We're returning to UNSW this year for our flagship annual event.Registration will open soon; over the next few weeks we hope to entice you with glimpses of the summer school courses, workshops, and other events that will make up a not-to-be-missed event. SummerFest runs this year from Monday 1st December to Friday 5th December. Plan on being there.

We will be holding eight intensive and stimulating HCSNet Summer School courses that will be on offer December 1-2. Here's a preview of two of this year's courses and presenters.

Professor Ruth Campbell will present a course titled "Speechreading in the Brain -- Similarities and Differences from other Visual Language Processes". Professor Campbell is Deputy Director of the ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre at University College London http://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/team/ruth_campbell.html. For the last 12 years her research has focussed on neural bases for speechreading and sign language processing, as well as conducting neuropsychological and behavioural studies related to face and speech processing in various groups.

"Music and language cognition: rhythm and melody" will be presented by Professor Aniruddh D. Patel, Esther J. Burnham Senior Fellow at the Neurosciences Institute in the USA http://www.nsi.edu/index.php?5C5Cpage=aniruddh_d_patel. Ani's research focuses on how the brain processes music and language, and what the similarities and differences between the two reveal about each other and about the brain itself.

Undergraduate students, graduate students and staff are invited to attend Summer School courses. Each will begin with a general introduction and then move onto more advanced areas and 'hot topics'. So mark this year's HCSNet Summer Schools in your diary: December 1-2 at the University of New South Wales.

Registration is now open for the HCSNet Workshop on Narrative & Communication Disorders to be held at the University of Melbourne on September 13th-14th. We are very excited about the papers on offer, and a provisional program will be available from Wednesday July 23rd. Please note that travel funding for students and HCSNet members is still available, so please indicate on your registration form whether you would like to be considered (priority given to those who register first).

For more information about the Workshop, visit our website (http://www.hcsnet.edu.au/hcsnetevents/2008/ncdworkshop) or contact Lesley lesleyfs@unimelb.edu.au or Susan sdouglas@unimelb.edu.au.

Level: Academic Level A, Step 6-8

Remuneration Package: $75,869 to $81,219 p.a.

Reference: 80173 Closing Date: 01 Aug 2008

Campus: Bankstown Department/School: MARCS Auditory Laboratories

Position Summary:

Remuneration Package: Academic Level A, Step 6 to 8, $75,869 to $81,219 p.a. (comprising Salary, 17% Superannuation, and Leave Loading)

MARCS Auditory Laboratories, University of Western Sydney has been awarded a prestigious $3.4M ARC/NHMRC “Thinking Systems” grant to develop a 'thinking head' – a breakthrough system that can learn from and interact with humans. The University of Western Sydney invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship to work with the Thinking Head Evaluation Team on this exciting project at MARCS Auditory Laboratories (commencing: January 2009 - negotiable) The Postdoctoral Fellow will conduct high-level research and development activities in areas related to systematic evaluation of an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) and ECA-user interaction. Rigorous evaluation is critical to informing design and refinement of ECA capabilities, usability, intelligibility and naturalness, especially in areas of speech recognition/synthesis, non-verbal communication, turn-taking and emotion. The Fellow will have a PhD in experimental psychology, cognitive science, computer science or speech science and an interest in new technologies including ECAs. The successful applicant will report to Associate Professor Kate Stevens, and work closely with the Evaluation Team at the University of Western Sydney, and collaborate with Thinking Head researchers at University of Canberra, Macquarie and Flinders Universities.

As the position may involve working with children, ‘Prohibited Persons’ are not permitted to apply. Short-listed applicants will be required to authorise a screening check.

Applicants should access the Position Description and address the Person Specification (Selection Criteria) within, when writing their application. The position description and information on how to apply is available from http://pubapps.uws.edu.au/vacancies/.

Enquiries: Associate Professor Kate Stevens, (02) 9772 6324 or Email: kj.stevens@uws.edu.au