Opening of a research position at INESC Porto

[Matthew Davies <mdavies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[Apologies for cross-postings]
[Feel free to forward]


Dear List,

The Sound and Music Computing Group of INESC Porto 
(http://smc.inescporto.pt) is happy to announce the opening of a 6-month 
graduate research fellowship (renewable up to 14 months) for the 
following research project: "ShakeIt - Mechanisms of Musical Groove and 
applications".

Groove is the quality of music that makes people tap their feet, rock 
their head, and get up and dance.
In the ShakeIt project (http://smc.inescporto.pt/shakeit/), funded by 
FCT (Portuguese Ministry of Science), we explore the properties of sound 
signals that induce the experience of groove in listeners, and follow 
three principle research directions:
       1.      Computational modeling of groove features from audio.
       2.      Empirical experiments with human participants to 
validate these features.
       3.      Implementation of software for real-time 
generation/manipulation of polyphonic rhythmic sequences conveying the 
groove of a certain style, or for gradually changing the groove feel of 
a rhythmic sequence at run-time.


The researcher will join an international research team and will work 
directly with Matthew Davies, Carlos Guedes and Fabien Gouyon in Porto 
and Prof. Guy Madison in Umea (Sweden).

The researcher is expected to develop novel features for the 
computational description of groove in musical audio signals building on 
existing research at INESC Porto in beat tracking, rhythm 
classification, microtiming and groove estimation/transformation. These 
features will be systematically evaluated in comparison with the state 
of the art over large collections of audio data. The researcher will 
also collaborate on the development of a prototype for real-time 
generation/manipulation of polyphonic rhythmic sequences.

Candidates should hold a diploma (minimum Bachelor's degree) in Music 
Technology, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or a related area.

. Application period: 7th to 26th December 2011
. Duration of the grant: 6 months (renewable up to 14 months)
. The preferred start date is 01/01/2012 but this is negotiable
. Location: Porto, Portugal
. Working language: English
. Desired experience: Musical knowledge, experience with Max/MSP or Pd, 
C++ (MARSYAS considered a plus), any scripting language
. We seek candidates who are open-minded and creative.


For further information on the grant the application, please go to 
http://www2.inescporto.pt/ip-en/work-with-us/bolsas-inescporto/concurso-para-atribuicao-de-bolsa-no-ambito-do-projeto-shyakeit?set_language=en&cl=en 
(in English), or
http://www2.inescporto.pt/seja-nosso-colaborador/bolsas-inescporto/concurso-para-atribuicao-de-bolsa-no-ambito-do-projeto-shyakeit/ 
(in Portuguese).
Informal inquiries can be made directly to either Matthew Davies 
(mdavies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) or Fabien Gouyon (fgouyon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx).