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Research Fellow in Computer Science – Interactive Software
Agents, Interaction & Complexity
Location:
Highfield Campus
Salary:
£32,348 to £39,745
per annum
Full Time Fixed Term for 3 years
Closing Date:
Friday 02 December 2022
Interview Date:
Tuesday 20 December 2022
Reference:
1937822FP-2RR
Research fellow in Computer Science / Human Computer Interaction
If you have a computer science background - especially with experience / interest in human computer interaction, and if you want your research to help make life better for people, apply to join us at the Wellthlab.ac.uk. We have open Research Fellow/Post Doc positions to develop novel interactive technologies to help support and improve health and wellbeing in everyday life, from individual to infrastructure.
Qualifications:
- PhD in Computer Science or related
- Track record of publications in scientific peer-reviewed journals and conferences
Key Demonstrable skills
- Experience in human-centred experimental design
- Having knowledge of mixed-methods research and experience running user studies. A background including human computer interaction is a plus.
- Experience with statistical analysis of experimental data
- Knowledge and experience in developing software, in particular app development
- Experience with software development to prototype and test research ideas using for example Javascript and React for iOS and Android.
- Comfort in integrating your software with sensors or other electrical kit also welcome.
- Experience in Heath-oriented research.
Core projects and research questions you’d be engaged on include:
Incidental Interaction – (priority project). We propose “incidental interaction” as a way to transform interactions we already have with every day objects into new kinds of additional interactions. For instance, in our elder athlete project, we are looking at how to transform everyday objects like arm wrests, door handles, floor mats, photos on walls into artifacts that also support building balance, strength and mobility. Research questions include what the whole cycle of interaction looks like. For example: a floor mat and wraps around arm wrests can detect how much force the upper and lower body are using to stand up. How might the arm wrests cue using more or less upper body effort? What does the feedback look, feel or sound like to show, unobtrusively, how much effort a person has done that day?
Tool Designs to Build and Support Insourcing HEALTH knowledge skills and practice.
Most health technologies tend either to quantify what someone has done – how far they’ve walked – or quantify a signal coming from the body – like heart rate. Some applications use this data – like sleep disruptions – to tell the person how well they’re doing with their health. In our Inbodied Interaction approach, we call that approach “outsourcing health” to sensors and data. Our research question is how to design health supporting technologies to “insource” health – to help people connect what they’re doing with how they’re feeling to learn how to feel better. One approach to develop this self-tuning is found in on our Experiment in a Box methodology. How would you design approaches to support insourcing and self-tuning?
Synthetic Human Presence – COVID let us know the power of online meetings, but also their limitations. This project is investigating the differences of human interactions in real-life and online
using biomedical and optical sensors (ECG, EEG, eye tracking, video processing etc) in order to design a method to synthesise the feeling of real “co-presence” in an online setting. This includes new interface designs as well as different feedback and stimulation techniques (transcranial electrical stimulation, bio/neurofeedback etc).
Non-visual Augmented/Mixed Reality
Most mixed and augmented reality work presumes that the dominant sense used will be visual. There are considerable challenges in taking that assumption outdoors, not least where light currently affects screen quality, and can occlude the visual field.
There are however tremendous opportunities to leverage other senses for exploration – particularly when also using additional qualities like physical movement and way finding for learning. Drawing on motor learning and related cognitive neural processes, we are keen to explore these less-utilised senses for innovative augmentations to support actual learning on the go.
Your Project Ideas
Ours is a team-based, collaborative lab, driven by co-design. We are interested in how you would take these kinds of inbodied interaction approached to develop and lead research in the lab.
About the WellthLab
The focus of the Wellthlab is to explore the question of how interactive technologies, from individual to infrastructure, can help #makeNormalBetter for all, at scale.
The WellthLab is interdisciplinary – our members are mainly situated in the Electronics and Computer Science School of the University of Southampton. We also collaborate with academics in Physiology, Psychology, Humanities, Arts and Sociology. The Lab’s work is also international, with collaborations across the globe.
We are looking for people who are excellent researchers, motivated to collaborate with these teams, and who are keen to build their research leadership skills, to develop innovative, strong research contributions, and to become a field leader in these approaches to help #makeNormalBetter for all, at scale.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR LAB MEMBERS: researchers in our group have opportunities for rich collaborations and international networking. There are always opportunities for international travel and collaborations, including presenting work at conferences, developing workshops, invited talks and related. Our goal is to ensure our research fellows have all the support and opportunities they need to develop skills and build their careers.
For more details on the job offers check: https://jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?id=33893 If you have questions, please contact lab director, prof m.c. schraefel at hrit-rf@nopain2.org
Applications will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification. The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon completion of PhD. Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given.
Application Procedure
You should submit your completed online application form at https://jobs.soton.ac.uk. The application deadline will be midnight on the closing date stated above. If you need any assistance, please call Lauren Ward (Recruitment Team) on +44 (0) 23 8059 2750 or email recruitment@soton.ac.uk. Please quote reference 1937822FP-2RR on all correspondence.
Further details:
We believe equality, diversity and inclusion are fundamental to making the University of Southampton a welcoming, vibrant and successful organisation. Having a diverse workforce, inclusive of people of all ages and beliefs, from different racial backgrounds, educational and social backgrounds opens up a wealth of possibilities, makes us more creative and accelerates our impact on society. We welcome applicants that value diversity of our community and are willing to play their part in supporting the mission of inclusivity.
Please note that applications from agencies will not be accepted unless indicated on the job.