[agents] 2 PhD positions in interactive virtual characters and social robots at KTH, Sweden

[Christopher Peters]

** 2 funded PhD positions in interactive virtual characters and social robots at KTH, Sweden**

Embodied Social Agents Lab
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
Deadline: 15th January 2018


ABOUT KTH

KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm has grown to become one of Europe’s leading technical and engineering universities, as well as a key center of intellectual talent and innovation. We are Sweden’s largest technical research and learning institution and home to students, researchers and faculty from around the world. Our research and education covers a wide area including natural sciences and all branches of engineering, as well as in architecture, industrial management, urban planning, history and philosophy.

The Embodied Social Agents Lab (http://www.csc.kth.se/~chpeters/ESAL/) led by Dr. Christopher Peters aims to develop virtual characters and other systems capable of interacting socially with humans for real-world application to areas such as education. The lab is already involved in a number of local and international initiatives involving virtual characters, social robots and education. It is based out of the Visualization Studio (VIC) at KTH, a research, teaching and dissemination resource with some of the most advanced interactive visualization technologies in the world, supporting platforms for interacting with sophisticated virtual characters.


JOB DESCRIPTION

Two PhD positions are available in the area of interactive virtual characters and social robots for application to education. Research in this area brings together multidisciplinary expertise to address new challenges and opportunities in the area of virtual characters, based on real-time computer graphics and animation techniques, to investigate multimodal and natural interaction for both individuals and groups, multimodal generation of expressions, individualization of behaviour and effects of embodiment (appearance, virtual versus physical objects).  Applications are the design of interactive virtual and physical systems for educational purposes.

The topics to be pursued respectively in the PhDs are:

1.       Compliant Small Group Behaviour (ref: ESR5)
Develop socially compliant behaviours allowing agents to join and leave free-standing formations based on their varying roles as teachers, teaching assistants and learners in pedagogical scenarios. Investigate the impact of variations in the artificial behaviour of agents on the efficacy of pedagogical approaches and potential for application to mobile robots through virtual replicas.

2.       Impact of Appearance Customisation on Interaction (ref: ESR15)
Investigate technological approaches for customising the appearances and behaviours of avatars (user controlled virtual characters and robot replicas) in relation to their users and assess the impact on interactions during learning scenarios.

Both of the PhDs involve crossovers between virtual and augmented reality, virtual characters and mobile social robots and take place within the Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie European Training Network ANIMATAS.
ANIMATAS will establish a leading European Training Network (ETN) devoted to the development of a new generation of creative and critical research leaders and innovators who have a skill-set tailored for the creation of social capabilities necessary for realising step changes in the development of intuitive human-machine interaction (HMI) in educational settings. 15 early-stage researcher (ESR) positions are available within ANIMATAS.
The successful candidates will participate in the network’s training activities offered by the European academic and industrial participating teams. PhD students will have the opportunity to work with the partners of the ANIMATAS project, such as Uppsala University, Jacobs University Bremen, Institut Mines-Télécom, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Pierre et Marie Curie University and Softbank Robotics, with possible opportunities for secondments at these institutions according to the ESR.


QUALIFICATIONS

The candidates must have an MSc degree in computer science or related areas relevant to the PhD topics. Good programming skills are required. A background in computer graphics and animation techniques or similar areas is appreciated. The PhD positions are highly interdisciplinary and require an understanding and/or interest in psychology and social sciences. The applicant should have excellent communication skills and be motivated to work in an interdisciplinary environment involving multiple stakeholders across academia, industry and education. An excellent level of written and spoken English is essential.

Read more about eligibility requirements at this link: http://animatas.isir.upmc.fr
The positions are for four years.


HOW TO APPLY

To apply, candidates must submit their CV, a letter of application, two letters of reference and academic credentials to the ANIMATAS recruitment committee: Mohamed Chetouani (network coordinator), Ana Paiva and Arvid Kappas at contact-animatas at listes.upmc.fr, and to the main supervisor of the research project of interest (Christopher Peters, chpeters at kth.se<mailto:chpeters at kth.se>). All applications should be made in English.
Please include the keyword “ANIMATAS” somewhere in the subject line and specify which project you are applying for (ESR5 or ESR15).

The application deadline is 15th January 2018

Information about the positions can be provided by Dr. Christopher Peters, chpeters at kth.se<mailto:chpeters at kth.se>


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Christopher Peters, Docent
Associate Professor
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
School of Computer Science and Communication (CSC)
Department for Computational Science and Technology (CST)

D4416 Lindstedtsvägen 5 (plan 4)
SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
email: chpeters at kth.se
web: www.kth.se/profile/chpeters/

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