PhD student positions in CS/HCI

Information about the research/the project
Today, complex development tasks often require close collaboration in distributed interdisciplinary teams. Such teams share information on common workspaces such as interactive tables or electronic whiteboards. Tables or boards are typically combined with voice and other nonverbal communication such as gaze, posture, or gestures. However, state-of-the-art videoconferencing systems are not powerful enough to transfer both communication layers simultaneously with sufficient temporal and spatial alignment. Therefore, team meetings are still often face-to-face, causing travelling overheads.

To tackle this problem systematically, the international project MERCO will research and develop remote collaboration systems capable of bringing net-based collaboration to a new level of performance. Our project consortium consists of the two research institutions ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), joining forces with the companies Ericsson, Semcon, Touchtech, AVS, and Intelliconcept.

Now, we seek excellent candidates for two PhD student positions (place of residence at the location of the corresponding research institute):

PhD Position 1, Chalmers in Gothenburg, Sweden: This PhD student will be responsible for the application programming, as well as for the empirical evaluation of the system. This will require expertise in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW), strong programming skills, as well as in design and performance of mixed-presence user studies, data analysis, empirical evaluation methods, statistical analysis and presentation.

PhD Position 2, ETH Zurich, Switzerland: The main task here will be the technical development and integration of a collaboration system, comprising hard- and software. Research fields are Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW), and Computer Graphics. Candidates will bring strong expertise in computer graphic algorithms for image segmentation, programming in various languages, as well HCI.

To apply to this position, please visit ETH Zurich: http://www.icvr.ethz.ch/news/open_postitions_EN

Both PhD students will also be responsible for national project management of the MERCO project, and will actively take part in student training (as advisor of Bachelor and Master theses). Candidates bring the ability to work in an international research group, can stay focused and productive even in a complex setting with multiple goals and expectations, and have a readiness to contribute to the growth and day-to-day functioning of a research group.

Please read more:

Chalmers research group, t2i Lab: http://www.t2i.se and http://t2i.se/merco

Swiss research partner, ETH Zurich: http://www.icvr.ethz.ch/index_EN

Major responsibilities
On a systems level, major responsibilities will relate to hands-on integration of both hardware and software components. Application level functions include, development, installation, and configuration in industrial contexts. This will be paired with designing mixed-presence collaboration studies involving data analysis, using statistical tools to visualise and understand the data gathered. A successful candiate will actively engage in the Ph.D education activites within their own research group, the department, the research school, and within the project.

Position summary
Aiming to design and examine novel mixed-presence collaborative tools and concepts, this position is geared towards research-oriented design, development, and validation. There will be an important component of application design followed by empirical studies. A part of the project's intended novelty will be related to the use of multi-device solutions, including large, medium, and small screen apps, with another part being image segmentation of gestures and postures in front of multitouch devices. Realtime gesture/multitouch integration for mixed-presence collaboration will be a key focus area.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.chalmers.se/en/about-chalmers/vacancies/?rmpage=job&rmjob=2168

Application deadline: 2014-06-30 (the position is open until a suitable candidate has been hired)

For questions, please contact:
Associate professor Morten Fjeld
E-mail: fjeld@chalmers.se

Assistant professor Jonas Landgren, Head of Division
E-mail: jonas.landgren@chalmers.se