Posts by Anja

The article of Piek Vossen on ‘Sociale communicerende Robots” has been published in Magazine ‘Nieuwe technologieën in het sociaal domein, zorg en welzijn’ by Sociaalweb, January, 27, 2019.

Fantastic news: our grant proposal of  “‘Communicating with and Relating to Social Robots: Alice Meets Leolani’ (ALANI) was granted (€ 749,994,- ) by NWO Open Competitie voor Digitalisering SGW 2019 !!

See: http://makerobotstalk.nl/research/alani/

Main applicant:

• Prof. Dr. Piek Vossen – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/Faculty of Humanities/Computational Lexicology & Terminology Lab (CLTL)

Co-applicants:

• Prof. dr. Elly Konijn – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/Faculty of Social Sciences
• Prof. dr. Johan Hoorn – The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam – Faculty Faculties of Design/ Computer Sciences / Social Sciences
• To be hired: 2 PhD’s and 1 Postdoc and 1 Research Assistant

Leolani and Lenka Bajčetić were awarded with the best 1 minute video pitch created in support of an already accepted paper. The video had to be submitted through the Facebook page of the conference. The video pitch must illustrate in a short and accessible way the key message of the paper, present key results, and explain why people should read it.

PAPER: Vossen Piek,  L. Bajčetić, S. Baez, S. Bašić, and B. Kraaijeveld, “Modelling Context Awareness for a Situated Semantic Agent”, in: Proceedings of the 11th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context (CONTEXT2019), Trento, Italy, November 20-22, 2019. Also available as Springer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence ‘Modeling and Using Context’, Gabor Bella & Paolo Bouquet (Eds.), Series Volume 11939, DOI10.1007/978-3-030-34974-5, Softcover ISBN978-3-030-34973-8, pp. 238-252.

In Trento to talk about Leolani, our communicative robot: ”

• P. Vossen, L. Bajčetić, S. Baez, S. Bašić, and B. Kraaijeveld:Modelling Context Awareness for a Situated Semantic Agent” 

at the 11th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context (CONTEXT2019), Trento, Italy, November 20-22, 2019.

Uitgenodigd een lezing te geven over Leolani: de communicerence robot en haar interactie met mensen bij De Vrije Wereld, een programma van de VUvereniging, 14 november 2019,  Botanische Tuin Zuidas, 16.00-17.15 pm.

Thema van het programma is ‘de Maakbare Mens‘, met als ondertitel ‘van DNA-techniek tot robot’.

De nieu­we ro­bots zijn au­to­no­me ma­chi­nes, zelfle­rend, ac­tief con­tact zoe­kend met men­sen. Ze staan niet stil maar be­we­gen zelf rond, ont­moe­ten an­de­ren, staan in de weg of kun­nen in de war raken. Ro­bots zijn net men­sen, of toch niet? Ik on­der­zoek de com­mu­ni­ca­tie tus­sen mens en robot. Ik  ont­wik­kel­de hier­toe robot Le­o­la­ni, die de men­se­lij­ke taal en in­ter­ac­tie onder de knie pro­beert te krij­gen. Hoe leer je een robot om een mens met al zijn ei­gen­aar­dig­he­den te be­grij­pen? Kan er een warme band ont­staan tus­sen beide? En waar­om lijkt een robot nooit he­le­maal op een mens?

Selene Baez is presenting Leolani at the 18th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2019) in Auckland, New Zealand, October 26-30,2019: 

Leolani: A Robot That Communicates and Learns about the Shared World
Piek Vossen, Selene Baez Santamaria, Lenka Bajčetić, Suzana Bašić, Bram Kraaijeveld

Make robots talk! There is a lot of talk about robots taking part in our lives but there is little known about how to learn robots talk to us about the world we share. The Spinoza-project Understanding-Language-By-Machines looks for two ambitious, highly-motivated PhD students that want to work on our robot project Leolani. Leolani uses communication to learn about us and the world but she also needs to learn our language at the same time. Communicating and reasoning over the physical world and the people she encounters is a real challenge

If you want to take on this challenge and be part of an exciting team working on the forefront of communicating machines, please apply at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Location: AMSTERDAM
PhD
FTE: 0.8 – 1.0

JOB DESCRIPTION

You will define your own research topic within the Leolani framework and become part of the team of researchers that further develops the platform. Your topic may focus on the reasoning and the communication, taking a language understanding or a language generation perspective.

Your duties

• Define your research topic within the framework
• Carry out your research according to international standards
• Publish at least one article per year in an A or B ranked journal or conference proceedings
• Make your research and experiments publicly available and reproducible

REQUIREMENTS

• Masters degree in (Computational) Linguistics, Computer Science or Artificial Intelligence
• Knowledge of and experience with programming in Python
• Knowledge of and experience with Natural Language Processing

WHAT ARE WE OFFERING?

