Abstract
This project intends to address the issue of accessibility to scientific information contained in graphic structures for people with visual disabilities. Today’s assistive technologies provide a number of tools to support visually impaired people, however these technologies often present severe limitations in non strictly textual contexts. In fact, scientific texts very often contain "structured" graphic information such as tables or diagrams representing large amounts of structured data usually employed in scientific analysis. The idea behind this project is to use Natural Language Processing and in particular conversational interfaces technologies to allow visually impaired people to navigate scientific diagrams towards a conversation with a chatbot.
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General Info
This project will be carried out in the Department of Computer Science.
This PhD project is part of a call for 5 fully funded PhD scholarships in the framework of the PhD in Modeling and Data Science https://dottorato-mds.campusnet.unito.it/do/home.pl at the University of Turin (Italy). The call will open on 28 April 2022 (date TBC). The scholarship is for three years, starting in October 2022.
The PhD program is interdisciplinary, and it involves branches of mathematics, informatics, economics, statistics, and physics. All interested candidates should submit their application online via the link https://www.phd.unito.it/do/home.pl/View?doc=Submitting_your_application.html. Deadline for applying is 30 May 2022 (date TBC). Notice that the application requires two reference letters, which should be submitted via the same link by the referees before the application deadline. The referees will be able to submit their letters only after the candidate has input all the required information and closed their (part of the) application. If the letters are not submitted by the deadline the application will not be valid.
For more information, do not hesitate to contact the coordinator of the PhD Program, Prof Laura Sacerdote at [Email Address Removed], or the supervisors.
More information, including the official call and all relevant (confirmed) deadlines, can be found here https://dottorato-mds.campusnet.unito.it/do/home.pl/View?doc=/content/Admission.html.
The call for applications is available at the page https://www.dottorato.unito.it/do/home.pl/View?doc=Bando_XXXVIII_ciclo.html.
Admission details and the list of projects can be found here https://www.dottorato.unito.it/do/documenti.pl/ShowFile?_id=g3ot;field=file;key=JbqgKqg0lroYaYMa8BXEFYBVz1z8MXSdAKr7fGFtPR2;t=3298.