5-year PhD position in Nonverbal Behaviour Generation for Virtual Humans (1.0 FTE)
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ORGANISATION/COMPANYUtrecht University
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RESEARCH FIELDPhysics
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RESEARCHER PROFILEFirst Stage Researcher (R1)
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APPLICATION DEADLINE16/06/2021 00:00 - Europe/Brussels
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LOCATIONNetherlands › Utrecht
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TYPE OF CONTRACTTemporary
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HOURS PER WEEK40.0
OFFER DESCRIPTION
The Human-Centered Computing group currently offers a 5-year PhD position. The group is led by Professor Judith Masthoff and you will work under the daily supervision of Dr. Zerrin Yumak. The position includes research as well as teaching, where teaching commitments account for 30% of employment time.
Research
Generating nonverbal behaviours (facial expressions, gestures and head movements) for virtual humans is essential in virtual environments such as games and virtual reality applications and for embodied conversational agents. Designing these behaviours requires manual effort by animation designers. Moreover, interactive applications demand the generation of these behaviours on-the-fly in response to the users’ input and behaviours.
In this PhD project, you will investigate how to automatically generate nonverbal behaviour combining techniques from Computer Graphics/Animation and Artificial Intelligence (AI). You will work with nonverbal behaviour datasets and employ a data-driven approach using machine learning and deep learning algorithms. The results will be evaluated with objective metrics with respect to the ground truth data and with subjective experiments including users. Utrecht University Motion Capture and Virtual Reality Lab will be used for data collection and experiments. Your research is expected to result in high-quality scientific publications as well as real-world impact.
Teaching
You will be involved in supporting the preparation of Bachelor's and Master's courses, offered by the Department of Information and Computing Sciences. Furthermore, you will teach these courses and supervise student theses.
More Information
Benefits
We offer an exciting opportunity to contribute to an ambitious and international education programme with highly motivated students and to conduct your own research project at a renowned research university. You will receive appropriate training, personal supervision, and guidance for both your research and teaching activities, which will provide an excellent start to an academic career.
In addition, you will have:
- the opportunity to work in a collaborative, social, and dedicated team of Researchers;
- a full-time position for 5 years;
- a full-time gross salary starting at €2,395 in the first year and increasing to €3,061 in the fourth year (scale P Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities (CAO));
- benefits including 8% holiday bonus and 8.3% end-of-year bonus;
- a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave, and flexible employment conditions based on the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities.
In addition to the employment conditions laid down in the cao for Dutch Universities, Utrecht University has a number of its own arrangements. For example, there are agreements on professional development, leave arrangements and sports. We also give you the opportunity to expand your terms of employment yourself via the Employment Conditions Selection Model. This is how we like to encourage you to continue to grow.
More information about working at the Faculty of Science can be found here.
Selection process
Everyone deserves to feel at home at our university. We welcome employees with a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives and we attach great importance to diversity and gender balance. Applicants are encouraged to mention any personal circumstances that need to be taken into account, for example, parental leave or military service.
If you have the expertise and the experience to excel in this role, then simply respond via the “Apply now” button! Please enclose the following documents in English:
- your letter of motivation;
- your curriculum vitae;
- the names, telephone numbers, and email addresses of at least two references;
- a copy of your MSc certificate or a letter from your MSc thesis supervisor indicating when you are likely to graduate;
- transcripts showing grades obtained on your Bachelor's and Master's courses.
If this specific opportunity is not for you, but you know someone who may be interested, please forward this vacancy to them.
Please note: Due to the current situation regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) the process of selection and interviews is subject to change. Initial interviews will most likely be conducted online.
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Additional comments
Web site for additional job details
Offer Requirements
Specific Requirements
We are looking for a candidate who meets the following profile:
- a Master’s degree in Computer Graphics/Animation, Artificial Intelligence, Game and Media Technology, Computer Science, Mathematics or Engineering with an interest in Psychology and Social Sciences, or related fields (or graduation from one within the next months);
- a strong interest in conducting research in the area of nonverbal behaviour generation for virtual humans;
- experience of computer graphics/animation, deep learning/machine learning techniques, and design of human-computer interaction experiments;
- comfortable with data collection using motion capture and VR devices and interacting with human participants;
- willingness to engage in activities in the VR, Computer Graphics/Animation, AI, and HCI research communities and relevant industries;
- committed to inspirational teaching;
- good communicative skills in English, both in writing and speech;
- good critical thinking and collaboration skills.
Job Work Location 
Personal Assistance locations
EURAXESS offer ID: 626224
Posting organisation offer ID: 299480
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If you have any questions about this position, please contact Dr. Zerrin Yumak via z.yumak@uu.nl or Professor Judith Masthoff via j.f.m.masthoff@uu.nl.
Do you have a question about the application procedure? Then please send an email to science.recruitment@uu.nl.