Lab Associate (Intern) ECA – Disney Research Los Angeles
Online application: https://www.disneyresearch.com/job_posting/lab-associate-intern-eca-disney-research-los-angeles/
Disney Research conducts scientific technology research for The Walt Disney Company. Our main focus areas are Visual Computing, Robotics, Machine Learning and AI. We work on scientific applications within the Disney entertainment segments that are experienced daily by millions of people around the world.
Research areas of interest: We are broadly interested in Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA’s). This spans many interdisciplinary research areas including but not limited to:
- Natural Language Processing: Proficiency with NLP tools like NLTK, Stanford NLP parser, intent classification, natural language understanding, real-time streaming systems
- Computer Vision: Facial expression analysis, Emotion identification
- Audio processing: Speech-to-text analysis, digital signal processing
- Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Extraction and Representation for Natural Language Knowledge, Commonsense Knowledge, Story-specific knowledge, Symbolic and Neural Knowledge Representations
- Autonomous Agent Architectures: BDI Models for Autonomous Agents, Personality, Mood, Emotion (P/M/E) modeling, Deliberation systems, Planning-based systems (e.g., PDDL, HTN’s)
- Character Animation: Facial Animation synthesis, Lip syncing, Gestures, and upper body movement, Procedural and Data-driven Animation Systems, Expressive Animation Systems
- Behavior: Behavior Markup Languages (BML), Multi-modal behavior synthesis, Prosody, Speech Synthesis
- Natural Language Generation Systems
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Interactive Narrative Technologies
A lab associate position runs three to four months, although exceptions are made when necessary.
These responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- Contribute to fully functional prototype of an embodied conversational agent.
- Work with our researchers to generate research results and implement hard and/or software prototypes.
- Document research in internal reports, peer-reviewed publications, and patent applications.
- Work with Disney’s businesses to transfer research results.
General application information:
To be considered for this job [at the URL above] submit your CV and a cover letter that details your area of specialization and which lab you are interested in, as well as links to any representative papers. If you are selected to move forward in the process, we will request names and contact information for three or more letters of reference.