PhD position in Comp Science on Tracking Opinion Changes over Time -----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Faculty of Informatics of the University of Lugano (USI), Switzerland, is looking for a candidate for a fully funded PhD position available for 3 years (starting 1 April 2014 or as soon as possible thereof), in connection with the SNSF project OpiTrack. *The Project* ------------- Recent years have seen the rapid growth of social media platforms that enable people to express their thoughts and opinions on the web and share them with other users. Many people write their opinion about products, movies, people or events on blogs, forums or review sites. In OpiTrack we will extend the latest models of opinion retrieval and sentiment analysis by incorporating time in the opinion analysis. We will develop models that track sentiment over time also covering different aspects of a topic. We will also develop models that will attempt to predict the sentiment change toward a topic at a certain time in future. The models developed will be evaluated with real data. *The position* --------------- The position will be in the area of Information Retrieval. In particular, you will research new methods and tools for the identification and retrieval of document expressing opinion about a particular topic (so, relevant to that topic) and you will study ways for tracking this information over the period of time of the collection. This might include also making forecast about how the opinion will change in the future. In addition, during your PhD you will also be given the opportunity to acquire some teaching experience and qualification as well. The student will be supervised by Prof. Fabio Crestani. *Our offer* ----------- We offer a full-time PhD position with a competitive salary and social security insurances. The year salary of a PhD student, in accordance with Swiss regulations, ranges from CHF 42,000 (gross) in the first year to CHF 48,000 (gross) in the last year. The University of Lugano also provides excellent facilities for both professional and personal development, and the city of Lugano offers an enjoyable environment all year round. *Your profile and application process* -------------------------------------- Application are invited as soon as possible. Applicants are expected to already have a Master degree (or comparable level) in Computer Science, Information Science or closely related disciplines. Please send the following information to Prof. Fabio Crestani (at [email protected]) using the email subject "OpiTrack PhD Position": 1. Motivation letter indicating your background and interests. 2. Full curriculum vitae, including a list of all courses and marks. 3. Contact information for at least two academic references. 4. Evidence of the command of English (fluent in writing and speaking). ------------------------------------------------------------------ Prof. Fabio Crestani tel: +41 58.666.4657 Faculty of Informatics fax: +41 58.666.4536 University of Lugano (USI) [email protected] CH-6900, Lugano, CH http://www.inf.usi.ch/faculty/crestani ------------------------------------------------------------------
