Applications are invited for the position of a Computational Linguistics researcher at the University of Antwerp. The successful candidate will work on a PhD within the CLiPS research group in the context of the AMiCA project.

The Computational Linguistics and Psycholinguistics (CLiPS, www.clips.uantwerpen.be) research group is part of the department of Linguistics and investigates how people learn and use language and how these processes can be modeled in computers and robots. Research subjects include text understanding, machine learning, and computational psycholinguistics.

In the AMiCA project (www.amicaproject.be), we identify possibly threatening situations in social networks by means of text and image analysis. Our goal is to ensure the online safety of children. More specifically, we want to detect cyberbullying, sexually transgressive behavior, and depression and suicidal behavior, e.g. to be able to warn moderators. The role of the successful candidate in the project will be to work on profiling (detecting age, gender, personality and other properties of authors) and on other Natural Language Processing tasks.

We are looking for a Linguistics or Computer Science master with a specialization or strong interest in Computational Linguistics, and with good programming skills (preferably Python). Some knowledge of Dutch will be needed as the AMiCA project focuses on Dutch language social media text.
Candidates are encouraged to email walter.daelemans@uantwerpen.be if they have doubts about whether their profile matches this vacancy.

We offer an excellent research infrastructure in an internationally renowned research group and exciting work in a state of the art project with significant societal and scientific value and impact. The length of the appointment is two years but may be extended in case of sufficient funding. Salary is in the form of a tax-free grant of around 1900 euro per month (depending on family situation) with additional holiday pay, year-end bonus and full social security benefits.

Please send a cv and a max 1-page motivation of your application as attachments in a mail to walter.daelemans@uantwerpen.be with in the subject line [AMiCA vacancy] and provide the names of two persons (with email and phone number) that know you and your work well enough to act as a reference.

Deadline: September 1, 2014

Starting date of the position: Autumn 2014