Our team (cocodev.fr) at Aix-Marseille University offers a fully-funded Ph.D. research position (with no teaching duties) in the framework of the ANR grant MACoMiC (Mastering the Art of Conversation in Middle Childhood).

The broad goal of the PhD researcher is to lead the development of deep learning models of child-parent multimodal communication, across several cultures, using data of face-to-face conversations recorded using portable eye-tracking systems and zoom calls.

We are interested in studying the development of various conversational skills including mechanisms of building shared understanding, multimodal synchrony/alignment, and discourse coherence/contingency.

We are also interested in the application of this research both to help design more effective clinical interventions (for children with communicative difficulties) and to build child-oriented conversational AI. The selected candidate can focus on one or several of these dimensions, defining a personalized research program together with the main advisor.

The PhD researcher will be integrated into a supportive and highly interdisciplinary team of senior and early career researchers in computer science (with expertise in conversational AI), developmental psychology, and neuro-linguistics. They will be located at the Department of Computer science of Aix-Marseille University and part of the Institute of Language Communication and the Brain (ILCB.fr) https://www.ilcb.fr/.

Additionally, the PhD researcher will have the opportunity to interact/collaborate with CoCoDev’s internal network, especially researchers from the Dialog Modelling Group (University of Amsterdam), the Interacting Minds Center (The University of Aarhus), and the Multimodal Language and Cognition group (Max Plank Institute of Psycholinguistics).

Requirement

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-The ideal candidate for this position should have a strong background/training in computer science and experience with deep-learning modeling. -

-Interest in cognitive science (though no prior experience is required). -

-Good mastery of English -

Key dates

Open until filled.

Please send (as soon as possible for full consideration): 1) a CV 2) A recent transcript (a university document with courses taken and grades) 2) Contact info of one reference (ideally a research supervisor) 3) (Optional) Evidence of prior experience with deep-learning modeling (a publication, dissertation, code on GitHub, etc.)

*Latest starting date:* October 1st, 2022

Inquiries

All kinds of inquiries (about the scientific project, the university, life in Marseille, etc) as well as the application documents should be addressed to Abdellah Fourtassi (abdellah.fourtassi@univ-amu.fr)