PhD Studentship Opportunity in Machine-Assisted Translation

Established in 1982, the University of Surrey Centre for Translation Studies (CTS) is one of the UK’s leading centres for research, scholarship and teaching in translation and interpreting. CTS has recently secured funding for strategic expansion, which will enable the centre to integrate its established expertise in how professional translators/interpreters interact with, and adapt to, emerging technological ecosystems with research into the automation of these practices. This expansion project seeks to recruit eligible PhD candidates who are willing to conduct research in the following area:

PhD in Machine-Assisted Translation
We are seeking a candidate who is interested in pursuing a PhD with a focus on how the capabilities of humans and machines may be integrated. The main focus of this project will be on how quality estimation and/or automatic post-editing can improve the productivity of professional translators. This research agenda may entail the development of data driven automated methods for estimating the quality of translation and/or perform automatic post-editing. It may inter alia focus on machine translation/machine learning with a view to enhancing human output, machine translation post-editing and revision, quality and evaluation of human and machine translation, and computer-assisted translation.

The successful project will need to rely on a solid, evidence-based, eclectic mixed-methods approach benefiting from cross-fertilization among different disciplines (such as machine learning/artificial intelligence, natural language processing, corpus linguistics, translation studies etc.) in order to further the development of tools, resources and training for enhanced communication across languages and types of languages, to conceptually map out intersections of machine and human translation, and to explore the usability of and social responsibility in automated translation solutions. The successful candidate will benefit from excellent technological working conditions, international contacts, and a stimulating interdisciplinary work environment.

This is a 3 year project, commencing in July 2020.


Entry requirements:
First class or upper second class BA and Master’s level degree (or international equivalent) in Translation Studies, Linguistics, Computer Science or related field.

IELTS test (test not older than 2 years): 6.5 or above (or equivalent) with at least 7.0 in the writing component and at least 6.0 in the other components.

How to apply:
Applications can be made through the CTS PhD in Translation and Interpreting page: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/postgraduate/translation-and-interpreting-phd. Please state project title clearly on your research statement – this statement should be 1,000 words long, excluding references and must be uploaded in .DOC format in the “research proposal” area of the application portal. Applicants should also include a copy of their CV, two academic references and their completed academic degrees and degree transcripts.

Applicants are encouraged to email Prof. Constantin Orasan ([Email Address Removed]) first to discuss their application.