PhD scholarships

[Tracy Holloway King]

Two PhD scholarships in Computational Linguistics (CL) and Computer
Assisted Language Learning (CALL) 2002-2005

The School of Computer Applications and the National Centre for
Language Technology at Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland,
invites applications from suitably qualified candidates for the
following PhD scholarships:

1. Integration of 'low-level' CL/NLP technology into CALL materials.

 This research will produce CALL software to automatically generate
 CALL materials, exercises, on-line grading, feedback and on-line
 resources such as grammars and dictionaries based on existing
 'low-level' finite-state and statistics based CL/NLP technology
 (tagging, morphological analysis, chunking etc.). The target is a
 CALL-workbench for beginner level learners.

2. Integration of 'high-level' CL/NLP technology into CALL materials.

 Collaborative learning is highly successful. However, the independent
 CALL learner may not have access to a co-learner. This research will
 use existing 'high-level' CL techniques (e.g. speech, syntax,
 semantics, machine translation, text generation, question-answering,
 summarisation) to simulate a collaborative learning environment in
 terms of a simple, artificial co-learner. The target is a
 CALL-workbench for advanced learners.

Candidates:

Ideal candidates would have a background in one or more of CL, NLP,
Computer Science, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL),
Linguistics, AI, Cognitive Science and Human Computer Interaction.
Programming experience (ideally one or more of Java, Perl, XML, HTML)
and an interest in CALL are essential.

The PhDs are funded by the Irish Science Council as part of an
Enterprise Ireland Basic Research grant.  Each scholarship covers fees
and subsistence (15,000 Euro per annum).

The deadline for submitting an application is the 15th September,
2002.  The expected starting date is the 1st of October, 2002, in
Dublin City University.

Prospective applicants are invited to get in touch with Monica Ward at
mward at computing.dcu.ie, providing a short CV with details of their
background, qualifications and interests.

Monica Ward
Josef van Genabith
School of Computer Applications
Dublin City University
Dublin 9, Ireland