Climate change is among the most impactful problems of this era. In this multidisciplinary PhD project, we aim at developing methods to inspire human behavior change towards a more sustainable life, supported by the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), grounded on theories from psychology and education science as well as practice. More specifically, we aim at designing AI systems that implement gamification elements and psychological intervention designs to facilitate behavior change towards adopting a sustainable life. 

The PhD candidate will work alongside domain experts (data science, psychology, and educational sciences) and supporting industrial organizations. The project has two aspects; technical and behavioral. The technical aspect addresses the development of the artificial intelligence system that uses the sensor data originating from smart-houses/offices for activity detection and prediction of the inhabitants. The behavioral aspect focuses on the design of the pedagogical model (e.g., the interventions of the system, gamification elements, feedback and instructions) and the psychological intervention mechanisms. There will be opportunities to set up living-labs in residential households and office buildings for data collection and prototype-testing.

To undertake this ambitious and rewarding project, we are looking for a PhD candidate who will be fully funded for four years. The candidate will be supervised by a team of professors from the Faculty of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Science, and Faculty of Psychology. Moreover, the candidate will get direct support from the Center for Actionable Research of the Open University (CAROU). In addition, the candidate will become a part of a large community of interdisciplinary PhD candidates as well as be embedded to some degree in the three faculties intersected by this project.

The project was designed as comprising four stages. First, you will design and conduct a systematic review on the determinants of energy-saving behavior, evaluations of (gamification in) interventions targeting energy-saving behavior. Second, along with the project team, you will set up one or more living lab(s), develop digital twins, and train and test machine learning models that capture inhabitant behavior patterns of residential households and commercial office spaces. Third, you will combine this with a qualitative study on determinants of and obstacles to energy-saving behavior in smart homes and smart offices. Fourth, you will combine your findings with theories from gamification and behavior change to develop and evaluate an intervention that facilitates behavior change toward a sustainable lifestyle.

• Survey the state-of-the-art AI practices in the context of smart-homes/offices, sensor networks, and the optimization of energy consumption. 
• Survey the literature on gamification and behavior change intervention mechanisms. 
• Design theoretical intervention mechanisms and pedagogical approaches toward facilitating energy-saving behavior of the inhabitants
• Use research methods such as experiments, design-based research rigorously as well as prototype-testing. 
• Train and test machine learning models to predict inhabitant activity, and to optimize energy consumption. 
• Publishing in relevant international journals 
• Presenting progress in academic conferences and relevant industry workshops
• Actively participating in the joint research meetings of the project team and the meetings of the institute of employment
• Following courses and partaking in research school SIKS.

• MSc in one of the following fields: artificial intelligence, data science, technology-enhanced learning, game design, psychology, or related areas;
• Good understanding of AI, machine learning, and data analytics;
• Experience in data analysis and developing, training, testing, deploying machine learning systems in Python, Javascript, or R; 
• Good social skills;
• Be able to work with diverse stakeholders, e.g., industry professionals, academic researchers, living-lab participants;
• Ambition to collaborate with national and international partners and to stay abroad for (short) research visits in the context of the project;
• Ambition to develop oneself as a scientific researcher;
• Fluent written and oral communication skills in English. Ambition to learn Dutch is a plus;
• Analytical thinking and creativity.

Fixed-term contract: for a period of 15 months. The appointment will be extended to 4 years when progress and performance are good.

The salary is determined in accordance with salary scale P of Appendix A of the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities and amounts to €2443,= per month upon commencement, in case of full employment. 

The Open Universiteit provides good secondary benefits such as training, mobility, part-time employment and paid parental leaveyears when progress and performance are good. 

The Open Universiteit

Flexible studying anywhere in the Netherlands and (Belgium) Flanders
The Open Universiteit (OU) is the part-time university in the Netherlands. Students follow personalised and activating academic distance education and disciplinary research is carried out within the various fields of science. Students can complete bachelor and master programmes in seven fields of study. The characteristics of education are openness, flexibility and quality (see www.ou.nl/rankings). Much attention is paid to improving the study success of students. The OU has over 18,000 students and more than 700 employees. The OU has branches in the Netherlands and Belgium (see www.ou.nl/studiecentra). The main office is located in Heerlen.

The latest technologies and educational insights are applied both in the bachelor's and master's programmes and courses and in projects and programmes with partners. Nationally and internationally, the OU plays an important role in the innovation of higher education. Education is interwoven with research, which also ensures that the current state of science is incorporated. The OU invests not only in disciplinary research in eight scientific fields, but also in research in a multidisciplinary programme: Innovating for resilience.

The Faculty of Educational Sciences in collaboration with the Center for Actionable Research and the Faculty of Psychology

Faculty of Educational Sciences
The Faculty of Educational Sciences (OW) is strong in education, research and valorisation in the field of learning and teaching in online higher education. The faculty offers a scientific master's degree in Educational Sciences and professional courses. The faculty plays an important role nationally and internationally in research into innovation in education. Within the faculty, the group on technology-enhanced learning and innovation conducts research on the use of technology within formal and informal educational settings.

The Center for Actionable Research of the Open University (CAROU)
The Center for Actionable Research of the Open University (CAROU), is a young and dynamic research group of talented scientists, engineers, facilitators, and makers. Conducting actionable research is our goal; research that has real, observable, tangible, actionable outcomes with both academic and business value. In order to achieve our goal, we like to build co-creation partnerships with organisations at the Brightlands Smart Services Campus in Heerlen where we are conveniently located, the region and elsewhere in order to support their innovative efforts both in the technological and social domains.

Faculty of Psychology
The Faculty of Psychology works with a cross-disciplinary research program: 'Understanding Human Change in a Dynamic, Digital Era'. Within that program, the current project mostly builds on the expertise regarding behavior change on the one hand and methods and statistics on the other hand. In both fields, the faculty has developed and actively keeps strengthening novel approaches to support, for example, the development of effective interventions, studying validity of measurement instruments, and integrating open science principles in research workflows.