Posts Tagged EU
PhD Positions SOCRATES @ BGU
Posted by Tal Oron-Gilad in HRI, News on September 19, 2016
SOCRATES see project recruitment-poster
With Prof. Yael Edan, we are looking for a Ph.D. student in Human-Robot Interaction Design. The research topic will be: Interaction design for varying levels of automation
Ben-Gurion University is seeking outstanding candidates for a PhD student position in Interaction design for varying levels of automation, at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management. BGU is an internationally recognized research university that attracts outstanding faculty and researchers from around the world with over 19,000 students. The Industrial Engineering and Management Dept. at BGU includes multidisciplinary faculty with expertise in operations research, applied statistics, intelligent systems, human factors engineering, and information systems. Advanced innovative multidisciplinary robotics research at BGU is conducted under the auspices of the ABC Robotics Initiative.
SOCRATES
The recruitment is done as part of SOCRATES (SOcial Cognitive Robotic Agents in The European Society), a new Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Training Network (ETN) comprising of 7 universities/research institutes: Umeå University and Örebro University in Sweden, Universität Hamburg and Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart in Germany, CSIC Barcelona in Spain, University West of England, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Additional non-academic partners are: Pal Robotics, Adele Robots, Alfred Nobel Science Park, Urquhart-Dykes & Lord LLP, Center for Digital Innovation, UMINOVA, Asea Brown Boveri, S.A, and Fundació ACE.
In total 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) will be recruited as PhD students for research on various aspects of social robotics aiming at eldercare. The wide range of projects covers a spectrum from technical design of hardware and interaction methodology, to personalization, user studies, and robot ethics. The researchers will receive training in both academic and entrepreneurial spirit and expertise, well suited for a career in both academy and industry. The training includes a research project, courses, seminars, and workshops. An overview of all available positions can be found at www.socrates-project.eu.
This Research project: Within the realm of assistive robotics for the elderly, the Ph.D. student will aim to develop advanced human-robot interfaces and means of interaction for dynamically changing situations. The focus is on means to improve coordination between users and their robots, and allow the user and the robot to operate as a team with varying levels of control and autonomy, dependent on the context and tasks, in particular in robot learning scenarios. The user involvement and hence the Interaction Quality will vary as a result of the learning progress. This is particularly important to consider when the robot interacts with older adults who have difficulties in identifying changes in the robot’s behavior.
The student will visit Örebro University and the Ängen test facility in Sweden to record and analyze user acceptance for different interface and interaction designs and modalities. Specific experiments will be designed so as to simulate the different types of feedback and changing levels of interaction. These will be implemented on robots in different use-case scenarios with older adults and for different modalities and means of interaction. The research will also include two secondments; one to Bristol Robotics Labs, UK to investigate the relation between adaptive safety control and the human-robot interface design, and one industrial secondment to ADELE Robots, to investigate practical case studies.
About the position: The successful applicant will receive a competitive salary for a period of three years of full time research, provided that the expected study and research results are achieved. No teaching is expected. The salary will be based on the standard Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early-Stage Researcher living and mobility allowances. Expected starting date is 1st of April 2017.
Admission requirements:The applicants must have completed their MSc or MA thesis in Engineering, Computer Sciences, Psychology, or Cognitive science. The applicant must be skilled in both oral and written communication in English, be able to work independently as well as in collaboration with others. We are looking for candidates with strong technical and programming skills. Experience in robotics, human factors, machine learning and statistics are merits. Candidates should have interest in studying human-robot interaction (although should not necessarily have background in such topics) and be passionate about learning and developing knowledge in a novel and exciting area.
Once approved by BGU’s SOCRATES graduate committee the student must be accepted to BGU’s Kreitman graduate school (http://in.bgu.ac.il/en/kreitman_school/Pages/admission.aspx) and obtain a visa and working permit according to the Israeli Ministry of Interior requirements. The candidate must submit a research proposal and go through a Qualification Exam within one year of studies on his/her research proposal.
To promote mobility, the following rule applies: at the time of recruitment, the applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in Israel for more than 12 months during the last 3 years. Compulsory national service, work in international organizations, and short stays such as holidays are not taken into account. The applicants must not, at the time of recruitment, have spent more than 4 years doing research, and must not have been awarded a doctoral degree.
Application – a complete application should contain the following documents:
- A cover letter including a description of your research interests, your reasons to apply for the position, and your contact information.
- A curriculum vitae.
- Copies of degree certificates, including documentation of completed academic courses and obtained grades.
- Copy of completed MSc or MA thesis and other original research publications.
- Contact information for three persons willing to act as references (including your thesis advisor).
- Documentation of programming skills and software development experience.
Applications must be submitted electronically to the following email by November 30, 2016.
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
For additional information about the position, please contact: Prof. Yael Edan – yael@bgu.ac.il Prof. Tal Oron-Gilad – orontal@bgu.ac.il
For general information about the SOCRATES project, please contact: Prof. Thomas Hellström – thomash@cs.umu.se
Human Factors Engineering 