Two PhD positions in deep learning for natural language processing F/M
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Subsidiary : Natural Language Understanding
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Contract type: Permanent contract
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Work time: Full time
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Location Martigny
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From 01.10.2025
Role Summary
As part of the ERC Advanced grant BALM, Idiap Research Institute seeks qualified candidates for two PhD student positions at the intersection of machine learning and natural language processing. These researchers will investigate representation learning for language, augmenting LLMs using our recent Bayesian extension of transformers and knowledge graph embeddings. Our nonparametric variational information bottleneck induces more abstract and interpretable attention-based representations, which we will leverage and extend to develop new deep learning architectures and investigate their interpretability, controllability and applications.
The successful PhD candidate will join the BALM project and the Natural Language Understanding group at Idiap, under the supervision of Dr. James Henderson. She/he will also become a doctoral student at EPFL (http://www.epfl.ch) conditional on a parallel application to, and acceptance by, the EPFL Doctoral School (http://phd.epfl.ch/applicants). Appointment for a PhD position is for a maximum of 4 years, provided successful progress, and should lead to a dissertation. Starting date is to be negotiated, but expected to be Oct-Dec 2025. All queries related to the advertised position can be sent to Dr. James Henderson (james.henderson@idiap.ch).
Your Profile
The ideal PhD candidates should hold a Masters degree in computer science, artificial intelligence, or related fields. She or he should have a background in machine learning or natural language processing. The applicant should also have strong mathematical and programming skills. Idiap takes gender balance and diversity seriously in our hiring decisions.
About Idiap
Idiap is a research institute of national importance that engages in fundamental research, education and technology transfer in artificial intelligence, machine learning and signal processing. Idiap offers competitive salaries and conditions in a young, high-quality, dynamic, and multicultural environment. Idiap is located in the town of Martigny in Valais, a scenic region in the south of Switzerland, surrounded by the highest mountains of Europe, and offering exceptional quality of life, exciting recreational activities, including hiking, climbing and skiing, as well as varied cultural activities. English is the official working language.
At Idiap we place great emphasis on diversity and we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. Employment at Idiap is based solely on a person's merit and qualifications. Idiap does not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, marital status, pregnancy, or any other basis protected by law.
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