Research Scientist Intern, Multimodal Behavioral Modeling, Hearing Science (PhD)

About the role

The Meta Reality Labs Research Team brings together a world-class team of researchers, developers, and engineers to create the future of virtual and augmented reality, which together will become as universal and essential as smartphones and personal computers are today.

In particular, the Meta Reality Labs Research Audio team works on technologies that help people hear and communicate better in everyday life, from spatial audio to hearing assistance on AI glasses. Recent work includes Conversation Focus, which helps people hear the person they're talking to in noisy environments. As wearable devices become part of daily life, understanding how people actually listen, attend, and communicate in real-world settings is central to building audio experiences that adapt to each person.

We are looking for interns who want to model how people listen and communicate in the real world. Using multimodal, egocentric data from wearable devices (eye and head movement, speech and vocal behavior, gesture, and the acoustic scene), the intern will build models that infer listening and communication states such as auditory attention, listening effort, and conversational engagement. Ground truth for these states is often sparse or ambiguous. The goal is to inform hearing assistance and audio technologies that adapt to the listener.

The role suits candidates with a background in machine learning, computer science, hearing science, or auditory or cognitive neuroscience, who want to work at the intersection of those fields. Successful candidates will combine strong quantitative and machine learning skills with an understanding of human hearing and communication. Specific projects will be designed with successful applicants to match their skills and experience to current research needs.

Our internships are twelve (12) to twenty-four (24) weeks long and we have various start dates throughout the year.