<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style></style></head><body lang=SV link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1>PhD position in social robotics with focus on child wellbeing and mental health<o:p></o:p><a href="https://usr-lab.github.io/">Uppsala Social Robotics Lab</a><o:p></o:p>Department of Information Technology<o:p></o:p>Uppsala University<o:p></o:p>**Deadline: 5 December 2024**<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>Are you interested in working with social robotics for child wellbeing and mental health applications, with the support of competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment? Are you looking for an employer that invests in sustainable employeeship and offers safe, favourable working conditions? We welcome you to apply for a doctoral student position at Uppsala University. <o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>Project description<o:p></o:p> The PhD project will investigate the use of social robots in child wellbeing and mental health applications.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>The PhD project is part of the large collaborative project MICRO (Measuring children’s wellbeing and mental health with social robots), recently funded in the CHANSE-NORFACE Enhancing Well-being for the Future call. <o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>The MICRO project aims to advance knowledge on how linguistic abilities and the ability to successfully engage in social interactions affect children’s wellbeing and mental health. To achieve this objective, the project will explore the use of social robots as new tools to measure children’s wellbeing and mental health in a school context. This will be done with a particular focus on vulnerable groups that are potential targets for preventative interventions, such as children with developmental language disorder and refugee children.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>The PhD project will focus on (1) Human-robot interaction design for the measurement of child wellbeing and mental health, and (2) Child-robot interaction studies with vulnerable groups.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>This is an interdisciplinary project which will be supervised by an interdisciplinary team with expertise in social robotics and human-robot interaction (Ginevra Castellano, main supervisor), child health and welfare (Georgina Warner), and developmental psychology (Gustaf Gredebäck).<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>The PhD project will involve collaborations with the other partners of the MICRO project’s consortium at the University of Cambridge (Hatice Gunes, Jenny Gibson, Tamsin Ford), ETH (Emily Cross) and Bielefeld University (Friederike Eyssel), as well as other stakeholders (e.g., BRIS - Barnens Rätt i Samhälletm, European Commission’s Centre for Advanced Studies, UNESCO, etc.).<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>Duties<o:p></o:p> The successful candidate will work with social robots in child wellbeing and mental health applications. The candidate is expected to program robots to develop robot’s capabilities and conduct empirical human-robot interaction studies for data collection and evaluation. The PhD project will focus on (1) Human-robot interaction design for the measurement of child wellbeing and mental health and (2) Child-robot interaction studies with vulnerable groups.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>The candidate will join the Uppsala Social Robotics Lab (https://usr-lab.github.io/) at the Vi3 Division of the Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University. Our vision is to develop computational social abilities that allow robots to behave in a socially intelligent way in natural interaction with humans. The natural testbeds for our research are socially assistive scenarios where robots provide not only physical, but also social support to humans, where robotic technologies have the potential to bring benefits to the society we live in, for example in application areas such as education and assistive technology, by enhancing the lives of children and other groups that require specialised support and intervention. The lab is equipped with a range of different robotic platforms, including Furhat, Pepper, NAO and Cozmo.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>A Ph.D. student is expected to devote their time to graduate education mainly. The rest of the duties may involve teaching at the Department, including also some administration, to at most 20%.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>Requirements and information on how to apply <a href="https://uu.varbi.com/en/what:job/type:job/jobID:771414/?where=26">at this link</a>.<o:p></o:p>Deadline for applications: 5 December 2024<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>Starting date: 31 March 2025 or as agreed<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p>--<o:p></o:p>Dr. Ginevra Castellano<o:p></o:p>Professor <o:p></o:p>Director, Uppsala Social Robotics Lab<o:p></o:p><a href="https://usr-lab.github.io/">https://usr-lab.github.io/</a><o:p></o:p>Department of Information Technology<o:p></o:p>Uppsala University<o:p></o:p>Box 337, 751 05 Uppsala, Sweden<o:p></o:p><a href="https://www.katalog.uu.se/profile/?id=N14-947">Webpage</a><o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p></div></body></html>