Speech and Language Processing

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

Postdoctoral Researcher

in the Signal Processing Division (http://www.sigproc.uni-oldenburg.de), 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 IV “Hearing devices of the future” and Research Thread II “IT-based diagnostics and rehabilitation” by developing and evaluating machine learning-based speech enhancement algorithms for hearing devices. More in particular, in the envisaged project the main objective is to enhance the speech quality and intelligibility for the hearing device user by using machine learning-based algorithms for noise reduction, dereverberation and computational acoustic scene analysis.

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: speech/audio signal processing, machine learning, acoustics and auditory perception. In particular, for the envisaged project experience with speech enhancement algorithms, deep learning and auditory models 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. SP192), 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.

The Speech Technology Group of Toshiba Research Europe in Cambridge is looking for exceptional candidates to join our team of researchers, working in automatic speech recognition or statistical dialogue systems. We are looking for candidates with background in signal processing, machine learning, acoustic modelling or expertise in building state-of-the-art systems for ASR or Dialogue. 

The candidate should have a PhD or Masters with equivalent experience in the areas of speech technology related to automatic speech recognition, statistical dialogue modelling, machine learning or a related field (Post-doctoral/industrial experience is beneficial).  The candidate has good programming skills with Python and/or C/C++ and proficient with Unix/Linux. Experience with speech and/or machine learning toolkits, e.g. Kaldi, TensorFlow, PyDial, PyTorch, etc. would be beneficial.

For more information please visit: https://www.toshiba.eu/eu/Cambridge-Research-Laboratory/Speech-Technology or alternatively send your CV and covering letter to: stg-res-jobs@crl.toshiba.co.uk

At Nuance, we empower people with the ability to seamlessly interact with their connected devices and the digital world around them.  We are creating a world where technology thinks and acts the way people do by designing the most human, natural, and intuitive ways of interacting with technology.

Our nimble technology uses analytics and advanced algorithms to transform the inanimate into animate and reduce complicated processes into simple ones.

Join our Enterprise team…great customer service starts here. We design virtual assistants for intelligent and effortless customer service helping customers find the information they need using whatever channel they prefer.

Summary: This engineering position is opened within the Core Technology Engine group, which is responsible for the development, productization and maintenance of all AI engines within Nuance. More specifically, the person will be part of an energetic team developing and tuning advanced speech enhancement solutions for multi-user speech applications on embedded platforms. 

Responsibilities:

• Analysis of embedded device constraints and requirements (audio and video).
• Integration support of Nuance’s speech enhancement solution on device.
• Accomplishment of audio path measurements, analysis of test results and support for audio related issues.
• Configuration and tuning of Nuance’s technology for the target device.
• Implementation of new features, code analysis, bug fixing and optimization for performance.

Qualifications

Number of Years of Work Experience: 3-5

Required Skills:

• Academic background in digital signal processing, speech and audio processing or similar
• Programming skills in MATLAB, Python and C/C++.
• Excellent algorithmic and analytical skills.
• Good interpersonal communication skills (listening and delivering).
• Ability to work with teams spread over many countries and continents.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience in software development for embedded systems in either automotive, consumer electronics or telecommunications.
• Familiarity with embedded hardware and operating systems (e.g. Android, embedded Linux).
• Knowledge of audio/speech enhancement processing components deployed in hands-free and ASR applications.
• Experience with computer vision for speaker localization and tracking.
• German is a plus

Education: The candidate should have a Bachelor's or Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Communications Technology or in a related field; industry experience in one of these domains is preferred. An academic background in digital signal processing, speech and audio processing is desired. 

Research Engineer-Natural Language Processing, Shanghai, China

Overview:

Nuance Automotive specializes in conversational AI technologies for car manufacturers, helping them deliver unique user experiences to their customers. With the Dragon Drive platform, Nuance offers a deeply integrated hybrid solution that can be customized to become an OEM-branded smart automotive assistant which seamlessly integrates into the user’s connected ecosystem. Dragon Drive powers more than 200 million cars on the road today across more than 40 languages, creating conversational experiences for Toyota, Audi, BMW, Daimler, Fiat, Ford, GM, Hyundai, SAIC, and more.

Nuance China is growing fast and we're looking for talented individuals to join us to work alongside some of the most exciting and dynamic individuals and customer organizations in the world!

