Earn 5K GBP working with a hi-tech company in Edinburgh and pursue an advanced degree at M-ITI developing speech applications
In cooperation with the UK-based firm CereProc (http://www.cereproc.com),
which develops high-quality text-to-speech voices, M-ITI is looking for
a prospective MSc or PhD student who is interested in pursuing an
advanced degree in the area of speech technology at M-ITI.
The successful candidate will complete an initial
training session in phonetics and Portuguese dialectology at M-ITI. The
candidate will then spend three months in Edinburgh working to adapt
CereProc's speech synthesis engine to Brazilian and European Portuguese.
This will be a three-month placement, for which the candidate will
receive a competitive compensation package roughly equivalent to EUR
6.000.
While in Edinburgh, the candidate will perform the following tasks:
- Caste and record amateur voice talent in Edinburgh
- Carry out post recording quality control
- Evaluate system and help determine if any language specific system changes are required
- Improve and test Portuguese front end
- Extend the normalization for PB/PE
- Translate installers, etc.
Subject
to the above tasks running smoothly, the candidate may also be involved
in some GUI and mobile interface design, using HTML5. The
candidate will then return to Madeira to begin an MSc or a PhD course
at M-ITI, working closely with Dr. Simone Ashby (M-ITI) and CereProc in
the development of adaptive speech technologies.
Essential skills:
- Good spoken English
- Native Portuguese speaker (Brazilian or Portuguese preferred)
- Computer literate
- Energetic self starter
- Some background in phonetics
- Python
- C++
- Android
- iPhone
- HTML 5/Javascript
Proposed start date: 1-October-2013 (flexible)
Applications (including a CV and letter of interest) should be sent to Dr. Simone Ashby (simone.ashby@m-iti.org).
Application deadline: 31-July-2013