Music Mining Plant | PhD Position Opening

1. A new research project: Music Mining Plant
2. One PhD Position Opening

Please forward this mail to anyone you think might be interested.
Apologies for duplicate postings.

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1. New Project: Music Mining Plant

Project funded by the Academy of Finland for the period 08.2009-07.2014, under Olivier Lartillot's Academy Research Fellowship

Computational tools are needed in order to efficiently manage and browse into the large amount of digital music databases largely available online. This project is aimed at conceiving an in-depth computational system for the analysis of musical databases, integrating all dimensions of musical representations -- low-level audio and symbolic descriptions, middle-level structures and configurations and high-level conceptualizations -- into a highly intercommunicating network.

* At low-level, we propose to unify the seemingly separate areas of study of audio transcription and symbolic segmentation into a common methodology of auditory scene analysis, and to guide these processes based on the expectation already inferred from the higher levels.
* At mid-level, detailed but nevertheless concise descriptions of the motivic content of music will be enabled within our proposed intensive pattern mining paradigm.
* At high-level, musical concepts are modelled as weighted combinations of features and structures, automatically selected among a very large area of possible choices, represented in a connectionist knowledge representation, such as artificial neural networks.

This will require a strong cooperation between disciplines as diverse as signal processing, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, knowledge discovery, information retrieval, operational research, computational engineering, semiotics and musicology. The resulting platform will offer further understanding of music perception and cognition, and can be applied both for advanced musicological studies and as a leading-edge platform for intelligent browsing of music databases.

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2. PhD Position Opening

We seek candidates for one PhD position at the Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

The post is tenable from January 1, 2010, though an earlier appointment would be appreciated as well. The initial appointment will be until December 31, 2010. Renewal of the appointment, up to a total of 48 months, will be contingent upon performance and continuation of adequate funding.

The position is within the Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research, led by Prof. Petri Toiviainen. The centre comprises ca. 30 researchers from the Universities of Jyväskylä (Music Cognition Team) and Helsinki (Brain and Music Team). For more information about the Centre of Excellence, see http://www.jyu.fi/music/coe.

The selected candidate is expected to work on one or several of the topics mentioned in the Music Mining Plant project (see §1 above for further information). The selected candidate will have the opportunity to collaborate to the further development of the computational framework initiated by the research group, including MIDItoolbox, MIRtoolbox and their prospective integration into one single framework.

The city of Jyväskylä is located in the heart of the lake region of Finland. The University of Jyväskylä is one of the leading research universities of Finland. The Department of Music comprises about 40 staff members and provides training in musicology, music education, and music therapy. Moreover, the department runs the Master’s programme on Music, Mind, and Technology ( https://www.jyu.fi/hum/laitokset/musiikki/en/studies/mmt )

Starting salary will be around 25 000 euros per annum but will depend on personal work performance assessment and job demands.

To be considered for the position, the applicant should provide a (1) statement of research interests (2-4 pages), (2) a curriculum vitae, (3) two letters of recommendation, and (4) any other relevant material, by email to Olivier Lartillot (olivier.lartillot@xxxxxx). Application deadline is October 15, 2009. The selected candidate is expected to possess a Master's degree or equivalent before the appointment starts.