[CFP] CHiME 2011 — Workshop on Machine Listening in Multisource Environments

Workshop on Machine Listening in Multisource Environments (CHiME 2011)
In conjunction with Interspeech 2011, September 1st, 2011, Florence, Italy
http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/spandh/chime/workshop
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Important Dates:
* Deadline for submission of papers: April 14th, 2011
* Notification of acceptance: June 2nd, 2011
* Final version of submission: June 14th, 2011
* Workshop: September 1st, 2011

Overview:
CHiME 2011 will consider the challenge of developing machine listening applications for operation in multisource environments, i.e. real-world conditions with acoustic clutter, where the number and nature of the sound sources is unknown and changing over time. CHiME will bring together researchers from a broad range of disciplines (computational hearing, blind source separation, speech recognition, machine learning) to discuss novel and established approaches to this problem. The cross-fertilisation of ideas will foster fresh approaches that efficiently combine the complementary strengths of each research field.

The workshop will also be hosting the PASCAL CHiME Speech Separation and Recognition Challenge. For more information please visit the Challenge Website (http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/spandh/chime/challenge).

Call for Participation:
We invite original submissions for oral or poster presentation during the workshop. Relevant research topics include (but are not limited to),

* automatic speech and music processing in multisource environments,
* acoustic event detection in multisource environments,
* sound source detection and tracking in multisource environments,
* music information retrieval in multisource environments,
* sound source separation or enhancement in multisource environments,
* robust feature extraction and classification in multisource environments,
* scene analysis and understanding for multisource environments.

Abstracts or full papers are to be submitted by 14th April. After the workshop participants will be invited to submit extended versions of their papers to a peer-reviewed *special issue* of the journal, Computer Speech and Language on the theme of Multisource Environments.

Organising Committee:
Dr Jon Barker, University of Sheffield, UK
Dr Emmanuel Vincent, INRIA Rennes, France
Prof. Dan Ellis, Columbia University, USA
Prof. Phil Green, University of Sheffield, UK
Dr. John Hershey, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, USA
Prof. Walter Kellermann, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
Prof. Hiroshi Okuno, Kyoto University, Japan

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Open Faculty positions in the Dept. of EE&CS of the University of Liège (Belgium)

Université de Liège, Belgium
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Institut Montefiore)
http://www.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/

The department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at ULg
invites applications for three full-time faculty positions in Computer Science:

• Algorithms for large-scale systems (distributed systems, large-scale data mining, information networks, communication networks, …)
• Algorithms for systems in interaction with their physical environment (computer vision, multimedia signal analysis, sensor and actuator networks, fusion of physical and heterogenous data, autonomous systems, intelligent systems, …)
• Distributed computer systems and security (data security management, cryptography, cybersecurity, computer networks and distributed computing security, …)

Applicants should demonstrate a strong commitment to research and teaching. They should have a doctoral degree, a high-level research experience in at least one of the targeted areas, and a recognized scientific publication record. Appointment level will depend on the candidates and their records of accomplishment. Applicants should be able to teach in English but are also expected to teach in French, possibly after a transition period.

Founded in 1817, the Université de Liège offers a complete range of university courses at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. It is divided into nine faculties and schools: Philosophy and Letters; Law and School of Criminology; Sciences; Medicine; Applied Sciences; Veterinary Medicine; Psychology and Educational Sciences; HEC Management School-ULg; and the Institute for Human and Social Sciences.

Within the Faculté des Sciences appliquées (school of engineering), the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science offers several programs to undergraduate and graduate students. Teaching and research areas include electrical engineering, computer science and biomedical engineering. The department has a strong tradition of excellence and is committed to offer an international and attractive environment for research and teaching.

Further information about the positions can be obtained from
Professor Rodolphe Sepulchre, Email: r.sepulchre(at)ulg.ac.be

For fullest consideration, applications should be sent by March 31st, 2011. However, the positions will remain open until filled. Applicants are invited to follow the application procedure described at

http://www.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/

Two Internships in Machine Learning for Document Access and Translation at XRCE, Grenoble

XRCE (Xerox Research Centre Europe, Grenoble, France) is opening two
internships in the Machine Learning for Document Access and Translation
area (MLDAT):

1. Probabilistic Sampling Techniques for Statistical Machine Translation

See:
http://www.xrce.xerox.com/About-XRCE/Internships/Probabilistic-Sampling-Techniques-for-Statistical-Machine-Translation

Please contact: marc.dymetman(at)xrce.xerox.com

2. Development of a user interface for mining social media

See:
http://www.xrce.xerox.com/About-XRCE/Internships/Development-of-a-user-interface-for-mining-social-media

Please contact: jean-michel.renders(at)xrce.xerox.com

3 Research internships at FBK

The “Human Language Technologies” Research Unit of Bruno Kessler Foundation
(FBK) is seeking candidates for three research internship positions in the following
areas:

– Statistical Machine Translation
– Automatic Speech Recognition
– Software development for NLP

The internship are intended to provide a strong theoretical and experimental background
to graduate students interested in applying for a PhD scholarship to start in June 2011.

