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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:16.5pt;font-family:OpenSans-Regular;background:white">PhD Position in Affective communication in human robot interaction: behavioral and<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:16.5pt;font-family:OpenSans-Regular;background:white">neural perspectives @ Italian Institute of Technology (IIT)</span></b><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">In the spirit of the doctoral School on Bioengineering and Robotics (</span><a href="https://biorob.phd.unige.it/how-to-apply"><span lang="EN-US">https://biorob.phd.unige.it/how-to-apply</span></a><span lang="EN-US">),
the PhD Program for the curriculum “Cognitive Robotics, Interaction and Rehabilitation Technologies” provides interdisciplinary training at the interface between technology and life-sciences.
<span style="color:#333333;background:white">The <i>CONTACT </i>Research Line is coordinated by <i>Alessandra Sciutti</i>, who has extensive experience in <i>Cognitive Architecture for Human Robot Interaction</i>.</span><span style="background:white"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">Description</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: During social interactions, the observation of actions allows us to understand the attitudes of others. Humans perform actions with different forms expressing their positive
or negative mood/internal state. For example, observing a person that greets us, we may understand if that person is happy or not, or if he/she feels good or not. The perception and the generation of these forms of communication could be a valuable property
for future robots allowing them to assume the right attitude in different scenarios, such as an authoritative role in the security contexts or a polite behavior in clinical ones, influencing human behavior. The aim of the present project is to study the kinematic
features characterizing different human actions performed with different forms (i.e., gentle, enthusiastic, annoyed, rude) and to enable the iCub humanoid robot to express them with its own behaviour and detect them from visual observation of human actions.
To quantitatively evaluate the impact on humans from behavioral and neural point of view, the project will leverage Real Time functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging technique (fMRI). Several robotic actions will be presented to healthy participants in order
to study, in real time, the neural activity involved in the processing of these robotic actions. The research project will be carried out in collaboration with the University of Parma that is equipped with an advanced 3 Tesla MR scanner endowed with Real Time
fMRI technology. The work will take advantage of an existing software module available on the iCub robot supporting the generation and detection of actions with different properties and will potentially improve it. The successful candidate will: 1) participate
in the generation of iCub robot’s actions characterized by different kinematic features and forms; 2) participate in the development of algorithms to detect action forms; 3) develop and test cognitive paradigms coupled with cortical and subcortical Real Time
fMRI recordings; 4) compute brain activity maps from fMRI data. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">Requirements</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Degree in Bioengineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Robotics, or related disciplines, attitude for problem solving, C++ programming. We expect the candidate
to develop skills in signal processing, and computational modelling. Excellent analytical skills (MATLAB) will also be required.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">Contacts:</span></b><span lang="EN-US">
<b>Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the prospective tutors before they submit their application</b>:
<a href="mailto:giuseppe.dicesare@iit.it">giuseppe.dicesare@iit.it</a>, <a href="mailto:radoslaw.niewiadomski@dibris.unige.it">
radoslaw.niewiadomski@dibris.unige.it</a> , <a href="mailto:alessandra.sciutti@iit.it">
alessandra.sciutti@iit.it</a><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background:white"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#333333">Application’s deadline:</span></b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#333333"> </span></i><i><span lang="EN-US">The 2024 Doctorate First Call will close on July 9th
2024 at 12 noon (CET)</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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