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Call for Funded PhD candidates (Research Assistants) for R-GIRO project "AI and Semiotics"
2017/04/09 12:44

We search for highly motivated Ph.D. candidates (research assistants)  to join our research project.

# This call is same as http://bit.ly/2nPL9rL .

 

[Number of positions]
Research Assistant:
Grade (S):  2 positions  (about 2.5 million JPY/year)
Grade (A): 1 position  (about 1.4 million JPY/year)

 

[Address of work location and other information]

Ritsumeikan University Biwako Kusatsu Campus (1-1-1 Noji-higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan) 
Department of Information Science and Engineering, College of Information Science and Engineering

 

[Research Fields]
Artificial intelligence, Machine learning, Symbol Emergence in Robotics, Cognitive Robotics, Speech recognition, Language acquisition, Soft computing, and Home Robotics.

 

[Research Theme]
Research topics related to the project entitled  “International and Interdisciplinary Research Center for the Next-generation Artificial Intelligence and Semiotics” (leader: Tadahiro Taniguchi)
funded by R-GIRO (Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization).
We are looking for doctoral student students candidates of Ph.D. students who are willing to study artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics for developing a domestic service robot.
The service robot should be able to acquire a wide range of skills, concepts, and language, and adopt to its domestic and office environment. The process is closely related to symbol emergence in robotics.
(Examples of research topics)
· Artificial intelligence technology that enables robots to autonomously learn maps of homes and offices, to form hierarchical place and spatial concepts and object concepts shared with humans through human interactions, and to collaborate with human users.
· Artificial intelligence technology that enables a robot to acquire new vocabularies from human utterances and daily interactions alone.
· Artificial intelligence technology that enables a  robot to clearly identify and adapt cultural differences in lexical, pragmatic and phonetic systems in homes and offices
· Mobile manipulation technology for service robots
· A wide range of research topics related to developing intelligence of domestic service robots

 

[Expected candidate skills, interests, and backgrounds]
– Good mathematical background.
– English communication skill for daily discussion and writing papers: IELTS 6 (TOEIC 740).
– Programming skills in C++, Python, and related frameworks or libraries, e.g., Tensorflow, scikit-learn, and ROS, for machine learning and intelligent robot.
– Applicants are expected to be interested in natural language, language acquisition, and machine learning . Having related academic backgrounds is preferable.
– Willingness to contribute our RoboCup @Home and World Robot Summit teams  (http://www.robocupathome.org/ , http://worldrobotsummit.org/)

We will evaluate the candidates of grade (S) based on the criteria described above.

The candidates of Grade (A) need not satisfy all of the criteria described above.

 

[Qualifications]

Applicants must be interested in the research topic and have a strong will to conduct their research positively and actively.
Applicants must have a master degree in a related field before they start working as research assistants.

Applicants must study in the doctoral course of Graduate Scool of Information Science and Engineering while they are hired as research assistants.

 

[Starting date]

September 2017 or April 2018 (After the admission to the doctor course)

 

[Employment status]
A labor contract is an annual contract.
It can be extended every year based on evaluation by the superviser up to 3 years at most
[Compensation]
Research Assistant Grade (S): about 2.5 million JPY/year
Research Assistant Grade (A): about 1.4 million JPY/year
(The salary is calculated based on hourly wages. The exact salary depends on the working hours. )
* Note that this contract is not a scholarship, but a labor contract.
* You need tuition for the doctor course. The tuition is about 0.5 million JPY/year.
Please show that whether you are applying only (S), both (S) and (A), or only (S) in your application form.

 

[Selection process (selection method and hiring decision), notification of result]

Preliminary screening by reviewing documents, and secondary screening by presentation and interview

We conduct the selection and provide a tentative decision before you apply for the doctor course. 

(If you could not enter and start the doctor course at the designated timing, your qualification of the research assistant would automatically lose.

 

[Application method (including where to send documents)]

1. Curriculum vitae including e-mail address, academic experience, and work experience, etc..
2. List of publications [peer-reviewed original papers, proceedings papers, review articles, books, patents, and others].
3. Copies of major publications (within three articles).
4. Outline of past research (Free format).
5. Motivation letter (Free format).
6. Outline of prospective research (Free format). 
7. Reference letters or a list of researchers whom we can the applicant’s background  (within two letters).

Please describe that your application is for a funded Ph.D. position for R-GIRO project clearly on your application.

[Deadline]
10 May 2017
# We always look for self-funded Ph.D. student.

 

* Attention
The doctor course requires Admission Fee & Tuition.
http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/gsise/eng/admissions/tf.html/
Information about admission to our graduate school.

 

We recommend that the candidate places a contact ASAP if he/she has a possibility to apply to this position.

If you have any question, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Tadahiro Taniguchi, Professor 
Yoshinobu Hagiwara, Assistant Professor

Contact Email: adm (at) em.ci.ritsumei.ac.jp 
(Please use “@” instead of “( at )”.)

 

[Contact details (department, official position, name, e-mail address, and phone number of the responsible person)]

1-1-1 Noji-higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 
525-8577 
Tadahiro Taniguchi, Professor 
Yoshinobu Hagiwara, Assistant Professor 
Email: adm”(at)”em.ci.ritsumei.ac.jp 
(Please use “@” instead of “( at )”.) 
TEL: 077-561-5745 
Web: http://www.em.ci.ritsumei.ac.jp/en

Twitter: @tanichu

 

 

[Electronic submission]

Please send us the documents listed above via email. We recommend that an applicant prepares each document as a PDF file.

Tadahiro Taniguchi, Professor 
Yoshinobu Hagiwara, Assistant Professor

Contact Email: adm (at) em.ci.ritsumei.ac.jp 
(Please use “@” instead of “( at )”.)

[References]

Tadahiro Taniguchi, Takayuki Nagai, Tomoaki Nakamura, Naoto Iwahashi, Tetsuya Ogata, and Hideki Asoh, Symbol Emergence in Robotics: A Survey, Advanced Robotics, Vol.30, (11-12) pp. 706-728 .(2016)DOI:10.1080/01691864.2016.1164622 [LINK]