[Corpora-List] Three open positions in NLP for Web Intelligence at Sheffield

[Fabio Ciravegna]

The Natural Language Group of the Computer Science Department of the
University of Sheffield (http://nlp.shef.ac.uk/) has three open
positions within the European Project dot.kom
(http://nlp.shef.ac.uk/dot.kom/) for working on Adaptive Information
Extraction for Knowledge Management and the Semantic Web
(http://www.semanticweb.org/). The activity is inserted in the larger
activity of Web Intelligence
(http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/%7Efabio/wiactivity.html).

The posts are available on a fixed term basis and are tenable
immediately (or a date to be agreed) and will run until the end of the
dot.kom project (March 2005). It is very likely that the contract will
be extended at the end on other projects.


The Project

Dot.kom is studying, designing, and implementing innovative
methodologies for Knowledge Management (KM) based on the use of adaptive
Information Extraction (IE). From the scientific point of view, we are
focusing on two aspects that are symmetric: how the use in KM poses
requirements and challenges to IE and how the use of IE changes KM. From
the practical point of view, we are defining tools and methodologies for
IE-based KM.

Partners in dot.kom are the University of Sheffield (coordinator), the
Open University (UK), the University of Karlsruhe (D), ITC-Irst (I),
Quinary (I) and Ontoprise(D).

Concerning IE (the area where these posts are available) we are focusing
on the study and implementation of user-driven Information Extraction
systems that can easily be ported to new application domains by using
limited or no knowledge of Natural Language Processing.


The Posts

The successful candidates will have a degree or PhD in Computer Science
or related areas and a strong computational background in Java or C++.
Knowledge of Natural Language Processing and Web technologies is a plus.

The activity in dot.kom associated to the open positions will concern
the following three areas of research:

Machine learning models for adaptive IE

1. Web services, web, agent based computing for Web Intelligence
2. Human computer interaction and adaptive IE for web intelligence

Position 1: Research Associate or Assistant. (£18,265 – £25,451 p.a.):
the research will cover new methodologies of Machine Learning for
information integration and extraction over the web or large
repositories. The activity is the natural continuation of the activity
on Amilcare and the (LP)2 algorithm. It will involve supervised and
unsupervised learning from documents. Knowledge of NLP, machine
learning, and/or statistical NLP is required.

Position 2: Research Associate or Assistant (£18,265 – £25,451 p.a.):
the research will cover the definition of an NLP-based agent-based
architecture for composing services for web intelligence. The
application will concern knowledge management. Preference will be given
to candidates with knowledge of agent-based architectures.

Position 3: Research Assistant: (£18,265 - £20,311 p.a.). The
intelligent web will pose strong Human Computer Interaction
requirements. The successful candidate will have knowledge of graphics
and/or HCI and/or web technologies. This position could be converted
into one part time position pro rata.


Department of Computer Science

This is a lively and busy academic department with thirty academic
staff, thirty-five research associates, one departmental administrator,
five secretaries, seven technical staff and approximately 500
undergraduate and postgraduate students. We are in both the Faculty of
Engineering and the Faculty of Pure Science and run six undergraduate
degree courses and five MSc courses. There are six research groups –
Natural Language Processing, Speech and Hearing, Verification and
Testing, Machine Learning, Graphics and Robotics.

The Department of Computer Science at Sheffield University is a leading
European centre for research in the area of Computational Linguistics
and Language Engineering. The Natural Language Processing Group
(http://nlp.shef.ac.uk <http://nlp.shef.ac.uk/>) was founded nine years
ago under the leadership of Professor Yorick Wilks, and now has over
thirty members. The group has special expertise in a range of areas,
including information extraction, software architectures for natural
language processing, dialogue and conversational systems, and lexicons
and ontologies.The NLP Research Group is the largest group within the
Department of Computer Science, with 4 Professors, 1 Reader, 1 Senior
Lecturer and 2 Lecturers.

The group also consists of 1 Senior Research Scientist, 24 Research
Associates, 10 PhD Students, 1 Research Coordinators, and 1 Research
Secretary.
The group currently has 17 Grants, 8 European (3 as Coordinator) and 9 UK.

Membership of such a large and well-funded research group brings many
advantages. The group provides an excellent research environment, with
the benefits of shared expertise, opportunities for intellectual
exchange and collaboration, and a good computing, research and
administrative infrastructure. In addition, the group's success in
winning research funding provides the potential for longer-term
employment, through researchers being hired onto further grants.


For all posts

Salaries: Salary ranges (under review): £18,265 – £20,311 or £18,265 –
£25,451p.a. according to qualifications and experience (full time or
part time considered)
Terms & Conditions: as for Research staff

Length of contract: To 31 March 2005 in the first instance, however it
is likely the contracts will be extended at the end of the term.

Start Date: 1 December 2003 (or as soon as possible thereafter)

Closing date: 21 November 2003


How apply

To apply for a vacancy first obtain an Application Pack from Personnel
Services via one of the following methods:

online: (see http://www.shef.ac.uk/jobs/how_to_apply.php)

by phone - call the 24 hour telephone answering service:- +44 (0)114 222
1631.

by post: write to Personnel Services, Firth Court, Western Bank,
Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom.

by fax: +44 (0)114 222 1624.

collect in person: Personnel Services reception, 10 - 12 Brunswick
Street, Sheffield, S10 2FN.

Please ensure that you include the reference number of the post and your
full postal address when requesting details, otherwise you will incur
added delay in the information being sent out to you.

Requests for packs to be posted will normally be mailed out on the
working day following that on which the request is received.

INFORMAL ENQUIRIES: For an informal discussion of these positions,
please contact Prof. Fabio Ciravegna (Tel: 0114 2221940; email:
Fabio at dcs.shef.ac.uk <mailto:Fabio at dcs.shef.ac.uk>).

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_______________________________________________________

Fabio Ciravegna (F.Ciravegna at dcs.shef.ac.uk)
Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of
Sheffield, Regent Court, 211 Portobello Street, Sheffield, S1 4DP,
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel:+44(0)114-22.21940 Fax:+44 (0)114-22.21810
http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~fabio/
_______________________________________________________