Two fully funded PhD positions on Answering Questions using Web Data

Fraunhofer IAIS is pleased to announce two PhD positions - fully-funded with the EU research project: “WDAqua: Answering questions using Web Data”, which has started in January 2015.

Research Area:

The project will undertake advanced fundamental and applied research into models, methods, and tools for data-driven question answering on the Web, spanning over a diverse range of areas and disciplines (data analytics, data mining, information retrieval, social computing, cloud computing, large-scale distributed computing, Linked Data, and Web science). Potential topics for a PhD dissertation include, but are not limited to:

● Design of a cloud-based system architecture for question answering (QA), extensible by plugins for all stages of the process of QA and Web data
● High-quality interpretation of voice input and natural language text as database queries for question answering.
● Leveraging Web Data for advanced entity disambiguation and contextualisation of queries given as natural language.
● Question answering methods using ecosystems of heterogeneous data sets (structured, unstructured, linked, stream-like, uncertain).

Institution

The about 200 employees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS;http://www.iais.fraunhofer.de <http://www.iais.fraunhofer.de/>) investigate and develop innovative systems for data analysis and information management. Specific areas of competence include information integration (represented by the IAIS department Organized Knowledge), big data (department Knowledge Discovery), and multimedia technologies (department NetMedia).

Requirements:
1. Master Degree in Computer Science (or equivalent).
2. You must not have resided or worked for more than 12 months in Germany in the 3 years before starting to work.
3. Proficiency in spoken and written English. Proficiency in German is a plus but not required.
4. Proficiency in Programming languages like Java/Scala or JavaScript, and modern software engineering methodology.
5. Familiarity with Semantic Web technologies, Natural Language Processing, Speech Recognition, Indexing Technologies, Distributed Systems and Cloud Computing is an asset.

As a successful candidate for this award, you will:
1. Spend the majority of your time at Fraunhofer IAIS, where you will research and write a dissertation leading to a PhD (awarded by the University of Bonn).
2. Have a minimum of two academic supervisors from the WDAqua project.
3. Receive a full salary and a support grant to attend conferences, summer schools, and other events related to your research each year.
4. Engage with other researchers and participate in the training program offered by the WDAqua project, including internships at other partners in the project.

Further Information

For further information, please see the WDAqua homepage at http://www.iai.uni-bonn.de/~langec/wdaqua/ <http://www.iai.uni-bonn.de/~langec/wdaqua/>.

How to apply

Applications should include a CV and a letter of motivation. Applicants should list two referees that may be contacted by the Department and are moreover invited to submit a research sample (publication or research paper). Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis. For full consideration, please apply until 27.02.2015.

Applications should be sent to Dr. Christoph Lange-Bever.
E-Mail: Christoph.Lange-Bever@iais.fraunhofer.de <mailto:Christoph.Lange-Bever@iais.fraunhofer.de>
Tel.: +49 2241/14-2428 <tel:%2B49%202241%2F14-2428>


Best Regards

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Saeedeh Shekarpour
Postdoctoral Researcher
Enterprise Information Systems Department, University of Bonn