Human-Computer Integration (HCI, Interaction Design)

PhD opening (HCI, Interaction Design)
around the body, technology and play in the Exertion Games Lab, Melbourne, Australia

The Exertion Games Lab (exertiongameslab.org) in Melbourne, Australia, is seeking exceptional PhD and Post-Doc candidates to research novel interfaces around digital play.
The Exertion Games Lab is looking for candidates who value an interdisciplinary design studio environment. You will be highly motivated, willing to learn a variety of skills, extremely creative as well as technical, and also have highly developed analytical and communicative skills. Prior research experience (publications, etc.) is desirable and so are hardware prototyping abilities (Arduino, etc.) and programming skills. We are looking at potential for creativity, excellence and drive.

* Human-Computer Integration: The rise of technology that supports a partnership between user and computer highlights an opportunity for a new era of “human-computer integration”, contrasting the previously dominant paradigm of computers functioning as tools. This project focuses on embodied integration, where a computer tightly integrates with the person’s body. This project draws on a recent Dagstuhl Seminar (https://www.dagstuhl.de/en/program/calendar/semhp/?semnr=18322) that brought together leading experts from industry and academia, including those who are central to the development of products and ideas such as wearables, on-body robotics, and exertion systems. The goal is to address key questions around the design of embodied integration and to jump-start new approaches for a human-computer integration future.


The Exertion Games Lab researches the future of interfaces for playful experiences. Our research is focused on the merging of play, technology and the active human
body, drawing from research streams such as interaction design, human-
computer interaction and computer games research. We publish mostly at CHI, CHI PLAY, DIS, TEI, Ubicomp (IMWUT), and UIST.
The culture in the Exertion Games Lab is one of interdisciplinary
work. At the Exertion Games Lab, we do not just philosophize and write
about the future, we actively invent it. We emphasize the development
of working prototypes in order to fully understand what play is, why
we play, and how we will play in the future. We do this because we
believe playing is a fundamental part of what makes us
humans who we are, and an understanding of this brings us closer to
our vision of a better world filled with interactive technologies that
support human values. The Exertion Games Lab hosts weekly presentation, writing and reading group activities to support the candidate. We are also offering a large space to research and design in an open plan lab environment.


You might find it useful to read about the lab’s vision: Mueller, F., Byrne, R., Andres, J., Patibanda, R. Experiencing the Body as Play. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’18). ACM.

The Computer-Human Interaction and Creativity (CHIC) group at Monash (which was in the top 20 institutions at CHI’19, with a similar result to be expected at CHI’20 with 21 conditionally accepted papers): https://www.monash.edu/it/our-research/strengths/chic

You will need to have a four-year degree that includes a thesis or a three-year Bachelor and a Master’s degree by research, for exact details see the link below. Typical backgrounds are interaction design, human-computer interaction, game design, computer science, industrial design, electrical engineering, human movement/performance, sports science, performing and media arts but we are curious to hear what you can contribute.

Please first submit your expression of interest, including CV and portfolio website if available by email to info at exertiongameslab dot org, with subject line “APPLICATION”.

We are looking forward to reading your applications!

Thanks,
The Exertion Games Lab
http://exertiongameslab.org