Requirements, salary, and application procedure are specified in
http://risorseumane.fbk.eu/sites/risorseumane.fbk.eu/files/Call%20HLT_INTERNSHIP2
011_0.pdf

Closing date: 29 January 2011

20 Ph.D. studentships at Scottish Universities, deadline 28th Feb

The Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (http://www.sicsa.ac.uk) invites applications for up to 20 international prize studentships from outstanding PhD candidates to Scottish universities. The studentships are open to citizens and residents of any country.

SICSA studentships cover living costs and fees at the UK/EU level and successful candidates may apply for further fee support. We will consider applicants in any area of computer science and informatics but may give preference to students who are working in SICSA theme areas:

* Next-generation Internet
* Multi-modal interaction
* Modelling and abstraction
* Complex systems engineering

Students must have or must expect to be awarded a 1st class honours degree or an MSc with Distinction or equivalent GPA scores. Your degree must be in a discipline that is relevant to your proposed field of research.

For more details of how to apply for a SICSA prize studentship, see the SICSA web pages (http://www.sicsa.ac.uk/graduate-academy/prize-studentships/applying-for-a-sicsa-prize-studentship).

The deadline for applications is 28th February 2011.

PhD studentships in Complex and Disordered Systems at King’s College London

PhD studentships in Complex and Disordered Systems
King’s College London
Department of Mathematics

The Disordered Systems group at King’s College London expects to have several vacancies for entry into the PhD programme in autumn 2011. The group (see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/nms/maths/research/dissys) has broad-ranging research interests in the application of tools from statistical mechanics to complex and disordered systems, including

– physics: soft matter (phase behaviour and flow), fracture and packing, non-equilibrium and glassy systems
– mathematics: sparse random matrix spectra, localization
– biology: metabolic and protein interaction networks, random graph ensembles, DNA stretching, survival statistics
– econophysics: collective effects in operational risk
– machine learning: learning and statistical inference on graphs

Funding is available through various sources (see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/funding/sources/index.aspx), including competitive departmental (DTA) studentships which cover a stipend and fees for UK residents or fees for EU residents, and a range of funding schemes provided by King’s Graduate School (see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/school/GraduateSchool.aspx). Most funding application deadlines are on 1 Feb 2011 or shortly thereafter, and supporting references need to be received by the deadline, so interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

All applications for PhD study should be made online at https://myapplication.kcl.ac.uk/
Further information on admissions can be found at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/admissions/TypesofProgrammes.aspx
Note that Graduate School funding requires a separate funding application form and case for support (see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/funding/sources/gradsch.aspx).

Interested candidates are welcome to contact Prof Peter Sollich (peter.sollich(at)kcl.ac.uk) or any other member of the research group with questions regarding research interests, application procedures etc.

CFP – 14th International Workshop on Learning Classifier Systems

14TH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON LEARNING CLASSIFIER SYSTEMS

to be held as part of the

2011 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2011)
July 12-16, Dublin, Ireland

Organized by ACM SIGEVO
20th International Conference on Genetic Algorithms (ICGA) and the
16th Annual Genetic Programming Conference (GP)

One Conference – Many Mini-Conferences 15 Program Tracks

PAPER SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR WORKSHOP: April 7th, 2011

Workshop Website:
http://home.dei.polimi.it/loiacono/iwlcs2011

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The Fourteenth International Workshop on Learning Classifier Systems
(IWLCS 2011) will be held in Dublin, Ireland during the Genetic and
Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2011), July 7-11, 2010.

Originally, Learning Classifier Systems (LCSs) were introduced by
John H. Holland as a way of applying evolutionary computation to
machine learning and adaptive behavior problems. Since then, the LCS
paradigm has broadened greatly into a framework that encompasses many
representations, rule discovery mechanisms, and credit assignment
schemes.

