<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal">On behalf of Prof Uta Noppeney. <br></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:6pt;text-align:center"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:calibri,sans-serif">PhD position in Neurocomputational Linguistics<span></span></span></b><span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:6pt;text-align:center"><b><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">University
of Birmingham in collaboration with Google Research London<span></span></span></b><span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt 0cm 6pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">Language comprehension is critical
for effective interactions in our social world. In order to understand ‘who
does what to whom’ in natural language processing, the brain needs to assign a
syntactic structure to every sentence – a process coined ‘syntactic parsing’. <span></span></span><span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">This interdisciplinary project will
combine expertise from human neuroscience (University of Birmingham) and
computational linguistics (Google Research London) to determine the neural
mechanisms underlying sentence comprehension in the human brain and advance
parsing algorithms in machines. To study natural language processing and the
underlying neural mechanisms in humans, we will measure eye movements,
behavioural (psychophysics) and electrophysiological responses (EEG/fMRI) in
participants reading natural sentences from syntactically annotated corpora. We
will employ advanced machine learning algorithms to characterize the
computational operations and neural mechanisms underlying syntactic processing
in the human brain. Conversely, the insights obtained from human neuroimaging
(EEG/fMRI) and eye tracking will provide critical constraints on the parameters
and algorithms used in machine.<span></span></span><span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">The PhD position is designed to
involve a 3 month internship at Google Research London.<span></span></span><span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">The Computational Cognitive
Neuroimaging Group (Uta Noppeney) in collaboration with Google Research London
(Bernd Bohnet, Ryan McDonald) is seeking an enthusiastic PhD candidate with
strong analytical and quantitative abilities. Applicants should have a
background in computational linguistics, neuroscience, computer science,
psychology, physics or related areas. Prior experience in statistical analysis
and/or machine learning would be an advantage. <span></span></span><span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">The Computational Cognitive
Neuroimaging Lab is based at the Department of Psychology and the Computational
Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics Centre of the University of Birmingham, UK.
The centre provides an excellent multidisciplinary, interactive and
collaborative research environment combining expertise in cognitive
neuroimaging, psychophysics and computational neuroscience. The psychology
department was rated 5th in the UK research assessment exercise.<span></span></span><span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/psychology/research/labs/comp-cog-neuro/index.aspx"><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/psychology/research/labs/comp-cog-neuro/index.aspx</span></a><span></span></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/cncr/index.aspx"><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/cncr/index.aspx</span></a><span></span></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6pt;text-align:justify"><span></span><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">Applications will be considered
until 8th January 2017. The starting date is Sept/Oct 2017. iCASE students must
fulfil the MIBTP entry requirements and will join the MIBTP cohort for the
taught modules and masterclasses during the first term. They will remain as an
integral part of the MIBTP cohort and take part in the core networking
activities and transferable skills training. For further information, please
contact </span><a href="mailto:u.noppeney@bham.ac.uk"><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">u.noppeney@bham.ac.uk</span></a><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">.<span></span></span><span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">Check eligibility and apply here: <span></span></span><span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.findaphd.com/common/clickCount.aspx?theid=79324&type=184&DID=148&url=https%3a%2f%2fwww2.warwick.ac.uk%2ffac%2fcross_fac%2fmibtp%2fpgstudy%2fphd_opportunities%2fapplication%2f" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif">https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp/pgstudy/phd_opportunities/application/</span></a> <span></span></p></div>