Open PhD positions at Deutsche Telekom Labs, TU Berlin

[Alexander Raake <Alexander.Raake@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear colleagues,

The research group "Assessment of IP-based Applications" of Deutsche
Telekom Laboratories, which is part of Berlin Institute of Technology
(TU Berlin) currently has two open PhD positions in the field of
VoIP-based Services and Quality Assessment (2 years initial funding, can
be prolonged): 

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* PhD Position 1

"Quality of VoIP"

Description
Our goal is to carry out research in the area of services based on Voice
over IP and the perceived quality it is related with. Here, aspects at
signal-, network- and perception-level will be considered. The research
will be conducted with the aim of developing quality prediction models
and measurement approaches for VoIP service monitoring. 

Selected goals
* Investigate the role of temporal aspects in the context of IP-based
transmission, considering the relevant time-scales at packet-, speech,
and perception-level.
* Investigate the impact of the transmitted signal form on the perceived
speech quality.
* Investigate the quality related with new telephone services with
extended bandwidth (wideband, 50-7000 Hz, superwideband, 50-14000 Hz).
* Research on models for speech quality prediction and tools for
monitoring IP-based speech services.

Requirements
The successful candidate holds a diploma or master's degree in
Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Communication Sciences, or a
comparable field. For this position, genuine interest in and knowledge
of telecommunications, the willingness to work in an international and
interdisciplinary team, and the capability of independent work are a
must. Solid knowledge of acoustics or speech technology, and interest in
auditory perception, as well as knowledge of the English language are
required, prior knowledge of auditory or speech perception and knowledge
of MATLAB and C(++) are a definite plus.

----------------------------

* PhD Position 2

"Evaluation of interactive audiovisual speech communication"

Description
Our goal is to investigate the impact of degradations of interactive
IP-based applications such as VoIP that can only be assessed in a
conversational situation, or that affect a conversation in a specific
way. One prominent example is that of transmission delay, where the
turn-taking of participants may be degraded, although the transmitted
speech and video signals can be of high quality. The addressed services
are two-party VoIP, multiparty audio-conferencing, video-telephony, and
videoconferencing. 

Goals
* Adapt and combine existing systems for VoIP & videotelephony
simulation.
* Identify transmission-related technological degradations of relevance
for interactive multimedia services.
* Identify conversation-related perceptual cues that may be affected by
these degradations. 
* Identify, adapt, and develop methods for the evaluation of interactive
audiovisual speech communication services with human subjects,
reflecting identified cues.
* Determine quantitative relations between human performance and quality
perception during conversations when using interactive multimedia
applications, and develop corresponding prediction models.

Requirements
The successful candidate holds a diploma or master's degree in
Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Communication Sciences,
Computer Linguistics, or a comparable field. For this position, genuine
interest in and knowledge of telecommunications, the willingness to work
in an international and interdisciplinary team, and the capability of
independent work are a must. Solid knowledge of acoustics or of video
technologies and programming in C or C++, and interest in auditory and
visual perception, as well as knowledge of the English language are
required. Prior knowledge of auditory or visual perception and
experience with MATLAB are a definite plus.

----------------------------

Environment
Deutsche Telekom Laboratories (T-Labs) is a joint scientific research
institute of Deutsche Telekom AG and Berlin Institute of Technology (TU
Berlin). We carry out pioneering research into innovative information
and telecommunication technologies, in particular addressing human
perception and interaction, networking and security issues. The
Laboratories are located on the campus of Berlin University of
Technology, with the goal of promoting the interaction between science
and business through physical proximity. 

The Assessment of IP-based Applications Lab of Deutsche Telekom
Laboratories (Alexander Raake) is a newly founded research group, which
carries out research on IP-based multimedia applications and user
perception. The work will be conducted in exchange with other
researchers working, for example, on parametric IPTV- and
video-telephony quality models, multimedia transmission, audio-rendering
and speech quality assessment, together with the Quality and Usability
Lab of Deutsche Telekom Laboratories (www.qu.tlabs.tu-berlin.de).

----------------------------

How to apply
Applications including a CV, a motivation letter, copies of the most
important certificates, and indication of 2 references should be sent,
as soon as possible (and before March 12th), to these two addresses:
Alexander Raake  (alexander.raake (a) telekom.de), AND
laboratories.researchscientist(a)telekom.de

TU Berlin seeks to increase the percentage of female employees and
particularly encourages female candidates to apply. In case of equal
qualifications, female candidates will be preferred.
Handicapped candidates will be preferred in case of equal
qualifications.

----------------------------

Thanks for your consideration and kind regards 

Alexander

_________________________________
 
Alexander Raake
Assessment of IP-based Applications
Deutsche Telekom Laboratories
TU Berlin
Ernst-Reuter-Platz 7
10587 Berlin
Germany
 
Fon: +49-30-8353-58462
Fax: +49-30-8353-58409
www.deutsche-telekom-laboratories.de
_________________________________