Opening: PhD Student position in Virtual Reality and Physiological Computing

A call is open for one research fellow at the NeuroRehabLab (http://neurorehabilitation.m-iti.org) of the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI).

Admission requirements:

The ideal candidate would be a computer scientist, electric, electronic or tele-communications engineer or a closely related discipline with background in one or more of the following fields: Game development, Human Computer Interaction, Signal processing. Experience in ICT for health, physiological sensors, Unity 3D and/or full body tracking technologies will be a plus.

Applicants should fulfill the following requirements:

- MSc degree or equivalent in computer science, electric, electronic or tele-communications engineering or other relevant disciplines for the project;

- Strong oral and written English communication skills, people skills, the ability to work independently as well as a team member and taking the initiative and being proactive;

- Willingness to participate and lead End—User evaluations with healthy, elderly and patients.

Work plan:

The main task for the accepted candidate will be to conduct research towards his/her PhD in the area of serious games for elderly fitness and motor rehabilitation after stroke using Virtual Reality (VR). The 2 core components of this research will be 1) the development of immersive VR gamified applications and simulations, and 2) the creation of biofeedback adaptation by monitoring the status of the participants during the interaction in VR.

The main tasks will consist of:

• Using Mixed Reality (MR) technology and serious games, will develop adaptive MR physical training tools that deliver online feedback on performance to prevent sedentarism, support active aging and provide personalized tools for function re-training in motor impaired patients.
• Monitoring of user state by means of biosensors, computer vision systems and exercise performance data. User state will be assessed in a transparent manner and data will be visualized through friendly user interfaces, and shared with patients, clinicians and/or relatives.
• Supporting the development of HMD and CAVE-based virtual reality scenarios using the Unity game engine (https://unity3d.com/) for physical fitness and post stroke rehabilitation.
• Creating study-designs for VR-based experiments.
• Analysis of physiological signals.
• Performing/supporting clinical interventions of virtual-reality-based platforms.

Workplace:

 The candidate will work within an interdisciplinary team of researchers with competences in both technical and clinical domains. The work will be conducted at Madeira-ITI (Funchal, Portugal), under the supervision of Prof. Élvio Rúbio Gouveia and Sergi Bermúdez i Badia.

Monthly stipend: 

The student will receive a stipend of 980€/month as determined by the FCT regulations (http://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores). Voluntary Social Security (SSV) and accidents insurance are included.

Selection process: The selection process will be based on:

• Motivation letter (10%)
• Curriculum Vitae (30%)
• Previous experience (20%)
• Interview (40%) if there are multiple eligible candidates

Recommendation letters are facultative but can contribute positively to the evaluation.

Candidacy term and applications form: The competition will be open over the period of 14-11-2018 and 10-12-2018.

Applications and queries must be submitted by email to hr@m-iti.org with the reference “MITIExcell-RH28”