Current LCS applications range from data mining, to automated
innovation and the on-line control of cognitive systems. LCS research
includes various actual system approaches: While Wilson’s
accuracy-based XCS system (1995) has received the highest attention
and gained the highest reputation, studies and developments of other
LCSs are usually discussed and contrasted. Advances in machine
learning, and reinforcement learning in particular, as well as in
evolutionary computation have brought LCS systems the necessary
competence and guaranteed learning properties. Novel insights in
machine learning and evolutionary computation are being integrated
into the LCS framework.

Thus, we invite submissions that discuss recent developments in all
areas of research on, and applications of, Learning Classifier
Systems. IWLCS is the event that brings together most of the core
researchers in classifier systems. Moreover, a free introductory
tutorial on LCSs is presented the day before the workshop at GECCO
2011. Tutorial and IWLCS workshop thus also provide an opportunity
for researchers interested in LCSs to get an impression of the
current research directions in the field as well as a guideline for
the application of LCSs to their problem domain.

Topics of interests include but are not limited to:

– Paradigms of LCS (Michigan, Pittsburgh, …)

– Theoretical developments (behavior, scalability and learning bounds, …)

– Representations (binary, real-valued, oblique, non-linear, fuzzy, …)

– Types of target problems (single-step, multiple-step, regression/function approximation,…)

– System enhancements (competent operators, problem structure identification and linkage learning, …)

– LCS for Cognitive Control (architectures, emergent behaviours, …)

– Applications (data mining, medical domains, bioinformatics, …)

Submissions and Publication

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Submissions will be short-papers up to 8 pages in ACM format. Please
see the GECCO-2011 information for authors for further details.
However, unlike GECCO, papers do not have to be submitted in
anonymous format.

All accepted papers will be presented at IWLCS 2011 and will appear
in the GECCO workshop volume. Proceedings of the workshop will be
published on CD-ROM, and distributed at the conference. Authors will
be invited after the workshop to submit revised (full) papers that,
after a thorough review process, are to be published in the next
post-workshop proceedings volume (scheduled for 2013), in the
Springer LNCS/LNAI book series.

All papers should be submitted in PDF format and e-mailed to:

loiacono(at)elet.polimi.it

Important dates

—————

* Paper submission deadline: April 7, 2011
* Notification to authors: April 14, 2011
* Submission of camera-ready material: April 26, 2011
* Conference registration: May 2, 2011
* GECCO-2011: July 12-16, 2011

Committees

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– Organizing Committee

* Daniele Loiacono, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

(email: loiacono@elet.polimi.it)

* Albert Orriols-Puig, La Salle – Ramon Llull University, Spain

(email: aorriols@salle.url.edu)

* Ryan Urbanowicz, Dartmouth College, USA

(email: ryan.j.urbanowicz@dartmouth.edu)

– Advisory Committee

* Jaume Bacardit, University of Nottingham (UK).

* Ester Bernado-Mansilla, Universitat Ramon Llull (Spain).

* Will Browne, Victoria University of Wellington (NZ).

* Martin V. Butz, Universitat Wurzburg (Germany)

* Jan Drugowitsch, University of Rochester (USA).

* Tim Kovacs, University of Bristol (UK)

* Pier Luca Lanzi, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)

* Xavier Llora, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA)

* Wolfgang Stolzmann, Daimler Chrysler AG (Germany)

* Keiki Takadama, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan)

* Stewart Wilson, Prediction Dynamics (USA)

Further information

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For more details, please visit the workshop website at:
http://home.dei.polimi.it/loiacono/iwlcs2011

GECCO is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery Special
Interest Group on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (SIGEVO). SIG
Services: 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY, 10121, USA,
1-800-342-6626 (USA and Canada) or +212-626-0500 (Global).

Tenure positions in Machine Learning

We would like to advertize the opening of positions for different tenure research positions at the INRIA, France. Statistical learning is one of the eligible topics. This is a nationwide campaign.
Two INRIA research groups located in Lille are particularly interested in applicants in statistical learning:
– SequeL: http://sequel.lille.inria.fr, contact: philippe.preux(at)inria.fr and remi.munos(at)inria.fr
– Mostrare: http://mostrare.inria.lille.fr, contact: remi.gilleron(at)inria.fr
Other groups may be interested in other locations in France.

