MACHINE LEARNING STUDENT ASSISTANT

Job description

Are you a Master’s student and ready to dive into groundbreaking language research projects at the forefront of technology? The Multimodal Language Department at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics is looking for a motivated student to support our innovative research. You'll work closely with a machine learning engineer on kinematic gesture analysis and the implementation of machine learning models for automatic annotation of gestures or eye gaze in videos. This is a unique chance to apply the skills you learned in your study to real-life research work and data. If you're passionate about this exciting and hands-on opportunity, we’d love to hear from you!

Activities

• Assist in the implementation and testing of machine learning models for the automatic segmentation of gestures and/ for tracking objects based on eye gaze in video data.
• Conduct video data preprocessing gesture and conversation datasets.
• Collaborate with the research team on various projects involving gesture and multimodal language analysis.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of tools for kinematic analysis of gestures.
  
   

Requirements

Essential

• Familiarity with programming languages such as Python and R is a must.
• Experience or coursework in machine learning, data analysis, computer vision or related areas.

• A relevant Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree (e.g. Computer Science, Data Science, Computational Linguistics, Cognitive Science or related fields).

• Excellent attention to detail and organizational skills.
• Good time management skills.
• Flexible availability.

Desirable

• Experience with Machine Learning frameworks like PyTorch.
• Basic understanding of kinematic analysis and gesture studies is preferred.
• Familiarity with Linux and GPU cluster usage is preferred.

What we offer you

• Position for 1 year with a possibility of extension after a 6-month review.
• Between 16 and 19 hours per week (set according to the student’s study schedule).
• The salary is € 15,02 gross per hour (with Bachelor's degree) and € 14,39 gross per hour (without Bachelor's degree).

Application procedure

Please submit your application directly via this link on our recruitment portal.

Applications should include:

• A cover letter outlining your motivation to apply and detailing how you fit the requirements above.
• A current CV listing relevant experience.

The employer

About our institute

The Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Psycholinguistics is a world-leading research institute devoted to interdisciplinary studies of the science of language and communication, including departments on genetics, psychology, development, neurobiology and multimodality of these fundamental human abilities.

We investigate how children and adults acquire their language(s), how speaking and listening happen in real time, how the brain processes language, how the human genome contributes to building a language-ready brain, how multiple modalities (as in speech, gesture and sign) shape language and its use in diverse languages and how language is related to cognition and culture, and shaped by evolution.

We are part of the Max Planck Society, an independent non-governmental association of German-funded research institutes dedicated to fundamental research in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.

The Max Planck Society is an equal opportunities employer. We recognize the positive value of diversity and inclusion, promote equity and challenge discrimination. We aim to provide a working environment with room for differences, where everyone feels a sense of belonging. Therefore, we welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates.

Our institute is situated on the campus of the Radboud University and has close collaborative links with the  Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior and the Centre for Language Studies at the Radboud University.  We also work closely with other child development researchers as part of the Baby & Child Research Center.

Staff and students at the MPI have access to state-of-the-art research and training facilities.

About the Multimodal Language Department

The Multimodal Language Department in particular aims to understand the cognitive and social foundations of the human ability for language and its evolution by focusing on its multimodal aspect and crosslinguistic diversity. The research at the department combines multiple methods including corpus and computational linguistics, psycho- and neuro-linguistics, machine learning, AI and virtual reality, and is concerned with various populations ranging from speakers of signed and spoken languages, young and older subjects from typical and atypical populations. The department provides opportunities for training in a range of linguistic, conversational state of the art multimodal language analysis (such as motion capture and automatic speech recognition), as well as neuropsychological, psychological methods related to multimodal language and frequent research and public engagement meetings, and support from an excellent team of researchers in linguistics and psycholinguistics.