Application deadline: 9 October 2022, 12:00 midday (CEST)
Admission interviews: online by 11 October 2022
Communication of interview details: within 10 October2022
Publication of ranking lists: by 13 October 2022

You can find here below the detailed description (project description + required skills) of the Research Project. Please read carefully the details. 

F6-Entertainment in the car by using a cognitive seat with tactile feedback 

• Academic Advisor: prof. Michael Haller 
• Industry advisor: to be defined (BMW Group) 
• Co-advisor: prof. Antonella De Angeli 

Project Description:
When the vehicle takes over the driving function, users can devote themselves to other activities that are currently not possible in this form. This goes far beyond a simple phone call or video conference opening the door to the satisfaction of hedonic goals. At present, the entire vehicle interior is geared only to driving, when the person is comfortably sitting in front of the steering wheel. If we imagine, instead, a driver who is sleeping or entertaining themselves inside the car with the seat in an almost bed-like position, we will quickly notice that the current position and interaction modalities for seat adjustment are useless. There is a need to (a) identify new creative use-cases (in the context, for example, of tourism) and (b) rethink how the controls should be changed to transform the vehicle into a unique experiential space. 

The goal of this thesis is the design and development of an experiential (cognitive) car seat acting as an input sensitive, fully interactive device which interfaces the driver with digital content. Equipped with pressure-sensitive textile patches, the seat with will recognize full-body interactions allowing the driver to interact with the car. 

1. The seat sensing ability can be improved by adding input devices, such as cameras, speech etc.). More specifically, the objectives are the 
2. design and implementation of different multi-modal interfaces for novel user experiences; 
   design, implementation and critical evaluation of prove of concepts. 

Required skills: 

The prospective PhD student will work together with a team in the field of next-generation interfaces. The candidate must fulfill the following conditions to be eligible for employment: 

• a Master's (MSc) degree in Computer Science or a closely related area, 
• Human-computer interaction and/or computer graphics background with interest in game development (e.g. Unity, Unreal), 
• fluency in written/spoken English. 

Regardless of age and citizenship status, applicants can be admitted to the selection procedure if they have been awarded at least one of the following degrees:

• a Master’s degree independent from the degree classes (ex D.M. 270/04 or ex D.M. 509/99) or a degree according to the former legislation or an equivalent qualification
• a non-Italian Second Cycle Degree (foreign Master’s degree) awarded by an academic institution, equivalent to the above-mentioned degrees (letters a), valid for admission to Doctoral studies in the Country it has been issued (except for substantial differences).

Applicants who are yet to obtain their Master’s degree or their Second Cycle Degree are admitted to the selection procedure on condition that they obtain their degree no later than the enrolment deadline, and before the PhD program’s start date.

Other requirements

In order to apply for the PhD programme in Computer Science applicants must have sufficient knowledge of English.

The prerequisites for admission to doctoral programme include having acquired an appropriate educational degree, and/or have worked in the PhD course fields, in particular being able to demonstrate a deep knowledge of the fundamental techniques and methods used in computer science.

The official language of the PhD programme is English. Therefore applicants must have very good knowledge of English.

The proficiency in English will also be assessed during the interviews.

Your application must be submitted online through the Application Portal. The deadlines are indicated in the "Deadlines" section.

• You need to create an account and upload a valid ID card or passport (front/back). Please note: if your document is invalid, incomplete or unreadable, you will be excluded from the admission procedure;
• Fill in the online form and upload the attachments listed under "Admission procedure";
• Complete and submit the online application by the deadline. Documents sent per email will not be taken into consideration. Once the application has been sent, it cannot be modified, unless a change/addition request is received from the faculty secretariat.

Please note: False declarations will lead to automatic exclusion from the competition.

To apply to the PhD programme, applicants must include the documentation listed below. Incomplete applications will be excluded from the competition.

Attention: text exceeding the maximum allowed length (if clearly indicated for a document) will not be taken into account! Please respect the format/length indicated.

