The fourth COBRA training event took place from the 27th of June to the 1st of July 2022 in Ferrara, in the heart of beautiful Italy. In this outstanding venue, the COBRA Early-Stage Researchers had the privilege to follow courses given by Stefan Benus (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava) on alignment between speakers in conversation,...
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COBRA has a new coordinator!
Since September 2022, COBRA is coordinated by Dr Kristof Strijkers, a CNRS Research Scientist and member of the laboratoire Parole et Langage at Aix-Marseille University. Kristof Strijkers holds an MA in Theoretical and Experimental Psychology obtained at the University of Ghent (Belgium) in 2006, an MA in Cognitive Neurosciences and Language obtained at the University...
The Edinburgh Event
Now ready for a new training event, we would love to tell you about our first in-person meet-up. The Edinburgh Training event happened in the middle of April and the city welcomed us with timid blossoms and early signs of spring.
Can A Machine Learn Languages?
Marvel fans will probably chuckle at this imaginary mini talk between Iron Man and his AI butler J.A.R.V.I.S. Since the birth of modern computers, many movies have used artificial intelligence characters such as HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Rachael in Blade Runner (1982) and Samantha in Her (2013) to depict futures where humans live together with smart machines. Undoubtedly, language intelligence is at the heart of any human-like AI system that people use to augment their capabilities or even to socialize with, like a friend.
Psychophysiology: Your body speaks, even when you don’t listen
Picture this. You are walking down a busy street when you get a text message from a close friend. It’s a funny message, so you respond immediately, and the two of you engage in a fun back-and-forth. You are so absorbed in the conversation that, when it’s time to cross the street, you don’t even think to check if any cars are coming. As soon as you step into the street, a fast bus passes in front of you loudly honking . Fortunately, you are safe and sound, but the scare that you got certainly made you look up from your phone. You feel your heart pounding,your hands sweating. Someone stops to ask if you’re okay and they notice how large your pupils look.
Taking time to read and write as a radical act of love for research
Doing research needs reading and writing, but often academics struggle to find time for that. I suggest a few pieces my colleagues and I have enjoyed reading lately to re-claim time for pure research in the academic workspace.
Big Themes in COBRA: Behavioural Alignment
When you scroll through the projects listed on the Cobra website, one word seems to pop up frequently: alignment. What does this mean, and why is it interesting? Let’s first look at a scenario everyone has experienced: you are in a room full of people. Somebody yawns. Within a few minutes, everybody seems to be...
How we are doing so far
Last week the ESRs, along with their supervisors, met the Project Officer for the midterm review of the COBRA project. We had the opportunity to show our progress, at a personal and a scientific level. Overall, both the senior and the early career researchers were satisfied by what came up during the meeting. All the...
What is linguistics? A quick guide to the study of language
The language sciences shed light on the intricate processes that govern and underlie our ability to speak. This blog post in turn sheds light on the language sciences.
How we ended up in theatre when doing a PhD
Around four months ago, researchers from Aix Marseille University invited us – the CoBra ESRs – to participate in the European Performing Science Night in Badalona, Spain. This night was part of a Europe-wide event that gave us the chance to talk about Cobra with the public, as well as a chance to collect data....