Junior researcher position on Automatic Speech Recognition
Over the last decade, automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology has evolved considerably. End-to-end systems such as Wav2Vec and OpenAI’s Whisper perform significantly better than traditional systems. In this (junior) research position, you will evaluate and compare the performance of these end-to-end ASR systems in the context of the automatic transcription of Dutch Oral History interviews, implemented in the Dutch National Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (CLARIAH).
Your work will be part of the OH-SMArt project, a long term initiative to significantly improve the digital research chain around using Oral History and spoken narratives. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is part of this chain.
We are seeking a junior researcher for a full-time 17 months-long position who will be responsible for the implementation and evaluation of an open-source Dutch ASR end-to-end system such as Wav2Vec or Whisper in the CLARIAH research infrastructure. Speech recognition services in the infrastructure are docker based and should be able to run on computer clusters at member organizations (e.g., Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, DANS, SURF) to enable processing of data sets on a large scale. Working together with teams at these organizations will be part of the work.
Your tasks will involve:
- Implementation of open-source end-to-end speech technology for Oral History in an existing infrastructure
- Evaluation of the implemented ASR system and comparison with current systems (Kaldi based).
- Optionally, fine-tuning of system performance in collaboration with currently running projects on Dutch ASR in the Netherlands.
For the implementation of the ASR, you will work together with speech technology researchers from Radboud University (Nijmegen) and CLARIAH development teams at Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.
Information and application
Are you interested in this position? Please send your application via the 'Apply now' button below before June 12, and include:
- A motivation letter, emphasizing your specific interest and motivation to apply for this junior researcher position.
- A detailed CV (resume).
- a half-page summary of your Master Thesis.
- Contact details of at least 2 referees.
If you want to know more, please contact Roeland Ordelman (roeland.ordelman@utwente.nl) or Khiet Truong (k.p.truong@utwente.nl).
About the department
You will be positioned in the Human Media Interaction (HMI) group of the University of Twente, the Netherlands, and you will be a part of a dynamic, multidisciplinary team. The HMI lab does research into multimodal interaction: from interactive playgrounds to social robots. It is a multidisciplinary group in which computer science meets social science to investigate and design and evaluate novel forms of human-computer interaction. In addition, the junior researcher will be part of the OH-SMArt project, a long-term initiative to significantly improve the digital research chain around using Oral History and spoken narratives, with research into artworks and museums as a use case.
About the organisation
The faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) uses mathematics, electronics and computer technology to contribute to the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). With ICT present in almost every device and product we use nowadays, we embrace our role as contributors to a broad range of societal activities and as pioneers of tomorrow's digital society. As part of a people-first tech university that aims to shape society, individuals and connections, our faculty works together intensively with industrial partners and researchers in the Netherlands and abroad, and conducts extensive research for external commissioning parties and funders. Our research has a high profile both in the Netherlands and internationally. It has been accommodated in three multidisciplinary UT research institutes: Mesa+ Institute, TechMed Centre and Digital Society Institute.
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