• Diploma supplement or the Master degree diploma together with the transcript of records of all passed exams (=certificate with exams list of Master degree):
  - if graduated in Italy: diploma supplement or self-declaration (following the Italian D.P.R. no. 445/2000) of the degree awarded with the exams passed (if graduated) or just with the exams passed (if not graduated yet); 
  - if graduated abroad: diploma supplement or final degree certificate with exams passed (if graduated) or transcript of records (if not graduated yet) in Italian, German or English related to a second level university qualification;
• Curriculum vitae (CV) in English (possibly following the EU format that can be downloaded here). The CV must be updated with all data and information of the current year 2022.
• Presentation letter - Attachment A (In English, PDF format: it is mandatory to use the relative template in section “Attachments”): Highlight your reasons for applying to the doctoral programme in Computer Science, your motivations for choosing unibz (in particular the Faculty of Computer Science) and your career perspective after completing your PhD. Include a brief discussion of your general research interests, of questions and objectives you are interested in, and add a summary of the skill set you already acquired (for instance in your master level research) as well as techniques and methodologies you are interested in to learn and apply in your PhD research;
• Research proposal – Attachment B (In English, PDF format: it is mandatory to use the relative template in section “Attachments”). In this document, the applicant should indicate up to three preferences selected from the list of Research Projects presented in the call (see section “Research projects- details”). Briefly motivate your choices, and develop only the first choice into a more detailed proposal. Your proposal should therefore include:
  - the titles of your selected top choices for a PhD research project, together with an outline of a research project based on Topic 1, i.e. your first choice. In the sketched research project, include a) a discussion of the state of the art of your chosen Topic 1; b) Aims and Objectives of your envisaged research; c) a discussion of research methodology.

Other documents (facultative) to be included in the application if available:

• The PDF of up to three of your best publications (excluding theses);
• up to a maximum of 2 academic reference letters written in English provided by an university professor or by a researcher of research institutions, describing the work carried out and the quality of the same (the letters must be signed). The letters can be sent per email directly by the referees to the email address PhD_CS@unibz.it (please indicate in the subject of the email: “Reference for NAME and SURNAME” of the candidate)

For the grants funded by external partners (FBK and Ministry), separate ranking lists will be established containing candidates who are also eligible according to the general ranking and who in addition have a scientific profile that is particularly suited to the specific topics associated to these grants.

Please download the two Word files. Fill them in and upload them in the portal as PDF files. Please do not exceed the maximum number of characters indicated in each document!

• Attachment A – Presentation Letter
• Attachment B – Research Proposal

The selection is based on:

• the evaluation of each applicant’s profile based on their curriculum vitae, qualifications, presentation letter and research proposal;
• the coherence with the research themes identified in the faculty’s specific part of the call;
• the evaluation of the reference letters and the publications,
• an interview

The following points will be awarded:

• up to a maximum of 50 points for the curriculum, qualifications and publications:
  • Educational and working curriculum (up to 35 points)
  • Experience abroad, participation at summer schools and conferences, contribution to research projects, scholarships (up to 10 points)
  • Publications (up to 5 points)
• up to a maximum of 5 points for the reference letters;
• up to a maximum of 10 points for the presentation letter and the research proposal on the basis of congruence with the research topics proposed in the call.

The Evaluation Committee will select the best applicants on the basis of a comparative assessment.

Candidates that have obtained at least 45 points in the evaluation of their application documents will be admitted to the next stage of the selection process. This will consist of an interview in which also the knowledge of English of the applicant will be assessed. The interviews will take place in video-call (Skype, MS Teams, etc.). Up to a maximum of 35 points will be awarded for the interview.

The final score is the sum of the score for the evaluation of the application documents, and of the score for the interview. The maximum score obtainable is 100.

Applicants that have obtained a final score of at least 70/100 are considered eligible.

Eligible applicants will be ranked according to their final score. The top eligible applicants will be admitted according to the number of available places with and without grant, according to their order in the ranking list. The remaining eligible applicants will be put on a waiting list. Applicants in the waiting list will be admitted to the program in case an already admitted applicant is not available or withdraws their application.

Fees amount to € 167,50 

Applicants admitted in the PhD programme must confirm the study place according to the following deadlines: 

• applicants with grant: starting from October,13th 2022 until October, 20th 2022; 

In order to confirm your study place, you need to log on to the application portal and pay the tuition fees (€ 167.50) by one of the methods indicated on the portal by the deadline indicated above.

If you do not respect this deadline, you will automatically lose your study place. If, by paying the instalment you have confirmed the study place, there will be no refund of the tuition fees unless you are a non-EU applicant resident abroad and you do not receive the necessary documents from the Italian authorities in your country.