2024 RTP round - Engagement and trust in teleconferencing using advanced responsive AI

Curtin University, Australia

Updated: about 1 month ago
Location: Perth, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Deadline: The position may have been removed or expired!

Status: Closed

Applications open: 7/07/2023
Applications close: 25/08/2023

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About this scholarship

Human beings meeting in person can engage quickly, facilitated by the ability to read facial expressions, body language and react to non-verbal cues. It is more difficult do this over teleconferencing, and so harder to build trust and make friends over teleconferencing. If we could replicate the properties of in-person meetings, we could save large amounts of greenhouse gases by reducing the need for business travel, we could improve the health services of remote communities, and so on.

To investigate the felt properties of engaging teleconferencing. This has three main requirements: 

1. Investigating the teleconferencing settings which are needed for the possibility of engagement (for example, what audio quality is too low?). 
2. Investigating the detection of when the user feels engaged using wearable sensors. 
3. Investigate whether or how much we can automate the recognition of degree of engagement directly from the video feed.

The project will require human experimentation so we will apply for ethics approval. The first step will be the design of experiments to test the properties of teleconferencing settings, the most obvious being latency, bandwith, size of head images on screen, image quality, sound quality, alignment of eye gaze. There are some potential subtle issues, an example is: does the soundscape match the visuals? I.e. if you are showing a beach, why can I not hear beach noises but can maybe subliminally hear the echo off the wall really just behind you? 
A careful search of the literature indicates this is an unsolved problem, challenging but doable as a PhD project in our team. Covid forced many of us to spend way too many hours using the current generation of “ok but not good” tools. The demand for an _excellent_ solution in this space is huge: saving greenhouse gases by reducing some business travel, telemedicine consultations for remote indigenous communities where the is some good engagement between the clinician and the patient, in mining for remote maintenance, in distance education, and so on.

This project may provide an Internship opportunity. The student will undertake a 3-6 month internship at the HIVE (Health In Virtual Environments) unit which is part of the East Metro Health Service. IP arrangements for commercialisation will be concluded prior to the commencement of the internship.


  • Future Students

  • Faculty of Science & Engineering
    • Engineering courses

  • Higher Degree by Research

  • International Student

  • Merit Based

The annual scholarship package (stipend and tuition fees) is approx. $60,000 - $70,000 p.a.

Successful HDR applicants for admission will receive a 100% fee offset for up to 4 years, stipend scholarships at the 2023 RTP rate valued at $32,250 p.a. for up to a maximum of 3 years, with a possible 6 month completion scholarship. Applicants are determined via a competitive selection process and will be notified of the scholarship outcome in November 2023. 

For detailed information, visit: Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarships | Curtin University, Perth, Australia.


Scholarship Details

1


All applicable HDR courses


We are looking for an ethusiastic PhD student with a first-class honour’s degree or good Masters in Biomedical Engineering or Computer Science. The applicant must have a willingness to learn multi-disciplinary topics and have a passion for research. Prior experience in writing their own AI models including computer vision will be complemented by some experiment conduct experiences. The applicant must be eligible to enrol in PhD program at Curtin University, and physically present in WA for the duration of the PhD research.


Application process

If this project excites you, and your research skills and experience are a good fit for this specific project, you should contact the Project Lead (listed below in the enquires section) via the Expression of Interest (EOI) form. ahead of the closing date. Please note you should apply as soon as possible, as once a suitable candidate has been identified this opportunity will no longer be available to receive an EOI.


Enrolment Requirements

Eligible to enrol in a Higher Degree by Research Course at Curtin University by March 2024.

Recipients must complete their milestone 1 within 6 month of enrolment and remain enrolled on a full-time basis for the duration of the scholarship.


Enquiries

To enquire about this project opportunity that includes a scholarship application, contact the Project lead, Tom Gedeon via the EOI form above.



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