PhD Stipend in AI-guided Speech Enhancement for Human Language Technology

PhD Stipend in AI-guided Speech Enhancement for Human Language Technology

At the Technical Faculty of IT and Design, Department of Electronic Systems, a PhD stipend in AI-guided Speech Enhancement for Human Language Technology is available within the general study programme Electrical and Electronic Engineering. The stipend is open for appointment from November 1, 2024, or soon as possible thereafter. In electronic engineering, Aalborg University is known worldwide for its high academic quality and societal impact. The Department of Electronic Systems employs more than 200 people, of which about 90 are PhD students, and about 40 % of all employees are internationals. In total, it has more than 600 students in its BSc and MSc programs, which are based on AAU's problem-based learning model. The department leverages its unique research infrastructure and lab facilities to conduct world-leading fundamental and applied research within communication, networks, control systems, AI, sound, cyber security, and robotics. The department plays an active role in transferring inventions and results into applications in close collaboration with industrial partners worldwide. You can read more about the department at www.es.aau.dk.

Jobbeskrivelse
Do you want to be part of creating the future of human language technology, and do research that can enable the use of AI-technology with low-resource languages, to help increasing equality around the world?

We are looking for a strong candidate with a passion for research, innovation, science, and mathematics, who wants to climb the academic ladder and do a PhD project within a European Consortium of leading research institutions and industrial partners supported by the European Defence Fund.

The objective of this PhD project is to enable AI solutions for Human Language Technology, real and challenging environments, where signals are extremely noisy and distorted, and include severe lingual variations, when data and computational ressources are scarce. This will be tackled using a combination of classical signal processing methods with state-of-the-art machine learning techniques, and you will thus find yourself in the intersection between emerging research domains and innovations, where real-life constraints including complexity, explainability, and security apply.

On the journey, you will have supervisors from the Audio Analysis Lab(https://audio.es.aau.dk/) at Aalborg University, and closely collaborate with external European Partners to ensure that the research is able to enable downstream Human Language Technology tasks such as recognition, translation, and information extraction. This setup will provide both a solid academic, corporate and international foundation with freedom to explore.

The primary location will be in the Audio Analysis Lab, Aalborg University in Aalborg, while some travel activities are expected as part of the collaborative European project.

We thus imagine that you:

• have a strong background in digital signal processing and machine learning.
• have substantial experience with scientific computing in Python and ideally also MATLAB.
• have knowledge about recent neural network architectures for machine learning(e.g., CNNs, RNNs, GANs)
• have considerable experience with a deep learning framework
• have a relevant master's degree and a strong desire to pursue a PhD degree
• are curious about the cross-field between signal processing and machine learning
• are adept at working independently
• are able to communicate in English and collaborate across
• possess the ability to obtain and maintain security clearance level of TILTJENESTEBRUG(NATO RESTRICTED, RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED) or higher during the entire employment.The Audio Analysis Lab at the Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University conducts research in audio and acoustic signal processing for good health, well-being and security. Our research focuses on how signal processing and machine learning can be used to solve problems of importance to the health and well-being of people in their daily lives. These include reducing the influence of noise on our lives and extracting useful information from degraded acoustic signals for biomedical purposes. We thus work on a wide range of research topics, such as noise reduction, sound zones, active noise cancellation, voice analysis, and spectral analysis. The lab’s activities are funded by grants from the Villum Foundation, Independent Research Fund Denmark, and Innovation Fund Denmark. The various research projects are carried out in close collaboration with leading industrial partners and universities around the world.
  

You may obtain further information from Assoc. Prof. Jesper Rindom Jensen, Department of Electronic Systems, email:[email protected], concerning the scientific aspects of the stipend.

PhD stipends are allocated to individuals who hold a Master's degree. PhD stipends are normally for a period of 3 years. It is a prerequisite for allocation of the stipend that the candidate will be enrolled as a PhD student at the Technical Doctoral School of IT and Design in accordance with the regulations of Ministerial Order No. 1039 of August 27, 2013 on the PhD Programme at the Universities and Certain Higher Artistic Educational Institutions. According to the Ministerial Order, the progress of the PhD student shall be assessed at regular points in time.

Shortlisting will be applied. This means that subsequent to the deadline for applications the head of department supported by the chair of the assessment committee will select candidates for assessment. All applicants will be informed whether they will be assessed or not.

For further information about stipends and salary as well as practical issues concerning the application procedure contact Ms. Lisbeth Diinhoff, The Doctoral School at The Technical Faculty of IT and Design, email:[email protected] phone:+45 9940 9589.

For more information of The Technical Doctoral School of IT and Design:www.phd.tech.aau.dk

The application is only to be submitted online by using the"Apply online" button below.

AAU wishes to reflect the diversity of society and welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background or belief.

Løn og ansættelsesvilkår
Appointment and salary as a PhD fellow are according to the Ministry of Finance Circular of 15 December 2021 on the Collective Agreement for Academics in Denmark, Appendix 5, regarding PhD fellows, and with the current Circular of 11 December 2019 on the employment structure at Danish universities.

Ansøgningsfrist
2024-09-22

Ref. nummer
8-24059

Afdeling
Department of Electronic Systems