{"id":1374,"date":"2014-08-11T13:11:23","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T13:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arg.tech\/?page_id=1374"},"modified":"2014-12-02T15:13:40","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T15:13:40","slug":"epsrc14-phd","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.arg.tech\/index.php\/epsrc14-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"EPSRC DTG-funded PhD studentship"},"content":{"rendered":"

PhD project \u201cRecognizing Trust in Natural Language\u201d
\n<\/strong>Applications are invited for a PhD studentship in the EPSRC<\/a> DTP<\/a>-funded project \u201cRecognizing Trust in Natural Language\u201d in the areas of computer models of argument, natural language processing and big data<\/strong>. Processing and evaluation of trust in speaker\u2019s credibility is crucial for many different sectors of industry such as e.g. reviews that provide the main source of information for users of online shopping networks such as Amazon and eBay, and travel sites as TripAdvisor. The goal of the project is to build a prototype of a system for semi-automatic identification and exploration through big maps of arguments linked to the credibility of their providers.<\/p>\n

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\nApplication<\/strong>
\nYou can apply by sending a CV with a covering letter to Dr. Katarzyna Budzynska<\/a> (k.budzynska (at) dundee.ac.uk)
\nApplication deadline: 18 Dec 2014<\/strong>
\nStarting date of the project: mid 2015<\/strong>
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1. Main Goal<\/strong>
\nTrust in the speaker’s character, his credibility or ethos, is one of the most important and influential elements of real-life practice — from everyday communication, social debates, news, reviews for online sellers or travel sites, legal discourse to human intelligence. Being able to properly evaluate an information source is crucial for deciding whether or not we should believe news report provided by a journalist or a blogger, or whether or not we should convict a suspect on a basis of a given witness testimony.<\/p>\n

The goal of the project is to understand how people express trust in natural language<\/strong> and to apply methods and techniques of computational linguistics and natural language processing to argument mining<\/strong>, i.e. to extracting of trust and credibility from resources of natural language texts. The project’s output will be a prototype of a system for semi-automatic processing of trust and exploring through big maps of arguments linked to the credibility of their providers.<\/p>\n

The workplan assumes that the project will first develop an annotated corpus applying the Inference Anchoring Theory standard and then provide a demonstrator of Ethos Mining tool<\/strong> for semi-automated extraction of arguments supporting and attacking ethos. We will also work on integrating the tool with other ARG-tech’s tools for argument mapping, navigation and exploration.<\/p>\n

2. Links with Industry<\/strong>
\nProcessing and evaluation of trust in speaker’s credibility is crucial for many different sectors of industry. For example, reviews provide the main source of information for users of online shopping networks such as Amazon and eBay, and travel sites as TripAdvisor. Yet analysing and structuring vast amounts of specialized data can be a very expensive task in terms of time and effort. The main technological challenge is to enable processing big datasets in a more structured and semi-automatic way. This project will be run in parallel and in a close cooperation with a research assistant who will start at the same time on a TSB-funded project \u201cArgument Analytics\u201d<\/a> which involves an industrial partner.<\/p>\n

3. Prospects for Further Career Path<\/strong>
\nDifferent funding bodies are starting to recognise the potential and importance of innovation and development in the area of big data<\/strong>. The Scottish Funding Council<\/em> (SFC) has just funded \u2018Big data\u2019 innovation centre setting to add over 300 jobs and \u00a3150m to Scottish economy (read here<\/a>). Both EPSRC and EU (H2020) are investing a large amounts of funds for the calls addressing the area of big data:<\/p>\n

Big Data creates numerous opportunities for driving research and development (…) [RCUK] recognises the enormous potential of Big Data for the UK economy with a total sum of \u00a3189 million to invest in its exploitation.<\/em>
\nUK Research Councils on Big Data; available at here<\/a><\/p>\n

Worldwide Big Data technology and services are expected to grow from \u20ac2.4 billion in 2010 to \u20ac12.7 billion in 2015. The challenge is to strengthen Europe\u2019s position as provider of products and services based on digital content and data.<\/em>
\nEU Council Decision Establishing the Specific Programme Implementing HORIZON 2020.<\/p>\n

4. Environment and Support<\/strong>
\nThe studentship will be held in the Centre for Argument Technology, ARG-tech<\/a>, in the School of Computing at the University of Dundee. The research will be supervised by Dr. Katarzyna Budzynska<\/a>, and held in close cooperation with Prof. Chris Reed<\/a> and a research assistant who will start at the same time on a TSB-funded project \u201cArgument Analytics\u201d<\/a> (involving an industrial partner), as well as with our collaborators in France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland.<\/p>\n

ARG-tech<\/strong> has built a reputation on balancing high quality theoretical research with robust and reliable software engineering. Its software<\/a> is in use in thousands of schools, colleges and universities in over 60 countries around the world. The group of ARG-tech is working with users and major players in domains such as law, mediation, government, media and education, and the tools we are building are regularly demonstrated to groups within these domains.<\/p>\n

The student will be working in close cooperation with the international network<\/strong> of our collaborators in IRIT Toulouse<\/a> (discourse processing and opinion mining, computational linguistics); University of Potsdam<\/a> (discourse generation and speech act theory, computational linguistics); Polish National Academy of Sciences<\/a> at Warsaw (logic and philosophy of communication); and Universit\u00e0 della Svizzera italiana<\/a> in Lugano (pragmatics of financial communication, communication studies).<\/p>\n

At the most recent RAE, the research of the School of Computing<\/a> in Dundee<\/strong> was rated fourth in Scotland, with two thirds 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), has one of the lowest costs of living in the UK, and has been voted one of the best universities in the UK for student experience.<\/p>\n

5. Requirements and Conditions<\/strong>
\nThe candidate should have at least bachelor degree, preferably in linguistics, computational linguistics, computer science, artificial intelligence or related areas<\/strong>. Programming experience would be an advantage. According to EPSRC regulations<\/a>, an applicant has to be current UK resident student<\/strong><\/a>. Interest in communication and natural language in either computational, linguistic or philosophical settings would be beneficial.<\/p>\n

The project will start in 2015 and will run for 3.5 years.<\/p>\n

Stipendary payments are at EPSRC levels (13,863 GBP for academic year 2014\/15; tax-free). Applicants should meet the EPSRC’s eligibility requirements (see www.epsrc.ac.uk).<\/p>\n

6. Application<\/strong>
\nApplicants should send a CV with a covering letter to Dr. Katarzyna Budzynska<\/a><\/strong>, School of Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, or by email to k.budzynska (at) dundee.ac.uk<\/p>\n