc.
• Proficient using Python and Numpy, Scipy, Matplotlib. 
• Experience developing in Ubuntu Linux preferred
• Proficient programming in ‘C’.  Experience with developing real-time (frame based) audio signal processing routines
• Experience developing unit tests, and using automated test frameworks.  Experience with Jenkins preferred.   
• Exposure to Deep\Machine learning, using Tensorflow\Keras, for speech processing preferred.
• Familiar with software version control systems (prefer git) & bug tracking systems
• Dedicated to working efficiently, independently, and within schedule. 

Work Environment:

• Office environment.

Compensation and Benefits:

• Biamp offers competitive pay plus fantastic benefits. We offer medical, dental, vision, and a 401(k)plan including match.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled

Educational Testing Service (ETS), with headquarters in Princeton, NJ, is the world’s premier educational measurement institution and a leader in educational research. With more than 3,400 global employees, we develop, administer and score more than 50 million tests annually in more than 180 countries at more than 9,000 locations worldwide. We design our assessments with industry-leading insight, rigorous research and an uncompromising commitment to quality so that we can help education and workplace communities make informed decisions.

ETS's Research & Development division has an opening for an associate research scientist in the Speech area of the NLP & Speech research center. The projects in this research group focus on the application of NLP, speech, dialogue, and multimodal processing algorithms in automated scoring capabilities for assessment and learning tasks involving constructed responses (such as essays and spoken responses). In addition to its signature automated scoring systems for text and speech assessments, the group is actively pursuing technology innovation in education and learning spaces by performing foundational research, prototyping next-generation capabilities, and collaborating with academic and industry partners. The NLP & Speech research group currently comprises around 20 PhD-level research scientists, 10 research engineers, and 10 research assistants and administrative staff.

This is an excellent opportunity to be part of a world-renowned research and development team and have a significant impact on existing and next-generation NLP, speech, dialogue, and multimodal systems and their use in educational applications.

Responsibilities:

• Conceptualizing, proposing, obtaining funding for, and directing small projects in the area speech processing for educational applications and assisting in moderate-to-major research projects. 
• Assist in generating or contributing to new knowledge or capabilities in the field of speech processing and in applying that new knowledge and capabilities to existing and/or new ETS products and services.  Some speech processing research areas that are relevant to ETS R&D include (but are not limited to) automatic speech recognition for non-native speakers of English, voice biometrics, computer-assisted pronunciation training, and automated speech scoring.
• Participate in setting substantive research and development goals and priorities for a group or initiative within a vice presidential area.
• Develop proposals and budgets for small projects and/or assist in development for moderate-to-major ones.

Requires:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Electrical Engineering, Natural Language Processing, Linguistics, or a similar area with major education in speech processing.
• At least one year of independent substantive research experience in speech processing is required. Experience can be gained through doctoral studies.
• Practical expertise with speech processing tools (e.g., kaldi), experience with machine learning toolkits (e.g., Weka, scikit-learn), and fluency in at least one major programming language (e.g. Java, Python).
• Practical experience with deep learning paradigms and toolkits (e.g., TensorFlow, pytorch, Keras) is highly desirable.
• Documented contributions to research communities and a strong publication record and experience I system building and prototyping are preferred.

 We offer a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits, possible relocation assistance and excellent opportunities for professional and personal growth. For a full list of position responsibilities and to apply please visit the following link: Associate Research Scientist, Speech

EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer of Women and Minorities.

EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer of protected Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities.

EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE is a Drug-free workplace.

The Signal Processing and Knowledge Technology research groups at the Universität Hamburg are hiring a research associate (PhD candidate) for the project "Ego-Noise Reduction for Interactive Robots".

Speech-controlled assistants such as robots, smartphones and smart speakers are gaining increased popularity. Users expect these devices to also work well in noise. Thus, speech enhancement algorithms are required to improve automatic speech recognition performance. For robots, a particular problem is that motors and cooling fans produce noise themselves, so-called ego-noise. This project aims at finding novel solutions for speech enhancement by taking the ego-noise of robots into account. For this, modern methods from signal processing and neural networks are to be  applied.

Please find the full job announcement with all details here
https://www.inf.uni-hamburg.de/en/inst/ab/sp/job-offer.html

Amazon AI has open positions in Palo Alto, California, for applied scientists (both interns and full time)
in all areas of human language technology, with special focus on Deep Learning (DL) models for
speech recognition, machine translation and text-to-speech.

Interested candidates are invited to contact me or to submit their application online at
https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/803520/applied-scientist

Marcello Federico
marcfede@amazon.com

The cluster of excellence Hearing4all at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg is seeking to fill the position of a

Postdoctoral Researcher

in the Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. The position is available from November 1st, 2019 until October 31th, 2022. Salary will be according to TV-L E13 (100%). The position is suitable for part-time work.

In the framework of the cluster of excellence Hearing4all (hearing4all.eu/EN/) the successful candidate is expected to contribute to the research goals of Research Thread II “IT-based diagnostics and rehabilitation” by developing and evaluating individualized signal processing solutions for virtual and real hearing devices. More in particular, in the envisaged project the main objective is to automatically optimize the parameter settings of acoustical signal processing algorithms for the individual user.

Candidates are required to have a doctoral degree after obtaining their academic university degree (Master or equivalent) in hearing technology and audiology, electrical engineering, physics or a related discipline, and have shown their ability to perform excellent scientific work, demonstrated by the outstanding quality of their doctoral thesis and an excellent publication record. We are seeking candidates with extensive knowledge in at least two of the following research fields: acoustics, speech/audio signal processing, machine learning and auditory perception. In particular, for the envisaged project experience with hearing aid algorithms, mathematical optimization and subjective listening experiments is beneficial. Excellent programming (e.g., Matlab, python) skills and English language skills are mandatory.

The Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg is dedicated to increasing the percentage of women in science. Therefore, equally qualified female candidates will be given preference. Applicants with disabilities will be preferentially considered in case of equal qualification.

Please send your application (ref. SP191), including a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae, list of publications and a copy of the university diplomas and grades, to Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Fakultät VI, Abt. Signalverarbeitung, Prof. Dr. Simon Doclo, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany, or electronically to simon.doclo@uni-oldenburg.de. Application by email is preferred. The application deadline is 10.07.2019.