The position will be part of the EU Horizon 2020 iv4XR project (Intelligent Verification/ Validation for Extended Reality Based Systems). Extended Reality (XR) systems are advanced interactive systems such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) systems. As the complexity of these systems keeps increasing, the XR industry now faces a soaring engineering challenge: paradoxically, XR’s fine grained interactivity and realism make the correctness and quality of such systems very hard and expensive to asses. This project aims to build a novel verification and validation technology for XR systems based on advanced techniques from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide learning and reasoning over a virtual world. With this technology XR developers can deploy powerful test agents to automatically explore and test the correct parameters of their virtual worlds as they iteratively develop and refine them. In addition, user experience is an equally important aspect for all XR systems. We will therefore also develop socio-emotional AI to enable test agents to conduct automated assessment of the quality of user experience and parameterization by different demographic types, such as male, female, young, and elderly. This project will be carried out by an international team consisting of four companies (large and SMEs) representing the XR industry, two universities, and two research institutes. The team combines decades of expertise in advanced interactive systems, AI, and software engineering.

You are expected to contribute to our research and development of advanced AI, machine learning, and agent-based techniques to aid the quality assurance of modern Extended Reality (XR) based systems. The challenges to address include developing novel AI suitable for assuring functional correctness of an XR system, as well as assessing its user experience quality. You will also direct the PhD student (above) and other student projects created to support this project by providing guidance and supervision. You will work in an international collaboration setup, with partners in the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, UK, France, Czech Republic, and Italy.

The ideal candidate should hold a PhD degree in Computer Science or a related discipline and possess strong written and oral communication skills in English, a good background in AI (preferably both agent-based and machine learning), and a strong background in programming (e.g. Java, C#, Haskell). Candidates of all nationalities may apply. The university is striving for gender balance in its research and teaching staff; hence, women are especially encouraged to apply for these positions. Applicants are encouraged to mention any personal circumstances that need to be taken into account in their evaluation (parental leave, military service etc.).

The candidate is offered a full-time position for 2 years. Expected starting date: 1st Oct. 2019. Salary depends on qualifications and experience, and ranges between €3,255 and €4,274 (scale 10 Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) gross per month for a full-time employment.

The salary is supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% per year. In addition we offer: a pension scheme, a partially paid parental leave, flexible employment conditions. Conditions are based on the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities. The research group will provide the candidate with necessary support on all aspects of the project. More information is available on the website.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.

The city of Utrecht is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, with a charming old centre and an internationally oriented culture that is strongly influenced by its century-old university. Utrecht city has been consistently ranked as one of the most liveable cities in the Netherlands.

The Faculty of Science consists of six Departments: Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Information and Computing Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry and Mathematics. The Faculty is home to 6,500 students and nearly 1,500 staff and is internationally renowned for the quality of its research. The Faculty's academic programmes reflect developments in today's society. Read the overall impression 2018 of the Faculty of Science.

The Department of Information and Computing Sciences is nationally and internationally renowned for its research in Computing Science and Information Science. Current research groups are Algorithmic Data Analysis, Algorithms and Complexity, Decision Support Systems, Simulation of Complex Systems, Geometric Computing, Multimedia, Human-Centered Computing, Social and Affective Computing, Visualisation and Graphics, Interaction Technology, Process Management and Analytics, Organization and Information, Natural Language Processing, Intelligent Systems, Data Intensive Systems, Software Technology and Software Technology of Learning and Teaching.

The Department offers Bachelor programmes in Computer Science and Information Science, and four English language research Master programmes in Artificial Intelligence, Business Informatics, Computing Science, and Game and Media Technology.