Postdoctoral researcher in Speech and Language Technology for Low Saxon varieties

Within the Center for Groningen Language and Culture (CGTC) we are looking for a postdoctoral researcher (1.0 FTE, 4 years) on speech and language technology for Gronings (and Drents). The goal of this postdoctoral position is to investigate how low-resource speech and language technology can be developed and improved, specifically focusing on the Groningen, and Drenthe (and more generally, the Low Saxon) varieties. Consequently, this position will entail doing high-quality research into how low-resource varieties can benefit optimally from the most recent language and speech technology advancements and/or developing new approaches for this purpose. The position also entails helping (to supervise) PhD students with the development and improvement of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, text-to-speech (TTS) systems, and automatic translation systems, as well as making these available for public use. The implemented technology will be integrated into the MOI Grunnen | Drenthe project. In this project learning material and an integrative approach is developed for teaching primary school children the regional language. Additional tasks for the successful applicant may involve helping to collect acoustic or textual data for these varieties (e.g., using custom online interfaces, or using our state-of-the-art mobile laboratory SPRAAKLAB), and attempting to acquire external research funding benefitting both the project and personal development. You will become a member of both the GroNLP group and Speech Lab Groningen and as such, willingness to help with public engagement activities is also desirable. 

What are you going to do?

• Conducting independent high-quality research (and publishing) on improving speech and language technology for low resource varieties, mainly aimed at Gronings and Drents.
• Publishing the research results at the top conferences and publication venues in the field.
• Helping to supervise and collaborate with several PhD students who focus on developing and improving speech and language technology for low resource languages.
• Helping PhD students to implement ASR, TTS, and MT systems for varieties for Gronings, and Drents.
• Helping PhD students to make the above systems available online and/or through a robot for user-friendly access by others.
• Helping to collect and organize speech recordings and textual material of the varieties for which speech and language technology is developed.
• (Helping to) write external funding applications to further strengthen the research on speech and language technology for low resource varieties.
• Help with public engagement activities, specifically those aimed at the Low Saxon area.
• Participate in the weekly GroNLP meetings, and the bi-weekly Speech Lab Groningen meetings.
• Potentially help supervising BA or MA theses focusing on this subject.

You are an ambitious researcher with (or close to getting) a PhD in either Speech and/or Language Technology, Computational Linguistics, Computer Science or Artificial Intelligence. You have strong publications in journals and the main conferences in the field you obtained your PhD in. You have a demonstrably strong technical profile which is sufficient to conduct the tasks listed below, with experience in applying language (text) and/or speech technology to low-resource varieties. 

Specifically, we expect the following:

• You hold a PhD in Speech and/or Language Technology, Computational Linguistics, Computer Science or Artificial Intelligence.
• You have several impactful publications that demonstrate your research skills in the above field, and show you are able to apply to develop speech and/or language technology for low-resource varieties.
• You have demonstrable skills to train new models (instead of simply using existing models with different data) and develop new approaches for speech and/or language technology.
• You have experience, or are willing to learn, implementing language technology in a user-accessible way (e.g., via a website, or online application).
• You demonstrate motivation to seek further research funding.
• You are motivated to help supervise PhD students with their research on low-resource speech and language technology.
• Your level of English is sufficient to write academic articles and present your work.
• Motivation to learn (or the ability to already speak) the regional language (courses can be provided) is considered a plus.

• 232 vacation hours per year, based on a 38-hour workweek (1.0 FTE). You can also work more or fewer hours in exchange for more or fewer free hours. For example, with a 40-hour workweek, you save 96 extra free hours, and with a 36-hour workweek, you lose 96 hours.
• End-of-year bonus of 8.3% and 8% holiday allowance.
• Extensive opportunities for personal and professional development.

At the University of Groningen (UG), researchers from all fields of academia and technology are working on academic challenges and societal questions. Lecturers prepare their students for meaningful careers within or outside the academic world. Interdisciplinary research and teaching, sharing of knowledge, collaboration with businesses, government institutions, and societal organizations are aspects that are of the utmost importance to this European top university. The UG aims to be an open academic community with an inclusive and safe working climate that invites you to add your value.

The Faculty of Arts is a large and dynamic faculty located in the heart of the city of Groningen. More than 5,500 students and 900 staff work every day at the frontiers of knowledge. The Faculty offers a diverse range of academic programmes, with 16 Bachelor's programmes and over 40 Master's programmes. With its strong international orientation, the Faculty conducts research in fields including archaeology, cultural studies, history, international relations, journalism, literature, and linguistics. If you would like to learn more about the Faculty of Arts, visit rug.nl/let. 

You are going to be embedded in the Center for Groningen Language and Culture (and Speech Lab Groningen) within the broader GroNLP research group. Within the Center for Groningen Language and Culture, ample high-performance facilities are available to help you with your research. Specifically, we have access to our own server containing two A100 40GB GPUs, as well as an NVIDIA Grace Hopper system with a single H100 GPU. In addition, we have access to a Temi robot, and access to the mobile laboratory SPRAAKLAB. Funding is available every year to travel to conferences (if a paper can be presented). You will be supervised by Prof.dr. Martijn Wieling and Prof.dr. Malvina Nissim.

Do you have any questions or need more information?

Questions about the content of the job?
Martijn Wieling (Associate Professor): M.B.Wieling@rug.nl

Questions about your application process?
Martijn Wieling (Associate Professor): M.B.Wieling@rug.nl