PhD RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP IN MACHINE HEARING

[Guy Brown <g.brown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

PhD RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP: PERCEPTUAL CONSTANCY IN REAL-ROOM LISTENING  
BY HUMANS AND MACHINES

A PhD research studentship is available at the Department of Computer  
Science, University of Sheffield, as part of a joint EPSRC-funded  
project with the Department of Psychology, University of Reading. The  
project aims to elucidate the mechanisms by which human listeners  
achieve perceptual constancy in hearing, and to improve the  
performance of machine systems by incorporating human-like processing  
into them. In particular, the project will focus on the effect of  
room reverberation on human listeners and automatic speech  
recognition (ASR) systems. Currently, ASR systems perform poorly when  
speech is contaminated by room reverberation, and we will investigate  
whether their performance can be improved by applying signal  
processing techniques that resemble human mechanisms of perceptual  
constancy.

More specifically, the PhD research studentship will:

* Identify the reverberation metrics that correlate best with human  
performance in perceptual experiments;
* Determine whether the best-fitting human metrics are the most  
effective in improving ASR performance in reverberant conditions;
* Develop and evaluate machine hearing systems that exploit the  
statistics of co-occurring time-frequency patterns, and determine  
whether such systems exhibit robustness to reverberation in the same  
way as human listeners.

The studentship provides a tax-free stipend at the standard EPSRC  
rate (approx. Â13,000 p.a, increasing in line with inflation) and UK/ 
EU tuition fees for PhD study. The project will provide funds for the  
purchase of suitable, dedicated equipment. Travel funds will also be  
available to the student through the project, for liaison with the  
Reading group as well as for attending national and overseas  
conferences. The post is available for three years and will ideally  
start in October 2008. Applicants should have a strong background in  
computer science or a related discipline.

Applicants should send a full curriculum vitae, including the names  
and addresses of three referees, to:

Dr. Guy Brown

Speech and Hearing Research Group

Department of Computer Science

University of Sheffield
Regent Court
, 211 Portobello Street

Sheffield S1 4DP

United Kingdom

The deadline for applications is Friday 5th September 2008. Informal  
enquiries can be made to Dr. Brown by email (g.brown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)  
or phone (+44 (0)114 222 1821).

Related links:

Speech and Hearing Group, University of Sheffield:
www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/spandh

University of Reading Auditory Laboratory:
http://www.personal.rdg.ac.uk/~syswatkn/home.html