Research Interns, Language Processing and Text Mining

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Research and Educational Information (DIPF) in Frankfurt am Main is a federally and state-funded member of the Leibniz Association. The Ubiquitous Knowledge Processing Lab at the DIPF's Information Center for Education is currently seeking Interns (for a term of six months) in the field of Language Processing and Text-Mining for its Frankfurt am Main location.

The position is part of the establishment of the new working branch of the Ubiquitous Knowledge Processing Lab under the leadership of Prof. Iryna Gurevych (UKP-DIPF) at the Frankfurt am Main location. The Lab cooperates closely with the Technology-based Assessment and Information Management groups at DIPF, as well as with the Department of Computer Science (UKP-TUD, Prof. Iryna Gurevych) at the Technische Universität Darmstadt. It is the core of a newly built institutional research priority for knowledge processing at DIPF and the Technische Universität Darmstadt.

The UKP Lab conducts research in the intersection of language processing and machine learning, text mining, and knowledge discovery in the Web. The Lab's approach combines the foundations of large-scale language processing, real-world text mining, and hands-on skills in the rapid development of scalable systems with practical relevance.

Requirements We are looking for graduate students working on some of the following topics: language processing, text mining, machine learning, and data visualization, with substantial theoretical knowledge, excellent problem-solving and programming (Java) skills for language processing, eagerness to apply the knowledge and skills in new contexts, and interest to participate in internationally competitive research leading to publications in the respective cutting-edge conferences. The ability to work independently, personal commitment, teamwork and communication skills, and a readiness to cooperate are required. The ability to speak German is desired, but is not a hard requirement.

The position is ideally suited for individuals willing to acquire graduate-level research experience to qualify as a PhD student, research associate, or for an industry position.

Applications from women are particularly encouraged. All other things being equal, candidates with disabilities will be given preference.

The position is a fixed-term contract with an option to extend it, provided certain conditions are met. A part-time working arrangement is possible.

As a scientific institution, the primary goals of the Leibniz Institute DIPF are high-profile basic research and innovative scientific services. Particular importance and visibility is attached to their application to education in the public sector. DIPF avails itself of the expertise of computer science at TU Darmstadt to build a research center for knowledge processing and educational computer science.

The Department of Computer Science of TU Darmstadt is regularly ranked among the best in Germany. Among the distinguishing features of the nascent UKP-DIPF working group are its applications of semantic language technology, text mining, and information retrieval, as well as its powerful infrastructures for the aggregation and evaluation of knowledge.

_Contact_:
Applications (including CV, details of previous academic work, educational and professional references, and final thesis in electronic form) should be submitted by February 10, 2012 to
gurevych (at) cs (dot) tu-darmstadt (dot) de.