Assistant or Associate Professor Human-AI Interaction Automated Driving

Position

Assistant Professor, Associate Professor

Department(s)

Industrial Design

Reference number

V51.5193

The department of Industrial Design is one of the nine departments of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Research at the department is focused on two areas or thematic clusters: Future Everyday and Systemic Change. The position that is currently available will be part of the Future Everyday cluster.

The Future Everyday cluster investigates the everyday interactions between individual people and the highly interconnected technology that surrounds them. We measure, model and design for the user experience when individuals interact with social-technological networks in their homes, at work, in transit, while doing sport or going out.

The Systemic Change cluster focuses on designing innovations that have impact on systemic structures and groups of people, ultimately aiming to address large-scale issues such as urban health, future mobility and sustainability. Field data is used in novel iterative and circular research-through-design processes involving strategic alliances of stakeholders.

Research and education at the department are highly interconnected. In particular, Bachelor, Master and PhD students intensively collaborate with research staff in so-called squads dedicated to specific research topics, e.g. the Future Mobility squad.

Future Everyday

“Future Everyday bridges the gap between emerging technologies and people’s everyday life.”

The Future Everyday cluster is concerned with understanding, exploring, and shaping an everyday life of individuals/small groups that encompasses the new reality of living and working, in spaces that are becoming more responsive, continuous and experiential in the future with emerging technologies. Currently, we focus on designing with technologies such as internet of things, wearables/soft things, small/local data, machine learning --- and designing for aesthetics in an everyday life with all the nuances and subtleties, that is inherently dynamic, ever-changing and shaped by personal and collective values, needs and desires. We seek to better understand how to create the right conditions --- over time and space --- to allow human-technology relationships to grow and adapt to future situations. We aim to characterize the innate or emergent qualities these future objects, artefacts and tools need to be endowed with.

Research Area

One of the central application domains for the Future Everyday is mobility. Mobility, and more specifically smart mobility and automated driving and the way this changes the human role and interaction with technology, is a central part of everyday life.

Currently, the automotive domain is going through a major and disruptive change, from manually driven vehicles to self-driving vehicles in various levels of support, depending on the technology onboard and the circumstances encountered. There is a need to understand and anticipate the effects of this disruptive change, and investigate (research) and tune (design) the technological developments towards the (emerging) interests of people. Therewith, driver support systems and automated driving offers an ideal case for developing research and design methods and for designing for disruptive changes in everyday life, and for collecting insights into how disruptive changes are integrated in everyday life.

For this position, 3 main topics have been identified for exploration, research and innovation:

Furthermore, such methods and insights are generic in the sense that they can also be applied outside the automotive domain and knowledge and design methodologies from researchers in both the Future Everyday and the Systemic Change groups can be used for cooperation in the Mobility design, such as adaptive interfaces, multimodal interfaces, shape changing interfaces, designing for behavioural change, implicit design, ecological interfaces, research through design, human robot interaction, artificial intelligence in design etc.

In recent years, the focus has been more specifically on the subdomain of human factors for autonomous driving, with topics such as trust and acceptance, shared control, situation awareness and motion sickness, and interaction between autonomous vehicles and pedestrians.

Prospects

Mobility is an excellent application domain for research and design in the area of intelligent systems (the mission of the Industrial Design department). At the same time, Automotive Human Factors is an essential subdomain in the spearhead Automotive of the Smart Mobility Strategic Area of TUE and one of the important Moonshots (Responsible Mobility) of EAISI (Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Institute). In the department, we work together with the Human Technology Group within IE&IS (Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences), where we also collaborate on Ethics and AI. You will be part of the formal Mob Com (mobility community, as organized by the programme director Smart and Responsible Mobility of TU/e), where all researchers working in the area of mobility exchange ideas and work together, including people who work on the technology of cooperative and automated vehicles.

The assistant/associate professor will actively contribute to education in ID. Education shall address all levels in this department: at Ba, Ma and PhD levels. A major contribution will be provided to the Smart Mobility cluster in terms of helping develop a vision for research and education within ID relating to Smart Mobility, translating this vision into educational activities and design projects with industrial clients, coaching student projects,  and coordinating teaching activities in the department relating to smart mobility. Furthermore, the assistant/associate professor will contribute to the development, running and evaluation of courses (mandatory and elective) relating to human-computer interaction and the human aspects of designing smart products, systems and services. He/she will contribute to further develop integration between education and research, which is also in line with the expertise in a design research approach. The assistant/associate professor will also contribute to the courses on automotive human factors at the Bachelor and Master level and will help with writing and performing new research proposals for the European Horizon calls, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and other regional and European funding bodies.  

You are expected to have the following qualifications:

• The candidate should have a PhD degree, building on a background in Industrial Design, Cognitive Psychology or an Engineering program with a strong affinity with human factors/user experience research, research methodologies and statistics;
• The candidate has affinity and experience in the areas of human factors for automotive systems or automotive user interfaces
• The candidate has an outstanding international reputation as evident from a range of high standing publications, proving that the candidate is contributing to the development of the area;
• The candidate should have shown to be able to create bridges between education and research, and collaborate with colleagues in a multi-disciplinary context;
• Documented ability to attract external funding, as the candidate is expected to secure substantial additional funding through national or international grants (with help of the other staff members);
• Have published in good international scientific journals;
• Have an excellent command of English;
• A network in the (automotive) industry is an advantage, as the candidate will be expected to strengthen contacts with industry to enhance education and research activities.

• A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university with the autonomy to develop your own research line and participate in the curriculum of the department.
• A Tenure Track of five years with the prospect of becoming Associate Professor. After a maximum of four years the tenure decision will be made. If you have a more senior profile, a tailor-made career proposal will be considered.
• You will have free access to high-quality training programs for academic leadership, the university teaching qualification program, research and valorization competences, and a dedicated mentoring program to help you get to know the university and the Dutch (research) environment.
• Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• Additionally, an annual holiday allowance of 8% of the yearly salary, plus a year-end allowance of 8.3% of the annual salary;
• A broad package of fringe benefits, including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, and savings schemes.
• Family-friendly initiatives are in place, such as the Dual Career Opportunity program to support accompanying partners, an international spouse program, and excellent on-campus children day care and sports facilities.

Do you recognize yourself in this profile and would you like to know more? Please contact
prof.dr. Marieke Martens, m.h.martens[at]tue.nl.

For information about terms of employment, please click here or contact Sam van Kampen, HR Advisor Industrial Design, s.q.v.kampen[at]tue.nl.

Are you inspired to know more about working at TU/e? Please visit www.tue.nl/jobs  

Application

We invite you to submit a complete application by using the 'apply now'-button on this page. The application should include a:

• Cover letter in which you describe your motivation and qualifications for the position.
• Curriculum vitae, including a list of your publications and the contact information of three references.
• List of five self-selected ‘best publications’.
• Description of your scientific interests and plans (1-2 pages).
• Statement of your teaching goals and experience (1-2 pages).

We do not respond to applications that are sent to us in a different way.

Please keep in mind you can upload only 5 documents up to 2 MB each. If necessary, please combine files.

We look forward to your application and will screen it as soon as we have received it. Screening will continue until the position has been filled.