PhD Position: The influence of robots on the development of language

The HIT Lab NZ has an opening for a PhD in Human-Robot Interaction entitled: “The influence of robots on the development of language“.

The ‘Wordovators’ project is a three-year project funded by the John Templeton Foundation. The project will conduct large-scale experiments in the form of computerized word games.  These games will be designed to probe the factors underpinning word creation and creativity, and how these develop through the life-span. One strand of the project will probe particular issues surrounding interactions between people and humanoid Robots. How are new words created and adopted in contexts involving such interactions? This PhD position is for a highly motivated student to join the project team, and conduct work that explores the ways that robots might shape human languages. These studies will analyze the factors and processes that might contribute to the influence of robots on the vocabularies of English and of artificial languages in imaginary worlds. Continue reading “PhD Position: The influence of robots on the development of language”

Open PhD Position at HIT Lab NZ and OPI

The HIT Lab NZ at the Canterbury University (Christchurch, New Zealand) in collaboration with the Institute of Information Processing (Warsaw) has the following vacancy for a PhD student:


Performance Indicators and Visualizations for Polish Science


Project Description

In many countries, quantifiable indicators are being used to assess the success of scientific organizations and individuals. The discussion and implementation of scientific indicators is only starting in Poland, which gives an opportunity to develop a modern system for the assessment of scientific organizations and individuals.

This system should go far beyond the counting of publications and should balance qualitative with quantitative indicators. Such a system should be easy to use and openly available, so that the wide public can make up its own mind about the quality of organizations, individuals and the topics that are being investigated. This approach will help to democratize and objectify discussions that may lead to the future funding policies.

The Institute of Information Processing (OPI) in Warsaw is officially keeping the record of the results of the completed research and R&D projects and will provide access to their databases. The goal of this PhD project is to develop a user-friendly software tool that allows researchers and policy makers to reliably assess the scientific performance of individuals, projects and organizations. Continue reading “Open PhD Position at HIT Lab NZ and OPI”