CfACTs Research Fellow (2 Fixed-Term)

CfACTs Research Fellow (2 year Fixed-Term)  REF:  FMC303 – SIE

Postdoctoral Researcher – Emotional connection between virtual avatars and game players

Salary £50,317.00 per annum (pro rata)

The Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University a global reputation for research excellence.  The research fellow will join the Faculty’s Centre for Applied Creative Technologies (CfACTs), a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND research training centre that provides international mobility and cross-sectoral experience through a well-aligned research and training programme. The academic expertise underpinning CfACTs is sourced from BU’s world-class National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA). 

The research fellow will be an employee of BU and embark on a two-year programme of world leading research with industrial partner Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). SIE is responsible for the PlayStation® brand and family of products and services.  We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher to join our team in exploring the emotional connection between virtual avatars and game players. We believe the next step in the evolution of virtual avatars is to give them emotional and personality characteristics that make them truly lifelike. Our research focuses on three key questions:

• How can we express emotion and personality in a virtual avatar through visible expression, such as facial animation, audible expression through communication style and vocal tone, and expression through action choice?
• How can we detect game players' emotions and intentions through their communication and actions, and map them to the virtual avatar's emotional representation?
• How can we combine these two sources of information to adjust the virtual avatar's emotional simulation to reflect the game player's actions and reactions, making the avatar seem as realistic as possible?

We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher with mixed expertise in NLP, machine learning, cognitive sciences, and intention modelling to work with our international team of researchers and developers on any one or combination of these three areas.

Please see the BU‑CfACTs webpage for guidance for applicants: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/cfacts-research

The CfACTs fellowships follow the specification and requirement of the Standard fellowships of the MSCA; available in full from:

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/guides_for_applicants/h2020-guide-appl-msca-if-2018-20_en.pdf

To be eligible to apply an applicant must meet the requirements outlined and:

• Be in possession of a doctorate or have at least four years full-time equivalent research experience.
• Not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the United Kingdom for more than 12 months in the three years immediately before the call deadline.

An applicant will provide a research proposal to outline their research project and an academic CV.

As a part of the application all applicants are required to submit the following:

• BU Application Form and the Equality Monitoring form
• Research Proposal (max.10 pages)
• CV (max.5 pages)
• Ethics issues - Applicants must provide information on how they intend to address potential ethics issues, as required by the Horizon 2020 Guidance on Ethics Self-Assessment;
• Signed support letters from the applicants PhD academic supervisors; (optional)
• Criminal Record Declaration Form

This position is available on a 2 year fixed-term basis.  For additional information please contact the BU Academic Supervisor Prof Fred Charles or Prof Jian Chang, CfACTs Project Coordinator, via  CfACTs-enquiries@bournemouth.ac.uk quoting FMC303 in the subject line.

A detailed job description and person specification are available from the https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/about/jobs/cfacts-research-fellow-fixed-term-multiple-positions-available  together with a link to the CfACTs application forms.

Closing date: (23:30hrs GMT) 30 April 2023

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