Research Fellow in Human Computer Interaction (Computer Science)

Job Summary

The WellthLab, (https://wellthlab.ac.uk) part of the Agents, Interaction and Complexity Group, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton and led by prof. m.c. schraefel, is seeking to hire a Post Doctoral Research Fellow to work on and lead projects around interactive technology to build and support health and wellbeing – what we call Wellth.  The work will involve research and development into interactive technologies to support building health knowledge, skills and practice.   

Duties and Responsibilities

We are seeking a research associate in human-computer interaction who is interested in building their research portfolio towards an independent position and in working across the above research threads, with hands-on research as well as through work with our students active in these areas. All the above research involves human experiments, including experiments with end-users across different ages and abilities. The RA would lead research projects, their validation with end-users (including obtaining ethical approvals), and report on the findings in top scientific and engineering journals and conferences. 

Our Lab is interdisciplinary, supporting international collaborations. We work with Arts and Humanities, Engineering, Social Sciences and Health and Life Sciences; we have strong collaborations with Medicine as well. We also partner with diverse industries as relevant to our projects, all funded by national research grants. Similarly our lab offers state of the art biosensing systems for modelling human performance across a range of projects overviewed below.

The successful candidate will be part of these international collaborations, have access to these world leading facilities, and also be part of a community of talented PostDocs, PhDs and MSc students from the Electronics and Computer Science Department to help you thrive, develop your research and help with the lab’s mission to #makeNormalBetter.

Projects (details at https://wellthlab.ac.uk) 

Much of our work starts with modelling and measuring human performance using mixed methods. These measures may include biosensing (EEG, fNIRS, HR, Respiration, Vision, Gaze detection, etc), engagement with apps, and guided self-reflection capture. From these experiments/models our approach is to find light weight, minimal dose proxies that correlate with these metrics to help people better perceive both how they feel now, and what skills help them feel better. 

Our focus is how these interventions benefit individuals and groups (like work teams, classes, communities) to make healthful interaction as effortless as sitting or desk use is now. 

We look forward to hearing your ideas, too. 

Essential requirements

• A PhD (or equivalent) in an area pertinent to the experience described above 
• Experience in human-computer interaction related experimental design
• Advanced experience with coding, including open source tools.
• Peer reviewed publications or similar

Example Demonstrable skills

• Having knowledge of mixed-methods research and experience running user studies. A background including human computer interaction is a plus.
• Experience with statistical analysis of experimental data
• Knowledge and experience in developing software prototypes, in particular app development to prototype and test research ideas using for example Javascript and React for iOS and Android.
• Comfort in integrating your software with sensors or other electrical kit also welcome.
• Experience in Health-oriented research.  

Applications will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification. The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon completion of PhD. Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given.

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