Doctoral student in Deep Learning for Conversational AI - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Project description

Third-cycle subject: Speech and Music Communication

The doctoral position is offered by the department of Speech, Music and Hearing (Sw ”Tal, Musik och Hörsel”, TMH; http://www.kth.se/tmh). TMH is an internationally prominent research group within speech technology and related areas with a heritage that ranges back to the early 50s. It was one of the first research groups of its kind, and is likely the oldest that is still active. The group is in the forefront of fundamental research in areas such as speech analysis, analysis of human communicative behaviours, audiovisual synthesis and generation, speech perception and understanding, and multimodal dialogue systems.

Within the VR-funded project “Connected - Context-aware speech synthesis for conversational AI” we look for one fully funded Doctoral student. In this project the aim is to develop and evaluate a context-aware conversational speech synthesizer that allows for implicit control over the manner of speaking to cater for the communicative needs of different interactive scenarios. More specifically, we will develop different strategies to adapt the synthetic voice to changes in the communicative setting and in response to the verbal and non-verbal behavior of the conversational partner. Some recent papers and associated TTS samples can be found at: https://www.speech.kth.se/tts-demos/

Supervision: The doctoral student will be supervised by Prof. Joakim Gustafson and Dr. Eva Szekely

What we offer

• The possibility to study in a dynamic and international research environment in collaboration with industries and prominent universities from all over the world.Read more
• A workplace with many employee benefits and monthly salary according to KTH’s Doctoral student salary agreement.
• A postgraduate education at an institution that is active and supportive in matters pertaining to working conditions, gender equality and diversity as well as study environment.
• Work and study in Stockholm, close to nature and the water.
• Help to relocate and be settled in Sweden and at KTH.

Eligibility

To be admitted to postgraduate education (Chapter 7, 39 § Swedish Higher Education Ordinance), the applicant must have basic eligibility in accordance with either of the following:

• passed a degree at advanced level,
• completed course requirements of at least 240 higher education credits, of which at least 60 higher education credits at advanced level, or
• in any other way acquired within or outside the country acquired essentially equivalent knowledge.
• Requirements for English equivalent to English B/6, read more here.

Selection

In order to succeed as a doctoral student at KTH you need to be goal oriented and persevering in your work. During the selection process, candidates will be assessed upon their ability to:

• independently pursue his or her work
• collaborate with others,
• have a professional approach and
• analyse and work with complex issues.

Other important traits are: openness toward interdisciplinary research, creativity and a structured approach.

Good command of spoken and written English is required. Expertise in machine learning/deep learning and good programming skills are strongly desirable. Experience and interest in areas like speech technology, signal processing, robotics, natural language processing, linguistics, perception is also considered as asset.

After the qualification requirements, great emphasis will be placed on personal qualities and personal suitability.

Target degree: Doctoral degree

Information regarding admission and employment

Only those admitted to postgraduate education may be employed as a doctoral student. The total length of employment may not be longer than what corresponds to full-time doctoral education in four years ' time. An employed doctoral student can, to a limited extent (maximum 20%), perform certain tasks within their role, e.g. training and administration. A new position as a doctoral student is for a maximum of one year, and then the employment may be renewed for a maximum of two years at a time.

Union representatives

You will find contact information for union representatives on KTH's website.

Doctoral section (Students’ union on KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

You will find contact information for doctoral section on the section's website.

Application

Apply for the position and admission through KTH's recruitment system. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the application is complete in accordance with the instructions in the advertisement.

Applications must be received at the last closing date at midnight, CET/CEST (Central European Time/entral European Summer Time).

Applications must include the following elements:

• CV including your relevant professional experience and knowledge.
• Application letter with a brief description of why you want to pursue research studies, about what your academic interests are and how they relate to your previous studies and future goals. (Maximum 2 pages long)
• Copies of diplomas and grades from previous university studies and certificates of fulfilled language requirements (see above). Translations into English or Swedish if the original document is not issued in one of these languages.
• Representative publications or technical reports. For longer documents, please provide a summary (abstract) and a web link to the full text.

Other information

Striving towards gender equality, diversity and equal conditions is both a question of quality for KTH and a given part of our values.

For information about processing of personal data in the recruitment process please read here.

We firmly decline all contact with staffing and recruitment agencies and job ad salespersons.

Disclaimer: In case of discrepancy between the Swedish original and the English translation of the job announcement, the Swedish version takes precedence.