PhD candidate for the StorytimeLM project – Universiteit Leiden – Leiden

Key responsibilities

The PhD candidate will be placed within the Social Intelligence Modelling lab (SIMlab) and the Text Mining and Retrieval group, and be supervised by dr. Gijs Wijnholds, dr. Max van Duijn, and prof. Suzan Verberne. The position involves the following key responsibilities:

Gather, curate, and compile narrative datasets;

Set up an infrastructure for pre-training language models with varying sizes and architectures;

Evaluate language models on a variety of measures and downstream tasks;

Publish articles in academic journals and present at international conferences;

Collaborate with other PhD researchers and senior researchers within LIACS;

Assist in relevant teaching and organizational activities.

Selection Criteria

The successful applicant should be a highly motivated university graduate with a strong track record as demonstrated by relevant experience, grades, and/or publications. The applicant is expected to have:

An MSc degree in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Data science, Computer science, or comparable;

Strong programming skills in Python;

Demonstrable experience (in master thesis and course/research projects) with machine learning and generative AI, preferably with model training;

An open mind towards novel approaches that involve thinking interdisciplinarily;

Excellent communication skills in English;

Ability and drive to be part of two research groups and operate in an interdisciplinary environment.

A background check may be part of the selection procedure.

Research at our faculty

The Faculty of Science is a world-class faculty where staff and students work together in a dynamic international environment. It is a faculty where personal and academic development are top priorities. Our people are committed to expand fundamental knowledge by curiosity and to look beyond the borders of their own discipline; their aim is to benefit science, and to make a contribution to addressing the major societal challenges of the future.

Terms and conditions

We offer a full-time 1-year term position for initially one year. After a positive evaluation of the progress of the thesis, personal capabilities and compatibility the appointment will be extended by a further three years. Salary ranges from € 2.872,- to € 3.670,- gross per month (pay scale P in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities).

Leiden University offers an attractive benefits package with additional holiday (8%) and end-of-year bonuses (8,3%), training and career development and sabbatical leave. Our individual choices model gives you some freedom to assemble your own set of terms and conditions. Candidates from outside the Netherlands may be eligible for a substantial tax break.

D&I statement
Diversity and inclusion are core values of Leiden University. Leiden University is committed to becoming an inclusive community which enables all students and staff to feel valued and respected and to develop their full potential. Diversity in experiences and perspectives enriches our teaching and strengthens our research. High quality teaching and research is inclusive.

Applications
Please submit online your application via the blue button in the vacancy. Please ensure that you upload the following additional documents quoting the vacancy number:

CV

Motivation letter

Sample of written work (publication or MSc thesis) + 100-word motivation of the sample

Transcript of courses taken and results obtained

Only applications received before the 11th of October 2024 can be considered.

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