Context And Mission
“Multilingual Production Principles of Lexical Collocations” (MaPPLexiC) is a project funded by the European Research Council over the next five years – Leveraging recent advances in Computational Lexicography, Cognitive Science and Neural Computational Linguistics, MaPPLexiC aims to uncover and articulate in terms of human understandable rules why certain words combine to form idiosyncratic combinations, collocations, to convey specific meanings by interpreting neural collocation recognition and classification models.
As part of MaPPLexiC, we are looking for a talented researcher with extensive expertise in the field of Machine Learning and a background in computational linguistics to explore novel techniques for distilling interpretable models from neural networks. The role combines rigorous engineering practices with cutting-edge research, working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, linguistics, and cognitive science.
Key Duties
* Lead the research and development activities of the project in distilling interpretable models from neural collocation recognition classification models
* Explore the applicability of state-of-the-art teacher – student model constellations and their applicability in MaPPLexiC
* Collaborate with interpretability specialists to design and implement novel model distilling methods
* Contribute to the improvement of the performance of existing neural collocation recognition and classification models
* Mentor junior researchers and engineers in model distillation
* Collaborate with the corpus annotation team
* The candidate will work closely with the PI of MaPPLexiC, Prof. Leo Wanner
Requirements
* Education
o PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, or Computational Linguistics
* Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
o Extensive expertise in model distilling methods
o Strong publication record in top-tier machine learning and/or computational linguistics conferences and journals
o Strong programming skills in Python and deep learning frameworks
o Experience with deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, Jax, Keras, etc.)
o Demonstrated ability to mentor young researchers
o Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment
* Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
o Expertise in Computational Cognitive Science
* Competences
o Fluency in spoken and written English
o Competence in one of the other languages of the project (Czech, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Russian, and Spanish) is an advantage
Conditions
* The position will be located at BSC within the Life Sciences Department
* We offer a full-time contract a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures
* Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration
* Holidays: 23 paid vacation days plus 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement
* Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona
* Starting date: asap