Research Associate in Haptic User Interfaces for Well-being

About the role

This is an exciting opportunity to support the development of a novel haptic interface that has the potential for significant commercial and societal impact. You will design, prototype, and test different implementation approaches to deploying kinaesthetic haptic feedback into a new well-being device with a handheld form factor.

About you

We seek applications from enthusiastic individuals who have an entrepreneurial spirit and are strongly motivated to push the boundaries of knowledge and technology in this area. You will have engineering experience in hardware and/or medical device development, and ideally the design and evaluation of interactive systems with end-users. You should have excellent communication skills, the ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team, and show a high level of initiative.

As a Research Associate you will hold a PhD (or be close to completion) in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Haptics, Robotics, or Mechatronics, or other relevant field and be able to demonstrate suitable prior experience or publication track record.

A lower grade offer may be made (Grade 6) with comparable reduction in responsibilities and amendment in job title to Research Assistant, if a suitable applicant cannot be found to fill the Grade 7 position. Applicants will need to be within six months of their course completion date and will be promoted to Research Associate once their PhD has been awarded.

Further information

The position is available from January 5, 2026 until February 28, 2027.

You will be hosted in the Human-Computer Interaction group in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bath. Applicants are encouraged to contact Prof Jason Alexander (jma73@bath.ac.uk) before applying to discuss the suitability of their experience and/or qualifications, and to obtain additional information about the position. In your application, please include examples of your experience in hardware prototyping.

As a member of Research Staff at the University of Bath, you will be encouraged to take up a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year.

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader; autism friendly university, committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff.

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