Research Associate

We are seeking a highly motivated and skilled postdoctoral Research Associate to join our interdisciplinary team based within the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, under the leadership of Professor Laura Smith. 

The successful candidate will be working on the human-centred design theme of the EPSRC AI for Collective Intelligence (AI4CI) Hub. The Hub’s ambition is to pursue cutting edge research at the intersection between the fields of applied AI and Collective Intelligence across five application domains (Pandemic Resilience, Smart cities, Financial Stability, Health Ecosystems and Environmental Intelligence) and two cross-cutting themes (Human-Centred Design and Infrastructure and Governance). 

Research within each application domain and cross-cutting theme will be pursued by a team of academics, postdocs and PhDs working with academic and non-academic stakeholder partners from relevant sectors. 

About the role

The human-centered design theme has two purposes: first, to integrate an understanding of how humans interact and behave in sociotechnical systems into the design of smart agents for each application domain, and second, to address research questions of when, how, and why smart agents and collective intelligence can create tipping points for collective behaviour change. 

In this role, you will support academics from multiple disciplines to design and conduct research studies that contribute towards our understanding of how people behave and interact with smart agents within socio-technical systems. This means you may also have the opportunity to work with distinguished scholars throughout our academic community at Bath and beyond. 

There is a strong expectation that you will actively contribute to the strong profile of online behaviour and digital technology research work at Bath and its interdisciplinary ethos through participation in the development and publication of research results in major international conferences and journals. You will also be involved with synthesising and disseminating outputs from relevant work as part of a wider programme of knowledge exchange at the AI4CI hub. 

The post is full-time for an expected duration of 30 months, to start on or soon after 1st July 2024. Informal enquiries can be made to Prof Laura Smith (l.g.e.smith@bath.ac.uk). 

About you 

The ideal candidate will:

• have a relevant PhD in Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, Computational Social Science, or a related discipline, 
• have a good knowledge of social psychology and collective behaviour, 
• be interested in applying social psychological insights to the development of systems for collective intelligence,
• have a strong commitment to pursuing applied research in a collaborative and inter-disciplinary setting,
• have an interest in AI, machine learning, mathematical modelling, and/or digital technology,  
• be familiar with one or more programming languages. This might include experience using R, Python, HP, Java, or HTML, 
• have advanced skills in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

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