[AISWorld] PhD Scholarship on Concurrent Speech Interface for Visually Impaired People - Normandy University - FRANCE

[Marc Spaniol]

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                         PhD Scholarship

      Concurrent Speech Interface for Visually Impaired People

    Normandy University / CNRS GREYC UMR 6072 Laboratory / FRANCE

          Application deadline: 30.03.2017 (11:59 pm GMT)
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The Human Language Technology Team (HULTECH) of the CNRS GREYC 
Laboratory at the Normandy University (France) seeks to hire an 
excellent PhD candidate to work on non-visual access to digital 
documents based on concurrent speech and summarization techniques.

Visual browsing on the Internet provides access to both an early and 
global view of a web page (skimming) and then allows an active and fast 
search of specific information (scanning). In both cases, the typography 
and the lay out of the elements in the document are of crucial 
importance. In non-Visual browsing, such information is usually lost and 
as a consequence, skimming and scanning are difficult actions to be 
endeavoured by blind users. Although palliative systems such as speeding 
up speech synthesis, skipping titles or hypertext links, or reading the 
first or last sentences of all the paragraphs have been proposed, the 
difference in effectiveness compared to Visual navigation remains 
significant.
Within this thesis, we are interested in the design of non-linear 
skimming and scanning strategies adapted to non-Visual navigation in 
order to improve the accessibility to information for blind users (fast 
or diagonal reading). More details on the proposed solution and the 
specific areas addressed can be found at the following url (French 
Language):
https://www.greyc.fr/sites/default/files/secretariat/theses-2017/Sujet_These_Hultech_FerrariMaurelDias_2017.pdf.

The candidate should hold a Master degree (or equivalent) in Computer 
Science or a comparable field. Theoretical and practical experiences in 
Natural Language Processing, Human Computer Interaction, Speech 
Synthesis, Machine Learning and/or Information Retrieval would be 
appreciated. The successful candidate should show ability to work in a 
collaborative multi-disciplinary environment and evidence strong 
programming skills. Oral and written proficiency in French would be a plus.

The full-time position will start on 1st September 2017 for a 3-years 
duration. The student will work at the CNRS GREYC Laboratory at the 
Normandy University in the city of Caen (France) for a net salary of 
1300 EUR per month. Tuition fees are covered by the scholarship.

To apply to this position, please send a detailed CV including a 
statement of interest and at least two recommendation letters. The 
applicant must also attach his/her Bachelor and Master Certificates 
together with the detailed lists of marks or grades. The candidate may 
include a list of any publications, certificates or other qualifications 
(if any) considered relevant for assessing his/her abilities in relation 
to this call. Emails should have the reference code PhD-HULTECH-2017 and 
should be sent to the supervisors Fabrice Maurel 
(fabrice.maurel at unicaen.fr), Stéphane Ferrari 
(stephane.ferrari at unicaen.fr) and Gaël Dias (gael.dias at unicaen.fr). The 
application deadline is 30.03.2017 (11:59 pm GMT) and only applications 
received before the aforementioned deadline will be considered.

For further information, please contact directly the supervisors.