| More Information: | PhD Studentship
RCUK Stipend (£14,057 tax-free in 2015/16)
Fixed Term 42 months
Applications are invited for a PhD studentship to work in the interdisciplinary
area lying between computational linguistics and argumentation. The studentship
is associated with the EPSRC-funded Argument Mining project which aims to
develop a range of techniques in computational linguistics to exploit theories
of argument structure and classical rhetoric in order to automatically identify
human reasoning in unconstrained natural language texts. The project involves
two commercial partners: one a local tech company, the other, IBM and the Watson
team in particular.
Argument Mining – automatically extracting the structure of reasoning from
text – is an exciting and rapidly expanding area of computational linguistics
and text analytics. Two years ago there were fewer than a dozen papers in the
area; since then, there have been five international events, hundreds of papers,
and at least 20 research groups around the world gearing up to tackle the
problem. The Centre for Argument Technology is playing a key role in this field,
providing not only significant theoretical advances but also some of the most
widely used software tools and datasets.
The PhD student will be able to explore theories of argument structure from
linguistic and computational perspectives with a view to automatically
extracting such structure. The work will involve working in one or more
application domains, and could involve working with the commercial partners.
A basic understanding of linguistics or computational linguistics would be a
significant advantage, whilst exposure to theories of reasoning, argument or
critical thinking would be a benefit. Candidates would typically be expected to
have, or be on track for, a first class honours degree or equivalent, or a
distinction at Masters level.
The post will be held in the Centre for Argument Technology in the School of
Science & Engineering at the University of Dundee. At the most recent REF,
research in the discipline of Computer Science was rated third in Scotland, with
79% of its research rated world-leading or internationally excellent (4* or 3*).
Dundee has been ranked amongst the top places in the world for scientists to
work (The Scientist), and has one of the lowest costs of living in the UK.
The starting date for the 42-month post is negotiable in 2016; the project will
start on 01 January 2016, and it will run for four years.
More information is available from the research group web site at
http://arg.tech, and applicants should apply by sending a CV and covering letter
to Prof. Chris Reed. Closing date for applications is 28 February 2016.
The University of Dundee is a registered Scottish Charity, No: SC015096 |