Position summary

Conduct research and development on NLU (Natural Language Understanding) for automotive, mobile phone and IoT applications; Resolve the key issues of NLU in SDS (Speech Dialogue System); Be a member of global R&D team to create new technologies/products; Follow up state-of-art NLP technologies, including the deep-learning based NLP technologies and products;

Principal duties and responsibilities

Representative responsibilities/duties will include but not limited to:

- Research algorithms of NLP key components for NLU system;

- Conduct performance improvement on current solutions;

- Research and develop tools to collect and annotate NLU text corpus;

- Develop tools, train models, and evaluate NLU buffers for various applications and customer projects;

- Develop demos and products on various HW/SW platforms like Android, Linux, QNX devices;

- Development and maintenance of relevant processes for the use in production on key projects at Nuance.

Knowledge, skills and qualifications

• Education: MS/PhD in Natural Language Processing, computer science, EE, math or related field.
• Minimum years of work experience: 1-3
• Required skills:

- Basic Natural Language Processing knowledge and better to have hands-on experiences;

- Experience on running accuracy experiments and systematically improving performance. Self-driven and diligent for solving real world problems;

- Proficiency in C/C++ programming skills and script programming (Python/Perl/Lua, etc.);

- Native speaker of Mandarin, and better to have one or more dialects;

- Ability to work well both independently and within a team;

- Prefer ASR R&D experience or have interests on learning ASR;

• Preferred skills:

- Team work spirit, self-motivated;

- Fluent English communication, or more second foreign languages;

- Accomplished coder – can realize research ideas effectively;

We are looking for enthusiastic and talented students to join our
growing international research team at Heinrich Heine University
Düsseldorf.

** Apply by 1st June 2019 **

These PhD positions are fully funded by Prof. Milica Gasic' ERC Staring
Grant project DYMO.  They come with a competitive salary (pay grade
EG13) and no teaching duties.

The goal of the project is to develop the next generation of statistical
dialog systems that are dynamically extensible in terms of their
knowledge, management and generation. The project also involves building
realistic user models and sophisticated reward mechanisms based on
cutting edge machine learning and NLP methods.

The candidate must hold a Masters degree in Computer Science,
Mathematics,  Engineering or a related field. Excellent programming
skills are essential.
An ideal candidate would have some experience with NLP and Machine
Learning.

The candidate should be fluent in English.  Knowledge of German is not
required.

Düsseldorf is a very cosmopolitan city. It is the capital of the largest
German state, nicely positioned on the Rhein river, with a beautiful old
town as well as many other nice newly built quarters.  Düsseldorf
airport is the third largest in Germany and it's only 10min away from
the city centre.

To apply please send your CV and a brief cover letter to Prof. Milica Gasic at gasic@uni-duesseldorf.de. For any questions please contact Prof. Milica Gasic.

The Signal Processing research group at the Universität Hamburg (http://uhh.de/inf-sp) is hiring a research associate (PhD candidate) for a project on Phase-Aware Speech Enhancement.

The focus of the group is on developing novel methods for processing speech signals with applications in speech communication devices such as hearing aids, and voice-controlled assistants. Typically, the performance of these devices drops drastically when interfering noise sources are present. To mend this undesired behavior, noise reduction is  applied. This is most commonly done in a spectral domain, where speech is represented by means of its spectral magnitude and its spectral phase. Until today, most systems process only the spectral magnitude, as phase processing remains a challenge. However, this restriction to magnitude processing also limits the achievable performance of noise reduction systems. Thus, the goal of the successful candidate is to improve noise reduction systems by incorporating phase processing. For this, modern methods from signal processing and machine learning 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.

The Signal Processing research group at the Universität Hamburg (http://uhh.de/inf-sp) is hiring a postdoctoral researcher for 33 months for the project "Crossmodal Processing of Audio-Visual Signals".

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

The Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, is seeking to fill the position of a

Professor (W2) Speech Technology and Hearing Devices

commencing as soon as possible within the cluster of excellence “Hearing4all”.

The successful candidate should contribute to the already existing research focus areas hearing research, acoustics, speech processing and machine learning. She/He should exhibit links to the topics of the cluster of excellence, e.g., in audiology, auditory physiology, neurosensory science and systems, and modern methods of communication acoustics and signal processing. She/He should be a highly qualified researcher with an international publication record and practical experience in at least one of the following areas:

• Modern methods for speech and audio processing
• Machine learning and automatic speech recognition
• Modelling of machine and human speech recognition
• System technology for assistive listening devices

The successful candidate (m/f) is expected to contribute actively to the cluster of excellence “Hearing4all”, the collaborative research centre Hearing Acoustics as well as to the further structured research programmes within the Centre of Excellence for Hearing Research. In addition, she/he is expected to contribute to the core lecture program of the Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics (lecturing in English is acceptable, but German language skills should be acquired during the first 3-year period) with emphasis on engineering physics, acoustics and links to medicine and neuroscience.

