Two Research Fellows in Machine Listening / Semantic Audio-Visual Processing and Interaction

Position Description: University of Surrey, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) Salary: GBP 30,738 to GBP 35,609 Closing Date: Sunday 13 December 2015 Reference (Post 1): 079715; Reference (Post 2): 079415 Applications are invited for two Research Fellows to work full-time on an EPSRC-funded project "Making Sense of Sounds" for 33 months starting January 2016. This project will investigate how to make sense from sound data, focussing on how to convert sound recordings into understandable and actionable information, and specifically how to allow people to search, browse and interact with sounds. For Post 1 (Research Fellow in Machine Listening), the candidate will be responsible for investigating and developing machine learning methods for separation and analysis of everyday sounds, leading to new representations to support search, retrieval and interaction with sound. The successful applicant for Post 1 is expected to have a PhD in electronic engineering, computer science or a related subject, and is expected to have significant research experience in audio signal processing. Research experience in one or more of: machine learning; blind source separation, blind de-reverberation, sparse and/or non-negative representations, deep learning, object-based audio representations, audio feature extraction, and/or large scale data processing is desirable. For Post 2 (Research Fellow in Semantic Audio-Visual Processing and Interaction), the candidate will be responsible for investigating how complementary and heterogeneous data modalities and interfaces will help analysis and interaction with sound-focussed data, including how visual information and context can assist exploration, identification and interpretation of audio events. The successful applicant for Post 2 is expected to have a PhD in electronic engineering, computer science or a related subject, and is expected to have significant research experience in machine learning, machine translation, semantic audio and/or audio-visual perception. Research experience in one or more of: audio retrieval and labelling, audio tagging, sound summarization, active learning, audio-visual signal processing, human computer interaction, and/or spatial audio visualisation is desirable. The project will be led by Prof Mark Plumbley in the Machine Audition Lab of the Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) at the University of Surrey, in collaboration with the Digital World Research Centre (DWRC) at Surrey and the University of Salford. The postholders will be based in CVSSP and work under the direction of Prof Plumbley and Co-Investigators Dr Wenwu Wang and Dr Philip Jackson. CVSSP is one of the largest groups of its type in the UK, with over 120 active researchers working in the areas of vision, image processing, medical imaging, and audio, and a grant portfolio of over £12M. The Centre has state-of-the-art acoustic capture and analysis facilities enabling research into audio source separation, music transcription and spatial audio, and a Visual Media Lab with video and audio capture facilities supporting research in real-time video and audio processing and visualisation. Informal enquires are welcome, to: Prof Mark Plumbley (m.plumbley@surrey.ac.uk), Dr Wenwu Wang (w.wang@surrey.ac.uk), or Dr Philip Jackson (p.jackson@surrey.ac.uk). Expected start date: As soon as possible. Further Details: Post 1: Research Fellow in Machine Listening (http://jobs.surrey.ac.uk/079715). Post 2: Research Fellow in Semantic Audio-Visual Processing and Interaction (http://jobs.surrey.ac.uk/079415).