The project Games4Care

This project is funded by Hartstichting under the subsidy open PPP program. It is part of the Care-On project aiming at creating a technology platform for remote rehabilitation aims at developing an innovative structured lifestyle intervention consisting of a holistic gamified lifestyle modification app (Greenhabit), which will be integrated with a continuous lifestyle monitoring system (Care-On, digital platform and dashboard for monitoring lifestyle and behavioral change) that will serve to create awareness and to provide accurate and objective feedback. A short summary of this project can be found below. Research input to this project has been conducted by a PhD student from Care-On project in which the Care-On lifestyle monitoring platform was developed and undergoing a clinical study at the moment, The purpose of this 

Lifestyle behavior is an important determinant of the clinical course and overall treatment results of chronic cardiac diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD) and atrial fibrillation (AF). Despite evidence and guideline recommendations, cardiac rehabilitation (CR)/structured lifestyle interventions are not well implemented in routine care for these diagnose groups due to patient-related factors (i.e. transportation problems, working obligations), low referral rates by health care professionals and limited facilities and resources. . Also, the current CR model that typically consists of group sessions in the hospital with a strong emphasis on exercise training, may not be appealing for certain subgroups (e.g. women, elderly patients, patients with lower educational levels, lower digital literacy and lower exercise capacity).Therefore, there is a strong need for appealing personalized lifestyle interventions for these patients that can be easily implemented without a large burden for the health care system. Therefore, we propose an innovative structured lifestyle intervention, consisting of a holistic gamified lifestyle modification app (Greenhabit) integrated with a continuous lifestyle monitoring system (Care-On), which will serve to create awareness and to provide accurate and objective feedback. Care-On is a digital platform and dashboard recently developed for monitoring lifestyle and behavioral change for patients with stable CAD or AF that underwent a major elective intervention (elective percutaneous coronary angioplasty (PCI) or radio frequent catheter ablation (RFCA)))

Tasks of the EngD project:

• Definition and scoping of requirements and use-cases for the intervention
• Creating experienceable prototypes to allow iterative development of the integration of the components and functions of Greenhabit and Mibida based on the earlier define requirements and use cases
• Contributing to the implementation and evaluation of the intervention in the current care pathway.

We are looking for candidates with:

• An interest and skills in developing user interface software for the defined use cases
• An interest and skills in programming
• An interest in designing with data and open-source software
• The ability to easily communicate with experts across scientific fields and in different sectors
• The capacity to function well as a team

Supervision/coaching

• The candidate will be supervised by dr. Yuan Lu from the HIS program on and the UX and UI aspects of the project and on training activities of the HSI program
• Coaching will also be provided by prof. Hareld Kemps for the medical c, while the EngD trainee is part of the project team consisting of two PhD students and will closely collaborate with them.
• They will be also support by the Games4Care consortium partners Mibida and Greenhabit.

HSI Program

The mission of the HSI program is to train professionals who already have a Master's degree in design or engineering to develop competences in designing and evaluating interactive intelligent and innovative systems, services, and products. The goal is to ensure positive user experiences that support their values and needs. The HSI program is based on design thinking and system thinking, as well as scientifically founded and methodologically sound user-centered and data-driven approaches, paying special attention to the frontier of the complex systems enabled by artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies and its impact on individuals, organizations and society.

In the HSI program, candidates are positioned as designers throughout the program, as the intermediate between market demands and technical possibilities, between user needs and product satisfaction; candidates work on design cases and projects for research, industry, or government supervised by university staff and the host organization; Candidates work on assignments and case studies throughout the program; Candidates with backgrounds in the engineering, behavioral and physical sciences work in small interdisciplinary teams, together with other EngD, PhD, and Master students with different national and cultural backgrounds; 

The structure of the program is attached. The design project stretches over two years with a total of 10 to 12 month of effort. The courses are offered once a year and the candidate may decide to take a course during either the first year or the second. Elective courses can be adjusted or replaced if needed. Design cases are one to three month long smaller design or research projects in the context of the research groups. For each individual candidate a Training and Supervision plan of courses, design cases and projects will be developed and followed according to the background of the candidate and the needs from the industry and business.

Career perspective

Examples of positions held by HSI graduates are data designer, ai-system designer, interaction designer, usability engineer, user experience designer, human factor engineer, information architect, manager in innovative businesses, and team leader of these roles.

The HSI program is for people who

• are passionate in designing with AI and data, with a focus on business model innovation,
• wish to improve the interaction between people and systems,
• wish to make technology truly accessible and beneficial,
• are interested in technological development and its impact on people,
• like to lead and work in multidisciplinary teams in an international context,
• like to be at the forefront of enabling technologies and want to exploit those technologies from the perspective of end-users, stakeholders, and business,
• are challenged by societal impact, engineering problems and real-world constraints.

Eligible candidates shall have a relevant Master degree with a keen interest in human-machine interaction, the use of exponential technology for impact, and business innovation. Practical experience is an asset. We require that trainees in our program have excellent social and communicative competencies, including sufficient proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and comprehension of English.

We offer a fixed-term, 2 year position in a research group with an excellent reputation. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, including:

• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, scale TOIO  (€2,618).
• Additionally, 8% holiday and 8.3% end-of-year annual supplements.
• A minimum of 41 holidays per year (excluding bank holidays, for a full-time employment of 40 hrs/week)
• To support you during your EngD and to prepare you for the rest of your career, you will have free access to a personal development program for EngD trainees.
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates.
• Additional benefits, including excellent technical infrastructure, child care, holiday savings schemes, and sports facilities.
• Assistance for finding accommodation is offered.