[R-lang] PhD student position at Penn State: computational models of language

[David Reitter]

In the coming year, I am going to take one graduate student to work on...


                         Computational Models of Language


The student is expected to integrate existing and new psycholinguistic evidence, data from large corpora, and cognitive constraints in a project that could yield applied or theoretical products.  

Some examples of possible research topics are
- alignment in multi-party dialogue, 
- models of hybrid incremental/non-incremental syntactic processing (comprehension or production),
- the relationship of language evolution and learning in a general cognitive architecture, and
- a computational-cognitive model of the interaction of memory and language processing.

The lab has relevant technology to support research in language processing, such as an eye-tracker, access to datasets, experience with web-based experiments and a modern, fast-paced experimental subject pool such as Mechanical Turk, as well as a brain imaging facility on campus.  Through a new collaboration, we have access to a long-term online discussion forum dataset that might allow retrospective longitudinal studies.

The college of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) offers a PhD program that trains its graduates to look at research questions from multiple perspectives.  We have faculty working in areas such as cognitive science, network science, information retrieval, cyber law, cyber security and social science.  Penn State offers interaction with other language researchers in the Center for Language Science, and the Social, Life and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center.

At the Applied Cognitive Science lab (http://acs.ist.psu.edu/), we describe human cognition by modeling its output and process through precise, computational, predictive descriptions. Because humans exist in society, our cognitive simulations show how the human mind interacts with networked teams and communities and how these evolved properties give rise to emergent group cognition. We support this work with software to build models more easily, record behavior, and to build tutors, and through courses related to cognitive science and Information Science & Technology in general.

The successful applicant will have gained some initial research experience and have published a conference paper; s/he will hold a degree (with appropriate specialization) in linguistics, psychology, cognitive science or computer science.  S/he will have strong programming and computer skills.  For the general requirements of the IST graduate school, see http://www.ist.psu.edu/graduate-students/future-graduate-students .

Feel free to contact me to discuss: reitter@psu.edu

Please apply at:  http://www.ist.psu.edu/graduate-students/future-graduate-students/apply

The flexible application target date is Dec 15th.


-- 
Dr. David Reitter
Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology
Co-Director, Applied Cognitive Science Lab
Penn State University
http://www.david-reitter.com