Postdoctoral position in human-robot interaction with focus on gender-sensitive social robots and autonomous agents - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

The Department of Information Technology has a leading position in research and education. The Department currently has about 300 employees, including 120 teachers and 110 PhD students. More than 4000 students study one or more courses at the department each year. You can find more information about us at the web page of the department of Information Technology.

This position is one of four postdoc positions on the topic of equal opportunities aspects in IT. 

The position is hosted by Uppsala Social Robotics Lab, Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University.

The Uppsala Social Robotics Lab aims to design and develop robots that learn to interact socially with humans and bring benefits to the society we live in, for example in application areas such as education and assistive technology.

The Lab’s focus is on natural interaction with social artefacts such as robots and embodied virtual agents. This domain concerns bringing together multidisciplinary expertise to address new challenges in the area of social robotics. State of the art robots are used, including the Pepper, Nao and Furhat robotic platforms.

The postdoctoral project will be supervised by Ginevra Castellano and Didem Gürdür Broo.

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Duties
The postdoc position is part of the “Gender fairness and gender-sensitive design in social robots and autonomous agents” project, funded by the Department of Information Technology of Uppsala University, and will be focused on developing and evaluating methods for algorithmic fairness and gender-sensitive design to counteract gender biases in social robots and autonomous systems. In addition to these research duties, the position will also involve teaching duties (in the area of human-machine interaction) up to 20% of full-time employment. 

Requirements
PhD degree in human-robot interaction or related areas relevant to the postdoc topic or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD degree in human-robot interaction or related areas relevant to the postdoc topic. The degree needs to be obtained by the time of the decision of employment. Those who have obtained a PhD degree three years prior to the application deadline are primarily considered for the employment. The starting point of the three-year frame period is the application deadline. Due to special circumstances, the degree may have been obtained earlier. The three-year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc.

Good programming skills and willingness to work in an interdisciplinary team are required. Good communication skills in English, both spoken and written, are required. 

Personal characteristics, such as thoroughness and a structured approach, are also a requirement.

Additional qualifications
Experience with programming robots, machine learning and/or conducting experimental user studies is an advantage. The postdoc position is highly interdisciplinary such that an interest in human-centered design, social sciences and psychology would be advantage. An interest in the social and ethical consequences of AI and robotics would be particularly appreciated.

Application
The application should include a description of yourself, your research interests, reasons for applying for this particular postdoc position and past experience (max. 3 pages), a CV, copies of relevant university degrees, links to relevant publications and your PhD thesis (or a summary in case the thesis work is ongoing) and other relevant documents. Candidates are encouraged to provide contact information to up to 3 reference persons. We would also like to know your earliest possible date for starting. Please note that applications can only be accepted via the web interface link below (and not via email).

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position of 2 years according to central collective agreement. Scope of employment is 100 %. Starting date 1 September 2023 or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala.

For further information about the position, please contact: Ginevra Castellano, e-mail address: ginevra.castellano@it.uu.se or Didem Gurdur Broo, e-mail address: didem.gurdur.broo@it.uu.se.

Please submit your application by 2 May 2023, UFV-PA 2023/974.

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