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<div><font size="3"><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">PhD studentship available at the University of </span><font color="#333333" face="Roboto, arial">Manchester,
UK</font></font></div>
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<div><font color="#333333" face="Roboto, arial" size="3">Project description</font></div>
<font size="3"><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The design of Theory of Mind (ToM) capabilities in interactive robotic agents, which scaffolds on the developmental
acquisition of basic social and cognitive capabilities, can allow robots to recognise the actions, goals, intentions, desires and beliefs of others. A robot can use its ToM skills to improve the interaction with human users, e.g. by reading the intention of
the others and reacting appropriately to the emotional, attentional, and cognitive states of the other agents, to anticipate their reactions, and to modify its own behavior to satisfy these expectations and needs. Moreover, ToM competence on the reading of
the goals and beliefs and expected actions of the other agent is key to building and maintaining trust, as it allows the robot to distinguish between reliable (trustworthy) partners and unrealiable (untrustworthy) people or situations. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The THRIVE++ project aims to investigate the complex, dynamic interaction between people???s and robots??? Theory of Mind (ToM)
skills for the building of trust. It specifically aims at the design of a developmental robotics cognitive architecture of theory of mind and trust, based on the incremental acquisition of intention reading and ToM agency skills. This architecture will be
validated via human-robot interaction experiments on the use of the robot???s ToM in supporting trust interaction with people in a variety of social and environmental contexts. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The PhD student will contribute to this project with the design and implementation of the computational cognitive architecture,
using a variety of machine learning and robotics methods. The architecture will use a developmental robotics approach, where the robot acquires incrementally complex skills to represent the intention of others (robots and people). S/he will also be responsible
for designing and carrying out of a set of human-robot experiments. </span></font>
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<div><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The PhD studentship includes 3-year salary (UK standard bursary rate) and cover all UK/EU PhD fees.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Applicants are expected to have: </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">* An excellent undergraduate degree in Computer Science or Artificial Intelligence (or related discipline), and preferably,
a relevant MSc degree. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">* Confidence and independence in programming complex systems. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">* Previous academic experience in cognitive robotics or machine learning (desired). </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">* Excellent report writing and presentation skills. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Please note that applicants must additionally satisfy the standard requirements for postgraduate studies at the University
of Manchester, such as a first-class or high upper-second class (or an equivalent international qualification) and English language qualifications, as stated in the PGR guidelines. </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial;">
<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Qualified applicants are strongly encouraged to informally contact Professor Angelo Cangelosi (</span><a class="emailLink" data-email-addr="01364ccdc106e1e07c9ee8cc2e5bfd17c4ab8e8c5635c3b7ab2bcc8f416c1690b68a4f60d6f99b6041102726b90435b9" data-email-name="angelo.cangelosi@manchester.ac.uk" data-stattype="2" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(14, 118, 188); font-family: Roboto, arial; word-break: break-word;">angelo.cangelosi@manchester.ac.uk</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Roboto, arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">)
to discuss the application prior to applying. </span></font></div>
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<div><font color="#333333" face="Roboto, arial" size="3"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Application deadline: 31 July 2018<br>
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<div><a href="http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/projects/description/?projectid=16040" target="_blank"><font size="3">http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/projects/description/?projectid=16040</font></a></div>
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