PhD position in statistical language modelling at Cardiff University

Applications are invited for a PhD Scholarship at the Cardiff School of Computer Science & Informatics in the area of statistical language modelling.

Project description:

The aim of the project will be to develop methods for modelling the meaning of natural language terms, based on data from social media and other web sources. For example, by analysing the tags associated with Flickr photos, the developed methods will be able to learn that a church is a kind of building, that churches tend to be larger than typical buildings and that chapels are similar to churches. The results of this project will be used to improve methods from artificial intelligence for commonsense reasoning, and will among others enable more intelligent web search engines.

Funding & eligibility:

This studentship consists of full UK/EU tuition fees, as well as a Doctoral Stipend matching UK Research Council National Minimum (£14,057 p.a. for 2015/16, updated each year). This studentship is open to students of any nationality. Students classified as international for fee purposes have to self-fund the difference between home and international fees.

Candidates should:

• either have (or expect to have by Autumn 2015) a good honours degree in a relevant discipline (minimum 2:1); 

• or have a masters degree with distinction in the research dissertation in a relevant discipline; 

• or have professional qualifications deemed by Cardiff University to be equivalent to the above; 

• or be over 25 and have relevant work experience in a position of responsibility.

The methods will rely heavily on methods from statistics and linear algebra, hence a strong background in mathematics will be required, in addition to excellent programming skills. A strong mathematical background and excellent programming skills will also be required.

Deadline for applications: 1 June 2015

More information: http://courses.cardiff.ac.uk/funding/R2497.html