PhD position Sensor based modelling of social and physical activity in high schools

In this PhD research, you will specifically focus on the design of machine learning and data mining algorithms that can integrate and combine multi-modal data acquired from a variety of sources (smart watch sensors, spatial maps, building information sources (drawings and digital models), questionnaires) and addresses a more in-depth problem of social inclusion and mobility. This will lead to an understanding of how the social, cultural, and physical environment influences children’s activities and social interactions for better and for worse.

In this project you will bring this approach to high schools, to better understand the lived experience of high school students. You will especially focus on how vulnerable youth such as students with autism experience their school environment. Through developing and applying advanced machine learning approaches, you will develop a system that can help schools see the weaknesses in their school environment and predict the effect of possible interventions to improve the environment.

In this position, you will collaborate closely with another PhD student addressing the problem from psychology and education perspectives. Furthermore, you will collaborate in a large multidisciplinary team spanning several universities and other organisations. You will perform high-quality and internationally visible research that gets published at top-tier conferences and journals.

You will work in the Human Media Interaction group at the faculty of Electrical Engineering Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) of the University of Twente in close collaboration with the department of Architecture and the Build Environment at TU Delft and the department of Developmental and Educational Psychology at Leiden University.

The Human Media Interaction group does research into multimodal interaction: from brain computer interfaces to social robots and from sensor technologies to interactive sports and play systems. Many projects at the HMI-group delve into how such interactive technologies may be used to support or better understand sports, play, and learning. The HMI group is a multidisciplinary group of enthusiastic, kind, and passionate researchers with an open mind to science and society.

Are you interested in this position? Please send your application via the 'Apply now' button below before June 16, 2025, and include:

• A cover letter (maximum 2 pages A4), emphasizing your specific interest, qualifications, and motivation to apply for this position.
• A Curriculum Vitae, including a list of all courses attended and grades obtained, highlighting specific courses related to data science and machine learning, and, if applicable, a list of publications and references.
• Contact information of two references who we may contact.
• Your master’s thesis (or another document written in English of which you are the main author when MSc is still incomplete). This can be a publication, a term paper, or anything else that you wrote and consider relevant.

First round of interviews will be held on June 30, 2025. A second round of interviews will be held on July 3, 2025 if necessary.

For more information regarding this position, you are welcome to contact dr.ir. Dennis Reidsma via the following email address: d.reidsma@utwente.nl.