Preconditions for employment are specified in § 25 NHG. To increase the proportion of women in science, equally qualified female candidates will be given preference. Applicants with disabilities will be preferentially considered in case of equal qualification. The position is suitable for part-time employment.

Applications should include the profile sheet (www.uni-oldenburg.de/medizin/unterlagen-zum-herunterladen/, Profilbogen für die Bewerbung auf eine Professur), a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, publication list, list of third-party grants, reprints of the five most important publications, teaching record, teaching concept, concepts of research and copies of credentials and records. Applications should be addressed to the Dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg (berufungen-fkvi@uni-oldenburg.de), and handed in by e-mail as one consolidated PDF attachment no later than April 25, 2019. Inquiries may be directed to Prof. Dr. Dr. Birger Kollmeier (birger.kollmeier@uni-oldenburg.de).

Openings for Summer Internships in HLT @ AMAZON AI

Palo Alto, Seattle, Pittsburgh, New York 

Amazon AI is searching for passionate, talented, and inventive researchers currently pursuing a Master's or Doctoral degrees and looking to launch their careers with an industry leader in Human Language Technology (HLT). Do you have a strong machine learning background and want to help build new speech and language technology? Our mission is to push the boundaries in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Machine Translation (MT), Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Dialogue Management (DM), Text-to-Speech (TTS), and Audio Signal Processing (ASP), in order to provide the best-possible experience for our customers.

As an HLT Scientist, your work will directly impact our customers in the form of products and services that make use of speech and language technology. You would work independently and as a team member, side-by-side with world experts in speech and language, to solve challenging ground-breaking research problems, on production scale data.

We are hiring in all major areas of HLT: ASR, MT, NLP, NLU, TTS, DM, and ASP. Amazon AI has multiple positions available for NLP Researcher Interns in Palo Alto, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and New York. 

Internships last 12-20 weeks and start year round. In order to be considered for an internship you need to be enrolled at a university and plan to return for additional school terms prior to graduating. Otherwise, please apply to the HLT Researcher full-time posting if you are graduating within the next year.

Applicants should email their resume to: hlt-jobs@amazon.com

with the subject: “Amazon AI internship 2019: <areas of HLT you apply for>”

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

· Master’s or Ph.D. degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computational Linguistics, Math, Statistics or related fields with specialization in speech recognition, natural language processing, and/or machine learning.
· Theory and practice of Design of Experiments and statistical analysis of results.
· An understanding of machine learning, algorithms and computational complexity.
· Skills with Python, C++, Java or other programming language, as well as with R, MATLAB or similar scripting language
· Ability to relate to and solve business problems through machine learning, data mining and statistical algorithms.
· Strong desire to push your ideas into production, overcoming obstacles, in order to benefit Amazon's customers.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

· Familiar with the core undergraduate curriculum of Computer Science.
· Experience in building speech recognition and natural language processing systems 
· Algorithm development experience
· Technical fluency; comfort understanding and discussing architectural concepts and algorithms, schedule tradeoffs and new opportunities with technical team members.
· Publications at top-tier peer-reviewed conferences or journals
· Familiar with the techniques and limitations of observational studies.
· Familiar with theory and practice of information retrieval, relevance, machine learning, and data mining.
· Skilled at data visualization and presentation.
· Excellent critical thinking skills, combined with the ability to present your beliefs clearly and compellingly in both verbal and written form.

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Speech and Language Processing

We are looking for candidates who will undertake original research in an area of speech technology, offer courses in this area, contribute to our thriving Masters programme in Speech & Language Processing, and supervise and recruit PhD students.

The successful candidate will also make a leading contribution to the development of the multi-disciplinary Centre for Speech Technology Research (CSTR), which is concerned with research in all areas of speech technology including speech recognition, speech synthesis, speech signal processing, information access, multimodal interfaces and dialogue systems.

We expect that candidates will have a background in experimental methodology and quantitative analysis, and can teach these methods at a high level. We would welcome candidates who are able to teach Python programming at beginner to intermediate levels.

Full details and online application system: 

https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=046953

Vacancy Ref: : 046953

Informal enquiries can be made to Simon King <simon.king@ed.ac.uk>

--
Prof. Simon King
Director of the Centre for Speech Technology Research
Professor of Speech Processing
University of Edinburgh,UK
www.cstr.ed.ac.uk