PhD opening: interactive food

PhD opening on interactive food (HCI, Interaction Design)
in the Exertion Games Lab, Melbourne, Australia

The Exertion Games Lab (exertiongameslab.org) in Melbourne, Australia, is seeking an exceptional PhD candidate to research novel interfaces around interactive food.

The Exertion Games Lab is looking for candidates who value an interdisciplinary design studio environment. You will be highly motivated, willing to learn a variety of skills, extremely creative as well as technical, and also have highly developed analytical and communicative skills. Prior research experience (publications, etc.) is desirable and so are hardware prototyping abilities (Arduino, etc.) and programming skills. We are looking at potential for creativity, excellence and drive.

* Interactive eating: This project explores the role of technology in facilitating playful eating experiences, developing a novel understanding of how interactive technology can – and should – be designed to enrich eating experiences. Working with the hospitality industry, the candidate will engage with prototyping equipment (laser-cutters, carvers, 3D food printers, …) around food to invent a series of future playful eating experiences and study the associated user experiences. The result will be generative research as well as a thesis in the field of interaction design, contributing to our understanding of experiencing the human body as play.

Entry requirements for PhD candidates:

You will need to have a four-year degree that includes a thesis or a three-year Bachelor and a Master’s degree by research, for exact details see the link below. Typical backgrounds are interaction design, human-computer interaction, game design, computer science, industrial design, electrical engineering, human movement/performance, sports science, performing and media arts but we are curious to hear what you can contribute.

All positions are full-time, 3 years, available to all nationalities, onsite, and by thesis, i.e. conclude with a thesis in the field of interaction design/HCI supervised by CHI 2024 general co-chair Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller.

Scholarships are available according to the standard Australian Postgraduate Award rate of approx. AUD 28,000 per year. The Exertion Games Lab hosts weekly presentation, writing and reading group activities to support the candidate. We are also offering a large space to research, including a dedicated kitchen research lab, and an open plan lab environment.

Applicants will first email an expression of interest, then apply to the general university admissions office.

The Exertion Games Lab researches the future of interfaces for playful experiences. Our research is focused on the merging of play, technology and the active human body, drawing from research streams such as interaction design, human-computer interaction and computer games research. We publish mostly at CHI, CHI PLAY, DIS, TEI, Ubicomp (IMWUT), and UIST.

The culture in the Exertion Games Lab is one of interdisciplinary work. At the Exertion Games Lab, we do not just philosophize and write about the future, we actively invent it. We emphasize the development of working prototypes in order to fully understand what play is, why we play, and how we will play in the future. We do this because we believe playing is a fundamental part of what makes us humans who we are, and an understanding of this brings us closer to our vision of a better world filled with interactive technologies that support human values.

You might find it useful to read about the lab’s vision: Mueller, F., Byrne, R., Andres, J., Patibanda, R. Experiencing the Body as Play. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’18). ACM. Talk video. Best Paper Award (top 1%).

PhD entry requirements: https://www.monash.edu/graduate-research/faqs-and-resources/content/chapter-two/2-1
PhD information: https://www.monash.edu/it/our-research/graduate-research/how-to-apply
The Human-Centred Computing department at Monash (which was in the top 20 institutions at CHI’19, CHI’20, CHI’21 and CHI’22): https://www.monash.edu/it/our-research/strengths/chic

Please submit your expression of interest, including CV and portfolio website if available by email to info at exertiongameslab dot org, with subject line “APPLICATION”.

We are looking forward to reading your applications!

Thanks,
The Exertion Games Lab
http://exertiongameslab.org

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