Creative Collaborations with Machines

If so, then apply for this PhD position at Eindhoven University of Technology and join the CREATIVE AI MACHINES project.

Project Background       

The CREATIVE AI MACHINES project aims to research creativity and develop creative AI methods to (a) generate creative design solutions, and (b) emerge and promote creativity in (human) design processes through close interaction between AI and humans.                                      

Current AI research is limited by a tendency to mimic the output of human creativity and simply generate vast sets of solutions. However, human creativity is driven in part by friction and embodied engagement with the physical world. In this project, you will explore this by working with small scale co-bots and fabrication machines engaging in collaborative creative tasks. 

Duties

As a PhD researcher, you will focus on developing new methods and possibilities for creative interaction with AI systems, in close collaboration with a Human-Technology Interaction PhD researcher, who will focus on creating a creative AI system with an accessible "inner world". Your focus will be on designing and collaborating with these systems through iterative and explorative processes, making use of small embodied robots and fabrication machinery. You will develop methods for embodied human-machine creativity and investigate the interaction between design and AI. You will publish your findings in top-tier academic journals preferably with a multi-disciplinary audience and proactively disseminate the methodology that you will develop through education, conferences, and workshops.

Context

You will be one of two PhD candidates, working in parallel under the supervision of a highly interdisciplinary team. The research will be done in a multi-disciplinary approach across the departments of Build Environment (BE), Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences (IE&IS), and Industrial Design (ID). You will become part of the department of Future Everyday, Industrial Design as well as the EAISI institute (Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Institute) with daily supervision from Kristina Andersen (ID) and close collaboration with a team of Sanne Schoenmakers (HTI, IE&IS), Herm Hofmeyer (BE), Pieter Pauwels (BE) and Wijnand IJsselsteijn (HTI, IE&IS). 

EAISI 

The Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute (EAISI) was established in the summer of 2019 as a cross-departmental institute that brings together all AI activities of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). EAISI stimulates, supports, and organizes collaboration between TU/e AI researchers and companies and societal partners. EAISI's goal is to stimulate multidisciplinary AI research on the combination of three of TU/e's traditionally strong research domains of Data Science, Humans and Ethics, and Engineering Systems. EAISI aims to develop AI technology for autonomous decision-making in engineering systems that interact with and support humans. Working for EAISI means you are supported in creating new and exciting AI applications with a direct and positive impact on the real world, especially focusing on the application areas of health, mobility and high-tech industry.

TU/e

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e, www.tue.nl ) is one of Europe's leading research universities. The Eindhoven area, in the southern part of the Netherlands, is one of Europe's top 'innovation ecosystems', with many high-tech companies and institutes. TU/e is intertwined with many of these companies and institutes, and research at TU/e is characterized by a combination of academic excellence, industrial relevance and societal interweaving.