PhD Studentships in Computational Models of Visual Processing, University of Edinburgh, UK

PhD Studentship - Computational Models of Visual Processing
Institute of Communicating and Collaborative Systems
The Institute of Communicating and Collaborative Systems (ICCS) within the School of Informatics and the Human Communication Research Centre (HCRC) invites applications for a three-year PhD studentship funded by the European Research Council, starting in September 2008.

The successful applicant will work on a project that investigates the synchronous processing of linguistic and visual information. The project studies key features of synchronous processing by tracking participants’ eye movements when they view a naturalistic scene and listen to a speech stimulus at the same time. The experimental results will feed into a series of computational models that predict the eye-movement patterns that humans exhibit when they view a scene and listen to speech at the same time. These models will incrementally construct aligned linguistic and visual representations, and will be evaluated against eye-tracking data.

The PhD student will be part of a team of experts in linguistic and visual processing, including both experimentalists and computational modellers. The student will contribute to the modelling component of the project, and should have previous experience in image processing, computer vision, or computational models of perception and attention. Applicants should have a good honours degree or equivalent in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, computer science, or a related discipline. Good programming skills, preferably in Matlab, Java, C, or C++, are required. Familiarity with probabilistic modelling and machine learning is essential.

The studentship will provide maintenance only funding at an enhanced UK research council rate.

Informal enquiries regarding this studentship can be made to Dr Frank Keller (keller[ at ]inf.ed.ac.uk). Further details about the project can
also be found at: http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/events/news/kellerercgrant.html

Applications are welcome from UK, EU and overseas candidates. To apply please submit an application form and the required application papers, including a statement of research interests (which should include details regarding the particular research direction you would be interested in within the remit of this studentship). Application forms and details on how to apply are available from our website at http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply.html (at question 21 on the application form, please indicate “ICCS ERC Studentship”).

Application deadline: 31 March 2008.

Applications after that date may be considered if the studentship has not been allocated.