Stillingstittel: PhD Research Fellowships in Informatics

Stillingsbeskrivelse:
The University of Oslo is Norway’s largest institution of research and education with 28 000 students and 7000 employees. Its broad range of academic disciplines and internationally esteemed research communities make UiO an important contributor to society.PhD Research Fellowship in Informatics

One position as PhD Research fellow is available at the Design of Information system (DESIGN) group at the Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway (Norway's largest university department for education and research in Computer Science and related topics, see http://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/english), as a part of the Research Council of Norway funded project Multimodal Elderly Care Systems (MECS). The project aims at working with extending the capabilities of robot companions (in sensing, learning and prediction of future events) to be applied in elderly care at home.

The fellowship will be for a period of 3 years, possibly with an option for extension of the employment period by 4 months depending background and qualifications for additional duty work which typically includes work on courses (lecturing, preparation and organizing of exercises etc). No one can be appointed for more than one fixed-term period at the same institution. The MECS project encourages a stay of up to 6 months with one of the international project partners. The starting date is no later than 20 August 2016.

Project description

The Design of Information Systems group focuses on research in human-computer interaction and participatory design. The MECS project links to the Design group's current research on "welfare technology": technical solutions aimed at assisting people to participate in the welfare state and make use of public services (like health care, tax). The research fellow will be a part of ongoing research in the group contributing to making welfare technology that can be integrated into the Internet of things in the home, in particular for elderly people living independently at home. The research applies a participatory design approach, working with the users in designing the solutions, hence the applicant should be fluent in a Scandinavian language (preferably Norwegian).

The focus of the fellowship is tailoring of interaction mechanisms to elderly people. As a start, we would explore how robots can replace or add to existing technologies for safety and communication in the home, e.g., stationary sensors (stove alarm, fall detector) and wearable technologies (safety alarm). Will a moving "safety robot" be able to replace or enhance these technologies? A robot may feel more controllable than almost invisible sensors, and may also increase the privacy of the user. Can a "safety robot" also address other challenges for elderly users, like medication, nutrition or fluid balance? An additional challenge for the project is to make the robot robust enough to be usable in the homes of elderly people, who have no knowledge or interest in the technical solution. People's homes are often cluttered with furniture and things; hence the robot needs to be designed for difficult physical environments.

In this project we are interested in equipping robot companions with complementary sensor systems to be able to sense the state of humans and their environment. Furthermore, by modeling the normal behavior of the human, we want to explore the possibility for predicting future non-normal behavior and events. This would be undertaken by an autonomous mobile robot not compromising the privacy of the human or the quality of the measurements.

The fellow will have the main responsibility for exploring the functionality of such a home robot, potential interaction mechanisms, and for designing and evaluating the robot for and with use

Minstelønn: 0

Maksimal lønn: 0

Arbeidsgiver Navn: Universitetet i Oslo, The University of

Arbeidsgiver adresse: 0313 OSLO

Job kort beskrivelse: University and higher education teachers

Land: Norge

Region: Oslo

Kilde til jobbtilbud: NAV, Offentlige arbeidsformidlinger, Norge

Lønn valuta: NOK

Lønn periode: Pr. år