Job opening: 4-year PhD position in agent-based socio-geographical support (TU Delft, Netherlands)

[Birna van Riemsdijk]

Job opening: 4-year PhD position in agent-based socio-geographical support (TU Delft, Netherlands)
TU Delft, Faculty/department Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Keywords: norms and social structures, decision support, human-agent teamwork, human-computer interaction, user studies

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JOB DESCRIPTION

As part of the COMMIT program, a vacancy position for a PhD student is available. As PhD student you would participate in the Interaction for Universal Access project, which objective is to develop explicit and implicit methods of “natural” interaction and support a diverse group of citizens  to access services in their (social) environment. The work of PhD student will focus on the navigation through socio-geographical environments with agent-based and multimedia-enriched support. This support should help citizens to form relevant mental models of the structure of their social and geographical environment, helping them to feel safe and secure. 

The general research questions are: (1) How do people learn and maintain awareness of the spatial and social structure of their environment with its dynamics? (2) How do they learn to identify the social risks (strangers in the proverbial “dark alley”) and rewards (potential friends)? (3) How can intelligent agents be used to create support systems that can make the socio-geographical inclusion process more efficient? 

The PhD project will investigate techniques for developing an intelligent "ePartner" to support people in their navigation through socio-geographical environments. The ePartner is an intelligent agent who should be able to cooperate with its human user, and maintain in contact with ePartners of other people. To its user it should be able to provide decision support, e.g., in identification of social risks and rewards. For this the agent should be able to form a mental model of the social and geographical network in which it is operating, i.e., it should be able to detect, understand and reason about the social and geographical norms, conventions and (social) structures that are in place in that environment. Also it should be possible for the user to formulate norms for the behavior of the ePartner in order to appropriately constrain it, e.g., concerning its interactions with other ePartners. The scientific challenge of this project is thus on the one hand in the area of detecting and reasoning about norms and social structures, and on the other hand on human-agent teamwork between ePartner and human and among ePartners. Your responsibilities include developing several working prototypes of the agent based support system, and conducting the evaluation studies. 

The research will start with young elementary school children (6-12 years), who have just moved to a new neighbourhood, and for whom it is important to ease the geographical and social integration. Among other things, the study will provide insight in what problems children experience when having to integrate in their novel environment, and how to solve such problems via agent-based and media-mediated navigation. Using a distributed approach, members of a district become key actors in discussing important issues or events in a district and building social cohesion of their community. Allowing them to use multimedia elements (text, pictures, and video) to annotate geographical maps of a district, would create a real-time environment, accessible on mobile platforms. These platforms would give users on location information related to their location. 

The focus of the first year will be on identifying key design factors that influence social acceptable interaction strategies which supports district members to exchange autobiographical information about their district. The second year will focus on district navigation support targeting young elementary school children new to the neighbourhood. The tool aims at supporting this target group with becoming familiar with social and geographical environment of an unfamiliar district. In year 3 the focus shifts towards the support of real time situational awareness of the district and its members. In the last year focus will be on socio-geographical support in the context of a specific event in the district. An important factor to increase cohesion in the district is the participation of local events such as Queens day, carnival, “intocht Sinterklaas”, and football world cup.

REQUIREMENTS

As a PhD student your tasks concern the following activities:
* perform scientific research
* develop research prototypes using a situated cognitive engineering approach (iterative development cycles, empirical evaluation of prototypes with its users, scenario- and claim-based analysis,and focus group reviews)
* present results in scientific conferences
* publish in renowned scientific journals
* participate in activities of the research group

We are looking for excellent candidates who meet the following requirements:
* an MSc degree in computer science, media and knowledge engineering, human technology interaction, artificial intelligence or a closely related field;
* good programming skills
* excellent communication skills, both spoken and written Dutch and English; non-Dutch speakers should be willing and able to learn Dutch within the first year in order to be able to conduct user studies
* you have a creative mind, like to work to a meticulous level and have stamina

The ideal candidate is interested in conducting applied research and has expertise both in AI/multi-agent systems as well as in human-computer interaction (HCI). Candidates without HCI background should be interested in and willing to acquire this expertise during the PhD, as it comprises an important part of the research.

You will be part of the project team, which consists of experts in cognitive engineering and agent-based modelling. The work will lead to a PhD under the supervision of Prof.dr. M.A. Neerincx, Dr. M.B. van Riemsdijk, and Dr.ir. W.-P. Brinkman. 

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

TU Delft offers an attractive benefits package, including a flexible work week, free high-speed Internet access from home (with a contract of two years or longer), and the option of assembling a customised compensation and benefits package (the 'IKA'). Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities. Employment is for a maximum of 38 hours per week (1 FTE), duration of the contract is 4 years, and salary scale is approx. EUR2042 to EUR2612 per month gross.

INFORMATION AND APPLICATION

For more information about these positions, please contact Dr. M.B. van Riemsdijk (m.b.vanRiemsdijk at tudelft.nl); or Dr.ir. Brinkman (w.p.brinkman at tudelft.nl).

To apply, please submit the following application materials:

(1) Curriculum Vitae including contact details of references.

(2) Course lists with grades.

(3) A letter of application in which you explain both your interest and the relevance of your skills and experience in the context of this research project.

At this stage, please do NOT submit papers or theses that you might have written. You may submit your materials either by post to Ms. J. Eddini, Mekelweg  4, 2628 CD  Delft, The Netherlands; or by e-mail to hr-eemcs at tudelft.nl. Please send your application by 1 January 2012. When applying for this position, please refer to vacancy number EWI2011-17.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) is known worldwide for its high academic quality and the social relevance of its research programmes. The faculty’s excellent facilities accentuate its international position in teaching and research. The faculty offers an interdisciplinary setting for its 500 employees, 350 PhD students and 1700 undergraduates. Together they work on a broad range of technical innovations in the fields of sustainable energy, telecommunications, microelectronics, embedded systems, computer and software engineering, interactive multimedia and applied mathematics. EEMCS: Your Connection to the Future.



The Department of Mediamatics comprises the media-oriented computer science groups in the Faculty of EEMCS and is responsible for a major part of the Bachelor and Master programmes in Computer Science. The department’s mission is to be internationally recognised for its excellent researchers in the field of data processing and interpretation using model- and knowledge-based algorithms. The department aims thus to enable man and machine, in close cooperation with their intelligent environment, to deal with ever increasing information flows.



The mission of the Man-Machine Interaction Group is to engineer adaptive, intelligent systems to create intended user experiences. We consider the entire chain, from analysis, modelling and system design to implementation and evaluation. Our research focuses on the combination of the research disciplines of Artificial Intelligence (AI), including the themes of agent reasoning and programming and computational intelligence, and Cognitive Engineering (CE), including the research themes of user-centred design and human perception. Application areas include negotiation and eHealth.

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Dr. M. Birna van Riemsdijk
assistant professor
Man-Machine Interaction Group
Department of Mediamatics
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Delft University of Technology
Mekelweg 4
2628 CD Delft
The Netherlands
Room: HB 12.080
Telephone: +31 (0)15 2786331
Fax: +31 (0)15 2787141
Website: http://mmi.tudelft.nl/~birna/
Twitter: @mbirna