[Corpora-List] RESEARCH JOBS: NLP for Interactive Characters

[Scott Neal Reilly]

Zoesis Studios has immediate openings for both researchers and
researcher/developers in Natural Language Processing for Interactive
Characters.

These positions are part of a $2.7 million research effort to improve
the sophistication of interactive characters.  One of the central
aspects of this effort is creating natural, expressive conversational
capabilities.  The research focuses on dialogue systems, on
expressive, pragmatic NLG, on robust NLU, on discourse, and on other
technologies to produce natural, social, expressive conversation in
life-like, emotional, animated interactive characters.


     Researcher Position:
     -------------------

           Responsibilities: leading and collaborating in research on
     natural, social conversational capabilities; integrating with
     other research in the project including plan recognition,
     common-sense reasoning, planning, emotion, personality, behavior,
     action and sensing in real-time believable agents; and
     implementing high quality software to accomplish these goals.

          Qualifications: a Ph.D. in computer science or computational
     linguistics or equivalent experience with strong experience in
     dialogue systems, NLG, NLU, or discourse, and strong experience
     building systems.  Experience in robust parsing, semantic parsing,
     pragmatic or emotional variation in NLG, or embodied natural
     language processing is desirable.


     Researcher/Developer Position:
     -----------------------------

          Responsibilities: collaborating on the design and
     implementation of conversational capabilities for interactive
     characters.  Responsibilities may also include collaboration in
     other areas including planning, plan recognition, speech output,
     and interactive graphics for believable agents.

          Qualifications: a Masters degree in computer science or
     computational linguistics or equivalent experience with
     concentration or strong experience in natural language processing,
     and evidence of experience building large systems.  Experience in
     dialogue systems, robust parsing, semantic parsing, pragmatic or
     emotional variation in NLG, or embodied natural language
     processing is a strong plus.


Zoesis is located in the Boston area and offers competitive salaries,
benefits and pre-IPO stock options in a fun, thoughtful, high-energy
environment.  Zoesis was started in 1997 by four researchers from
Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department to create AI-based
interactive characters (also known as Believable Agents, Life-like
Computer Characters and Synthetic Agents).  The founders of Zoesis are
pioneers in this field, having created the CMU Oz project
(http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/oz/) in 1987 and organized the first
meetings in the field that helped established the research area at
AAAI, the Autonomous Agents Conference and elsewhere.

The technology and characters produced by Zoesis have been featured in
the popular press (including the New York Times), won technology and
content awards, continue to be shown in leading academic conferences
(e.g. SIGGRAPH, AAAI, etc.), and have been commercially deployed.
More information about Zoesis including examples of Zoesis character
technology is available at http://www.zoesis.com .

If interested, please send a CV or resume highlighting relevant
experience, and the time you would be available to start to:
jobs at zoesis.com or by fax 617-969-4472.