A challenging position in a socially involved organization. The salary will be in accordance with university regulations for academic personnel and amounts €2,325 (PhD) per month during the first year and increases to €2,972 (PhD) per month during the fourth year, based on a full-time employment. The job profile: is based on the university job ranking system and is vacant for at least 0.8 FTE.

The appointment will initially be for 1 year. After a satisfactory evaluation of the initial appointment, the contract will be extended for a duration of 4 years (or 5 years in case of a 0.8fte contract). Additionally, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam offers excellent fringe benefits and various schemes and regulations to promote a good work/life balance, such as:

• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus,
• contribution to commuting expenses,
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package,
• a wide range of sports facilities which staff may use at a modest charge.

ABOUT VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM

The ambition of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is clear: to contribute to a better world through outstanding education and ground-breaking research. And to be a university where personal education and societal involvement play a leading role. Where people from different disciplines and backgrounds work together on innovations and on generating new knowledge. Our teaching and research embrace the whole spectrum of science – from the humanities, the social sciences and the pure sciences through to the life sciences and the medical sciences.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is home to more than 24,500 students. We employ more than 4,600 individuals. The VU campus is easily accessible, located in the heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas district, a truly inspiring environment for teaching and research.

Diversity
Diversity is one of our university’s core values. We are an inclusive community, and we believe that diversity and international activities enhance the quality of education and research. We are always looking for people who can enhance diversity on our campus thanks to their background and experience.

Faculty of Humanities
The Faculty of Humanities links a number of fields of study: Language, Literature and Communication, Art & Culture, History, Antiquities and Philosophy. Our teaching and research focus on current societal and scientific themes: from artificial intelligence to visual culture, from urbanization to the history of slavery, from ‘fake news’ in journalism to communication in organizations. We strive to ensure small group sizes. Innovative education and interdisciplinary research are our hallmarks.

Working at the Faculty of Humanities means making a real contribution to the quality of leading education and research in an inspiring and personal work and study climate. We employ more than 250 staff members, and we are home to around 1,300 students.
 

About the department, institute, project
The Computational Lexicology and Terminology Lab(CLTL) is one of the world’s leading research groups in Human Language technology. Prof. dr. Piek Vossen, recipient of the NWO Spinoza Prize, heads the group of international researchers that are working on ground-breaking projects, among which the Spinoza project ‘Understanding Language by Machines’. 

CLTL and the research you are involved in is also embedded in the VU-gravity project on Hybrid Intellegence. You will collaborate with many researchers on key notions such as collaborative, explainable, adaptable and responsible AI. 

APPLICATION

Are you interested in this position? Please apply via the application button and upload your curriculum vitae and cover letter until 07/11/2019, 23:59.  In your application letter, describe breifly your ideas about the research you want to do and the methods you are going to use.

The job interviews are planned for December 2019, when possible please take them into account when applying for the position.

Applications received by e-mail will not be processed.

Vacancy questions
If you have any questions regarding this vacancy, you may contact:

Name: Piek Vossen
Position: Professor
E-mail: piek.vossen@vu.nl

Word vrienden met een robot, ontdek een vlek op de zon of ervaar hoe het is om te sporten bij -20ºC in het Weekend van de Wetenschap op de VU! Ben je tussen de 8 en 12 jaar? Geef je snel op en ga met je ouders mee op de exclusieve VU VIP-tour.

Wanneer? Op zaterdag 5 oktober 2019

Hoe laat?J e bent welkom vanaf 12.30 uur on de centrale hal van het VU Hoofdgebouw (Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam)
Het programma duurt van 13.00-16.00 uur.

Start: om 13.00 uur door de bekende hersenprofessor Erik Scherder.

Deelname is gratis, maar je hebt wel een ticket nodig.

Word vrienden met een robot, ontdek een vlek op de zon of ervaar hoe het is om te sporten bij -20ºC in het Weekend van de Wetenschap op de VU! Ben je tussen de 8 en 12 jaar? Geef je snel op en ga met je ouders mee op de exclusieve VU VIP-tour.

Wanneer?Op zaterdag 5 oktober 2019

Hoe laat?Je bent welkom vanaf 12.30 uur on de centrale hal van het VU Hoofdgebouw (Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam)
Het programma duurt van 13.00-16.00 uur.

Start:om 13.00 uur door de bekende hersenprofessor Erik Scherder.

Deelname is gratis, maar je hebt wel een ticket nodig.