The European project WHIM ("The What-If Machine") investigates the following model for creative idea generation: (a) collect and analyse some information about a domain, to form a shallow world view of that domain (b) form a set of what-if style ideas from the analysis using notions of surprise, semantic tension and incongruity (c) assess, rank and select ideas based on the quality and quantity of narratives that can be generated using each idea, and (d) use the world view, idea and narratives in linguistic renderings, taking into account notions of relevancy, expansion, obfuscation and affect.
In the frame of this project, the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (NIL research group) will undertake the following two tasks: generating a set of conceptually-described narratives for each what-if style idea suggested by the What-If Machine, and developing metrics for establishing the relative quality of a given instance of such narratives.
One postdoctoral research position is available to work in this project. The position is for a full-time postdoctoral researcher with annual salary 42,800 euro. The positions are for one year, with the possibility of renewal for a further two years, starting from 27th January 2014.
Candidates are expected to have a PhD degree and a first degree in Computer Science or related field. They should have research experience in computational treatment of narrative, knowledge representation, natural language generation, and Java programming. Additional experience in planning, agents, case-based reasoning, grammars and/or web services will be considered a plus.
Candidates will be expected to take up significant responsibilities in the tasks of narrative generation and narrative evaluation.
Other merits and aspects are clarified in the call (in Spanish):
http://www.ucm.es/data/cont/media/www/pag-9306/AnexoConvocatoria%20PAI%2...
The description of the position is listed there under the code WHIM Grant agreement no: 611560. The application period will close on November 21st, and candidates should follow the call instructions. The instance and regulations (in Spanish) can be found in:
http://www.ucm.es/personal-de-apoyo-a-la-investigacion
More info and FAQ (Spanish): http://nil.fdi.ucm.es
For further details and clarifications, contact pgervas@sip.ucm.es