Postdoctoral fellowship Multimodal Communication in Virtual Humans 1,0 fte

The Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence at Tilburg University is looking for an enthusiastic new colleague. Are you excited about the possibility of developing and testing virtual humans? Are you interested in how to map human multimodal communicative channels onto agents? Have you always wanted to work on the interface of cognitive science and artificial intelligence? Do you have a preference to work in academia while maintaining close ties with expert companies in the field? Then this two-year postdoctoral fellowship position may be the one for you. 

As part of a recently funded project, we are looking for a postdoctoral fellow with a background in cognitive psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, computer science, or related field. Together with two leading companies that excel in developing real-life virtual humans, we aim to build algorithms that map human behavior onto agent behavior and evaluate the quality of these agents.

This project augments existing projects we run in building embodied conversational agents. In this project you will be working in a team of agent modelers and virtual reality experts, including programmers and research scientists, to come up with creative solutions to make virtual humans behave more human-like. You will be working alongside a dedicated programmer to translate ideas and findings from experimental studies into practice. Central to the project is to understand the mechanisms behind translating nonverbal human behavior to virtual humans, in order to further develop the quality of intelligent tutoring systems that can be used in virtual reality solutions.

• You hold a PhD degree in cognitive psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, computer science, or related field. 
• You have excellent research and analytical skills, including experience with conducting experiments, analyzing and reporting data.
• You are fluent in English, both spoken and written
• You like to work in an interdisciplinary research team.
• You have the ability to work independently and are self-motivated.
• You have excellent communication and organizational skills.

A Fixed-term contract of 2 years at 1.0 fte:

• Starting date is negotiable but no later than beginning of March 2022.
• The candidate will be ranked in the Dutch university job ranking system (UFO) as Researcher 4. The starting gross salary for a full-time appointment is (minimally) € 3270,- up to (maximally) €4474,- per month. Grading based on relevant experience.
• A holiday allowance of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% (annually) 
• Researchers from outside the Netherlands may qualify for a temporary tax-free allowance equal to 30% of their taxable salary. Tilburg University will apply for such an allowance on their behalf;
• Tilburg University will provide assistance in finding suitable accommodation (for foreign employees);
• Tilburg University is rated among the top Dutch employers and offers excellent fringe benefits, including excellent technical infrastructure, savings schemes and excellent sport facilities. The collective labor agreement of the Dutch Universities applies.

Research and education at the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD) has a unique focus on humans in the context of the globalizing digital society, on the development of artificial intelligence and interactive technologies, on their impact on communication, culture and society, and on moral and existential challenges that arise. The School of Humanities and Digital Sciences consists of four departments: Communication and Cognition, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Culture Studies and Philosophy; several research institutes and a faculty office. Also the University College Tilburg is part of the School. Each year around 275 students commence a Bachelor or (Pre) Master Program. The School has approximately 2000 students and 250 employees.

Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences

Who we are
The Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence (CS&AI) department performs cognitive and computational research in the domains of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science and runs educational programs on Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence and Data Science and Society. The department is partially housed on Tilburg University campus  and in the near Tilburg central station as member of Mind Labs. We maintain close collaborations with the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

We are member of the Benelux Association for Artificial Intelligence (BNVKI), participate in the Special Interest Group for AI (SIG AI), contributed to the Dutch AI Manifesto, and participate in the Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe (CLAIRE).

The research group consists of about 70 researchers covering a broad range of topics relevant for cognitive science and artificial intelligence, including about 35 PhD students. Core research domains include cognitive science, machine learning, deep learning, games, virtual reality, computational psycholinguistics, brain-computer interfaces, robotics, cognitive modeling of language, computational linguistics, educational technologies, computational modeling of evolutionary and adaptive systems, image and signal processing, with a strong emphasis on quantitative methods.

• To apply for this position please submit a motivation letter outlining why you are the right candidate for this position, a CV outlining publications and research activities) and two letters of recommendation sent by the referees independently.
• The only way to apply is online.
• Deadline for applications: January 12th 2022
• Interviews are expected to take place second half of January 2022.