Germany: 4 PhD Scholarship in Natural and Artificial Cognitive Systems

Cross-modal Interaction in Natural and Artificial Cognitive Systems funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), the State of Hamburg, and the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, is seeking highly qualified and motivated candidates for

4 Doctoral Student Positions at the University of Hamburg beginning June 1st, 2010, or later.

The IRTG-CINACS offers a 3-year doctoral programme based at the University of Hamburg and at Tsinghua University, Beijing. The dissertation projects will be carried out at the University of Hamburg. A part (up to 6 months) of the studies will be performed at Tsinghua University. The interdisciplinary programme provides exciting research opportunities for research on multis­ensory perception and cross-modal information processing.

Three of the positions are available at the Department of Informatics of the University of Hamburg: One of them ( B2_project_description (13.92 kB) or B4_project_description (13.38 kB)) concerns a research project on cognitively plausible architectures of language comprehension and language production in a multi-modal environment. Special emphasis is placed on multimodal communication and representation for human-computer interaction. The required qualifications are: comprehensive knowledge of artificial intelligence, (computational) linguistics or human-computer interaction, being interested in interdisciplinary research with the computer scientists, linguists, psychologists and neuro-scientists.

The two other positions ( A6 A7 Wermter Cinacs projects (61.95 kB)) at the Department of Informatics focus on projects in neural network robotics. We are particularly interested in working towards 1) multimodal integration and 2) sound localisation within an attractive humanoid robot scenario where humanoid robots interact with humans based on multimodal information. The required qualifications are: knowledge of artificial intelligence, neural networks or robotics and an interest to work in an interdisciplinary neuroscience, computing and robotics environment.

One position ( B1_project_description (13.8 kB)) is available at the Department of Psychology of the University of Hamburg. It concerns multimodal integration in perception and action. The required qualifications are: comprehensive knowledge and interests in experimental psychology and cognitive neurosciences. Programming skills (Matlab / C) are of advantage.

Conditions
The scholarship currently provides 1468 EUR per month and is not subject to federal income tax. Additional benefits include family allowance (where applicable), travel funding, support for carrying out experiments, and an additional monthly allowance for the duration of the stay in China. The scholarships are awarded for a period of 2 years with a possible extension of one additional year. For further details see
http://www.dfg.de/forschungsfoerderung/koordinierte_programme/graduiertenkollegs/int_gk/
Requirements

• Applicants must hold a Master's degree, or equivalent ("Diplom" or "Medizinisches Staatsexamen") in computer science, electronic engineering, computational linguistics, psychology, cognitive sciences or biology. Female applicants are particularly welcome. Successful applicants for a scholarship
• are fluent in English (Language test not obligatory)
• are willing to participate in the exchange programme between the University of Hamburg and Tsinghua University (participation in joint activities, research visit to Tsinghua University for up to 6 months)
• are interested in advanced interdisciplinary research in the field of multi-modal processes.

Application Please send the following documents with your application:
Curriculum vitae (English)

• List of publications
• Copies of university certificates
• Copy of your Language Test Certificate (e.g., TOEFL, if applicable)
• Copy of your passport (for non-German applicants)
• Description of your prior studies and scientific training, and
• a one-page statement of interest with specific reference to one, at most two of the announced doctoral thesis topics (as described in the pdf project descriptions linked in the text above), listed in the order of preference.

Please address your application by email with scans of your documents, to: cinacs@informatik.uni-hamburg.de

Please do not send any original documents at this stage. If you have any questions please contact us by cinacs@informatik.uni-hamburg.de

Source: http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/jobs.shtml

PhD Position in Cognitive Robotics at TUM, Germany

Application deadline: the position should be filled as soon as possible

We are now accepting applications for a 3-year PhD position in the fields of cognitive robotics, languages for modelling of situations, actions and perception, and system integration at the Department of Informatics at TU Munich, Germany.

Project Title: RoboEarth - Robots sharing a knowledge base for world model-ling and learning of actions .

The European project "RoboEarth" is a research project in the area of cognitive robotics and system integration. Several European partners from industry and academia are participating in this four year project. The Chair of Robotics and Embedded Systems is responsable for language definition and implementation that allows for the representation and communication of actions and situations on different levels of abstraction. The relevant research topic includes develop-ment of a language together with the overall architecture with a focus on com-ponent integration.

In particular, the objectives are

• to specify and develop a high-level language for the communication between RoboEarth and individual systems,
• to get an abstract representation of labelled situations and actions, and
• to provide interfaces for platform-specific representations (individual robots and the RoboEarth platform) and for human-robot interaction.

Applicants should have an M.Sc. degree in Computer Science (or equivalent, from a well-known university). The successful candidates should have experi-ence in one or more of the following areas:

• cognitive robotics or automation systems,
• representation of complex actions and/or situations, and
• Ontol-ogy-based world modelling.

TU Munich enjoys an excellent international reputation as an academic leader and has been consistently ranked as one of the three best universities in Ger-many. The Munich area itself offers high-quality of living, with unparalleled out-door recreational opportunites and a great night-life at a reasonable price.

Interested applicants should submit a curriculum vitae and an academic tran-script. A statement of the broad area of your research interest should also be included.
For application, enquiries or further information, send an E-mail to: Dr. Reinhard Lafrenz (lafrenz@in.tum.de) or visit our web site at http://wwwknoll.in.tum.de

Source: http://www6.in.tum.de/pub/Main/OpenPositions/job_position_RoboEarth-final.pdf