Narrative worlds are virtual environments that support enacting a given story, and they can be used e.g. for education, therapeutic or training purposes. This PhD project investigates how declarative and procedural modelling methods can (help) automate the generation of narrative worlds. These methods aim at giving non-technical users, like designers and authors, control over the narrative world generation process. A proof-of-concept system based on mixed-initiative methods will be developed, enabling authors to customise their own narrative world version for a given story. This system will combine new techniques with in-house algorithms and systems, e.g. procedural methods, constraint solvers, and graphical libraries. Among other tasks, the PhD candidate will investigate (1) how to capture object semantics from real world data, so that it can be used in creating and populating a plausible world layout (2) how the temporal dimension of a narrative can be used to steer procedural content generation methods, and (3) which interaction methods facilitate steering narrative world generation for the proposed target users.

You have a university MSc degree in computer science, human-computer interaction or a related area, with excellent grades. Experience with computer graphics and game technology is a plus. You have excellent programming skills in languages such as c#, C++ and Python and have a passion for game technology and (serious) gaming. You have excellent communication skills, and a good mastery of both spoken and written English. You have a creative mind and are an excellent player in a multi-disciplinary team (including human-computer interaction, computer graphics and serious gaming).

Fixed-term contract: 4 years.

TU Delft offers an attractive benefits package, including a flexible work week, free high-speed Internet access from home (with a contract of two years or longer), and the option of assembling a customised compensation and benefits package (the 'IKA'). Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.
As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment; an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor; and a Doctoral Education Programme aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills. Please visit www.phd.tudelft.nl for more information.     

Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) is known worldwide for its high academic quality and the social relevance of its research programmes. The faculty’s excellent facilities accentuate its international position in teaching and research. Within this interdisciplinary and international setting the faculty employs more than 1100 employees, including about 400 graduate students and about 2100 students. Together they work on a broad range of technical innovations in the fields of sustainable energy, telecommunications, microelectronics, embedded systems, computer and software engineering, interactive multimedia and applied mathematics.

The Department of Intelligent Systems (INSY) conceptualises computer science methodologies to sense, abstract, learn, reason, elicit and adapt data and their meaning in ways that respect human values in order to increase human effectiveness, well-being and social innovation. The department's core activities are research and education in computer science theory, algorithms and solutions for useful information processing systems (e.g. robotics), new products (e.g. Internet services), and science.  

The project will be mainly performed within the Computer Graphics and Visualisation Group, which has more than 30 years of experience in research in a wide range of topics in computer  graphics, visualisation, game technology, augmented/virtual reality, and geometric modelling.

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/eemcs/the-faculty/