Dear students, Dear HCI colleagues,

At the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, we are looking for 13 PhD candidates with a focus on Human-Computer Interaction (deadline 1st July 2022). Topics include "Ethics, Societies, and AI", "the Design and Development of Next Generation Interfaces", "Design and Physical Computing", and "Agents and Computational Linguistics".

Ethics, Societies, and AI:
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- E1: Human Creativity and Machine Learning for public awareness of AI
- E2: Ethical Artificial Intelligence for Public Administration Data and Social Policies
- F7-I C&C: Interfacing Creativity and Computation

Design and Development of Next Generation Interfaces:
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Note: Four of these will be co-financed by the industry (BMW, SEFAR), which means that selected candidates can stay at the company for at least six months.
- A2: Smart Knitted SpaceSuit
- F5: How to bring the Metaverse into the vehicles for a novel video conferencing experience (co-financed by BMW Group)
- F6: Entertainment in the car by using a cognitive seat with tactile feedback (co-financed by BMW Group)
- ASE1: Unobtrusive thin-film sensors inside mono-filaments and woven textiles (co-financed by SEFAR AG)
- ASE2: Unobtrusive physiological sensors for cognitive car seats (co-financed by BMW Group)

Physical Design and Computing:
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- A7: IoT Design and Development with End Users for a Sustainable Future
- E3: Teaching Physical Design and Computing
 
Agents and Computational Linguistics:
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- D1: Virtual Digital Assistants for Healthcare
- D2: Emotions in Multilingual Texts
- D3: Neural models of collaborative behaviours in conversational agents
 
The language of the PhD. programme is English, and the university implements a trilingual model providing prospective students with a suitable environment to learn German and Italian. Our school is committed to fostering a caring and diverse environment, with students coming from over twenty countries (70% international students) and with a reasonable gender distribution, which we are committed to improving (24% women). We welcome applicants with different backgrounds and skills.
 
The scholarship includes:
- University Fees 3-year personal grant (approx. € 17,000 NET per year)
- 50% pay increase to support international mobility for a period variable between six months and one year according to the type of projects
- Personal budget for research and travel expenses (Euro 2,500)
- State of the art technical equipment.
 
A more detailed description of these projects (except ASE1 and ASE2) can be found here:
https://www.unibz.it/assets/Documents/PhD/PhD-Project-proposals_CS_38cycle.pdf
 
For more details about the projects ASE1 and ASE2 please check out
https://www.unibz.it/assets/Documents/PhD/scheda-descrittva_ASE_38ciclo_EN_final.pdf

Application deadline: 1 July 2022 at 12:00 midday (CEST). Further details on the application procedure and selection process can be found on the following link: https://www.unibz.it/en/faculties/computer-science/phd-computer-science/
and for the proposals ASE1/2 under the following link:
https://www.unibz.it/en/faculties/sciencetechnology/phd-advanced-systems-engineering/
 
If you have any questions you can reach us at: 
 
- maria.menendezblanco@unibz.it and Antonella.DeAngeli@unibz.it  (for the projects on Ethics, Societies, and AI)
- gennari@inf.unibz.it and luisa.petti@unibz.it (for the projects on Physical Design and Computing)
- michael.haller@unibz.it  (for the projects on Design and Development of Next Generation Interfaces)


Best regards,

Antonella De Angeli, Maria Menendez Blanco, Rosella Gennari, Michael Haller