All information, incl. application form, is available on the web:
– http://en.inria.fr/institute/recruitment/offers/five-junior-research-scientist-positions-vacant/competitive-selection-2011 for junior researchers (~ PhD + short post-doc)
– http://en.inria.fr/institute/recruitment/offers/three-experienced-research-scientists-positions-vacant/competitive-selection-2011 for experienced researchers (~ PhD + longer post-doc)
– http://en.inria.fr/institute/recruitment/offers/ten-senior-reseach-scientist-position-are-vacant/competitive-selection-2011 for senior researchers (~ PhD + 5 to 10 years of experience in research)

It is essential that you get in touch with the teams before you apply.

Best,

R. Gilleron & Ph. Preux

PASCAL CHiME Speech Separation and Recognition Challenge

Part of the EU Network of Excellence PASCAL Challenge Program with support from EPSRC project CHiME. Participation is open to all.

http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/spandh/chime/challenge.html

The object of the challenge is to separate and recognise spoken command utterances appearing in background recordings made in a noisy domestic living room using binaural microphones. The challenge is motivated by the demands of real distant-microphone speech recognition applications and in particular the need to deal with multiple and highly varied interfering sound sources. The challenge has been designed to draw participation from multiple disciplines including signal processing, computational hearing, machine learning and speech recognition. Evaluation will be through speech recognition results but participants will be allowed to submit either separated signals, robust speech features or the outputs of complete recognition systems. We are interested in measuring the performance of both emerging techniques and established approaches.

A full description of the challenge, including details of the source separation and recognition tasks, the noisy speech data sets, and the rules for participation can be found on the PASCAL CHiME Challenge web site.

http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/spandh/chime/challenge.html

Results of the Challenge will be presented at a dedicated one-day workshop, “Machine Listening in Multisource Environments” to be held as a satellite event of Interspeech 2011 in Florence, Italy. Participants will be invited to submit abstracts or full papers for presentation at this event.

A Special Issue of the journal Computer Speech and Language on the theme of Speech Separation and Recognition in Multisource Environments will be published as an outlet for extended workshop papers.

Schedule:

Now: Data and evaluation tools are available for download
30 March: Final test data are released
14th April: Submission deadline for Challenge workshop abstracts/papers.
21st April: Submission deadline for Challenge results.
1st September: CHiME Workshop, Florence, Italy

Organisers:

Jon Barker, University of Sheffield, UK
Emmanuel Vincent, INRIA Rennes, France
Phil Green, University of Sheffield, UK
Heidi Christensen, University of Sheffield, UK
Ning Ma, University of Sheffield, UK

CFP: EMMCVPR 2011

The 8th International Conference on Energy Minimization in Computer
Vision and Pattern Recognition (EMMCVPR)

July 25-27, 2011
Saint Petersburg, Russia

http://emmcvpr11.csd.uwo.ca/

CALL FOR PAPERS

Energy Minimization Methods have become an established computational
paradigm in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. EMMCVPR is a
regular bi-annual international conference dedicated to advancing the
state-of-the-art regarding development and applications of energy
minimization methods. As with the previous editions, the proceedings
will be published by Springer in the Lecture Notes on Computer Science
(LNCS) series. The size of the paper will be limited to 14 pages. The
scientific program of EMMCVPR 2011 will include the presentation of
invited plenary talks and contributed research papers. For more
information check out the conference web site at www.emmcvpr.org

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 25, 2011

Methods of interest include but are not limited to:

Combinatorial Optimization
Convex Programming and Relaxations
PDE and Variational Methods
TV and Continuous Convex Optimization
Stochastic Optimization
Spectral Methods
Graphical Models
Statistical Methods and Learning

Application areas include but are not limited to:

Object Recognition and Detection
Scene Understanding
Segmentation and Grouping
Restoration and Inpainting
Color and Texture
Computational Photography
Photo and Video Editing
Motion and Tracking
Matching and Registration
Medical Image Analysis
Pose Estimation
Action and Event Recognition
Shape Analysis
Shape-from-X
Stereo and 3D Reconstruction
Multiview Geometry
Vision for Graphics
Other Applications

Key-note speakers: Andrew Blake (Microsoft Research), Emmanuel Candes
(Stanford University), Alan Yuille (University of California Los
Angeles)

Program chairs: Yuri Boykov (University of Western Ontario), Fredrik
Kahl (Lund University), Victor Lempitsky (University of Oxford)
Organizational support: Frank Schmidt and Andrew Delong (University of
Western Ontario), Anna Medvedeva (local support)