<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div><br></div><div>The Social Cognitive Systems Group at Bielefeld University is seeking applications for a </div><div><br></div><div>** Full-time (100%) Research Assistant / Ph.D. Student position **</div><div><br></div><div>to work in a newly established project on multimodal creativity in AI-based co-speech gesture </div><div>generation. The project is part of<span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> a</span> newly established Collaborative Research Center (CRC </div><div>1646) on “Linguistic Creativity in Communication” funded by the German Research Agency </div><div>(DFG) for 4 years. The goal of the project is to investigate how co-speech gestures are employed </div><div>to support both speaker and listener when new linguistic constructions are invented to solve</div><div>a challenging situation in communication (e.g. referring to an entity for which no conventionalized</div><div>term is available and ordinary language productivity does not suffice). It will be carried out by the</div><div>Social Cognitive Systems Group (Prof. Stefan Kopp) in collaboration with the Psycholinguistics </div><div>Group (Prof. Joana Cholin) at Bielefeld University, and will encompass both experimental studies </div><div>with human speakers as well as the development of computational models (using machine learning</div><div>techniques) of speech-gesture use in such situations. </div><div><br></div><div>The announced position will be working for the computational part under supervision of Prof. </div><div>Stefan Kopp. The main task will be to extend the currently popular data-based accounts that predict</div><div>gestures from (prosodic and textual) information in a given speech input, to models that are able</div><div>to generate novel gestures that (1) meet communicative demands that are not met by the given </div><div>simultaneous speech or (2) mark and support the use of non-conventionalized creative language. </div><div>We will build on the group’s long-standing previous work on cognitive and linguistic models of</div><div>speech-gesture generation, as well as <span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">deep machine learning-based accounts of </span>speech-driven </div><div>gesture synthesis. In addition, the research assistant/PhD student will carry out interdisciplinary </div><div>work with the psycholinguistic part of the project. </div><div><br></div><div>The duration of the position is about 3,5 years (until end of 2027). Salary is 100% TVL-E13 scale</div><div>(about 4.000,- EUR per month before taxes, depending on relevant work experience).</div><div><br></div><div>Bielefeld is the vibrant center of the region of East Westphalia and Germany’s greenest big city </div><div>with a lot of cultural, entertainment, and recreational opportunities. It is located in the center of</div><div>Germany, surrounded by beautiful forests, and connected to Germany’s high-speed rail system. </div><div>Bielefeld University is a strong research-oriented university with more than 20.000 students and</div><div>a famous commitment to interdisciplinary research. It hosts major research centers such as the</div><div>Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) or the Center for Interdisciplinary Research </div><div>(ZiF).</div><div><br></div><div>Application deadline is 25th of January, but later applications will be considered too until the</div><div>position has been filled. </div><div><br></div><div>If you are interested to learn more about the position, please get in contact with Stefan Kopp</div><div>(<a href="mailto:skopp@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de">skopp@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de</a>).</div><div><br></div><div>For information on how to apply please refer to:</div><div><a href="https://uni-bielefeld.hr4you.org/job/view/3067/research-positions?page_lang=en">https://uni-bielefeld.hr4you.org/job/view/3067/research-positions?page_lang=en</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></body></html>