Job Profile POSTDOC 24 months

Project DISCOBOT - An engaging
discussion robot for mental health
preservation

1- Context

The École Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Brest (ENIB) operates under the
supervision of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research
(MESR). Computer Science research in the school takes place at the
CNRS UMR Lab-STICC: https://labsticc.fr/en.

The person recruited will carry out research at the Lab-STICC within
the COMMEDIA (https://labsticc.fr/fr/equipes/commedia) and RAMBO
(https://labsticc.fr/fr/equipes/rambo) teams, which are jointly
leading this project.

The person recruited will work under the guidance of Anne-Gwenn Bosser
(ENIB, Lab-STICC COMMEDIA), Mihai Andries and Christophe Lohr (IMT
Atlantique, Lab-STICC RAMBO).

2- Project

The proportion of socially isolated elderly is rising steadily. Social
isolation comes with accelerated cognitive decline. Lack of dialogue
is a particular contributory factor, having an impact on the
impoverishment of a person's vocabulary. One of the solutions being
explored to solve this problem are conversational agents. Despite
pilot studies on the use of conversational agents in clinical
psychological therapy showing promises, there remains a high drop-out
rate due to the lack of long-term commitment to communication with the
conversational agent.

The aim of this project is to develop a long-term engaging
conversational agent by combining a personality model and the ability
to adapt to the user. The project will use a social robot as a
platform.

3- Dates

A first application deadline is on the 15 April 2024, and if
recruitment is unsuccessful, we will continue to accept ongoing
applications. The project will start upon recruitment, ideally by the
1st September 2024 and at the latest on the 2nd January 2025.

4- Application criteria

Eligibility criteria apply: applicants (1) must have spent at least 18
months out of France between 1 May 2020 and the start of the project,
and (2) must have defended their PhD thesis less than 5 years ago.

Profile

The ideal candidate holds a PhD in computer science in the field of
conversational agents or dialogue planning.

Desired Knowledge

Scientific English (reading, writing, speaking), Natural Language
Processing, Knowledge

Graphs, Dialogue Planning.

Desired Skills

Language processing libraries (e.g. spaCy, nltk), graphical databases
(e.g. neo4j), ontologies (e.g. ConceptNet), use of Large Language
Models, experience with ROS (optional).

Languages

Knowledge of English is required.

Knowledge of French is an advantage, but is neither necessary nor a
selection criterion.

5- Keywords

Keywords characterizing the teams within which the research will take place are:

COMMEDIA: Adaptive Interfaces, Affective Computing, Cognitive Models,
Computational Narratives, Embodiment, Animated Conversational Agents.

RAMBO: Cognitive Robotics, Ambient Assistance System, Human-Robot
Interaction.

6- Main place of work

ENIB, European Center for Virtual Reality, Technopôle de Plouzané.
The school is located in the Technopôle Brest-Iroise, on the ocean
front and a close neighbour to the IMT School where the other
participants of the project are located.  Brest is a culturally active
city with a strong seaside vibe. It has a well-developed public
transportation network, and the cost of living regularly places it at
the top of the rankings of least expensive student cities.

7- Salary

2850 ¤ gross per month (approx. 2400 ¤ net).Benefits: Reimbursement of half of transportation pass.

Contacts, how to apply

Please send

- CV

- motivation letter

- PhD defence report or equivalent

- recommendation letter

by email with the subject "DISCOBOT application" to:
- Mihai Andries: mihai.andries[at]imt-atlantique.fr
- Anne-Gwenn Bosser: bosser[at]enib.fr
- Christophe Lohr: christophe.lohr[at]imt-atlantique.fr