Are you passionate about applying AI and Data Science to model and understand real-world challenges? Do you enjoy exploring and formally analyzing aspects of human reading and related cognitive tasks? Join us and contribute to an exciting multidisciplinary research project that strives to create meaningful social impact!
Your jobThe digital era has profoundly transformed not only how we read, but also how we learn to read, bringing both new challenges and exciting opportunities. To fully understand these developments, this project explores the processes underlying reading and reading education, and examines how recent advances in artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, are reshaping them.
As a PhD candidate you will contribute to this research project by developing and applying AI and Data Science techniques, with a focus on causal modeling and causal learning, to investigate how children read and are taught to read in the digital age. Using existing datasets, you will analyze and model reading-related data to uncover relevant patterns and structures.
Your tasks will include:
- Reviewing existing research literature across relevant disciplines and identifying suitable AI and Data Science techniques, with a particular focus on causal modeling and causal learning.
- Developing a monitoring system to collect and analyze educational data and to predict the effects of potential educational interventions.
- Investigating the impact of generative AI on both the processes of reading and the methods of reading instruction.
Your primary focus will be to conduct original data-driven research that contributes to this project’s objectives and culminates in a successful doctoral dissertation. You will also contribute to the academic community by publishing and presenting your findings in peer-reviewed international conferences and journals.
You will be a member of the Department of Information and Computing Sciences and the consortium Becoming Literate in a Digital Age. You will collaborate with consortium members from various disciplines, as well as with educational organizations, reading specialists, and other stakeholders.
This position offers excellent opportunities for professional growth through participation in consortium activities, international summer schools and workshops, enabling you to strengthen your research expertise and expand your professional network. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to contribute to teaching and supervise AI-related thesis projects at both Bachelor’s and Master’s levels (approximately 10-15% of your time).