PhD Candidate: Intelligent Virtual Agent for Empowering People with Dementia

Employment

0.8 – 1.0 FTE

Gross monthly salary

€ 2,541 – € 3,247

Required background

Research University Degree

Organizational unit

Faculty of Social Sciences

Application deadline

20 November 2022

Apply now
How can artificial intelligence solutions, such as social agents and robots, help alleviate the informal carers of people with dementia? As a PhD candidate, you will contribute to the development of a framework that aims at an optimal quality of life for older sufferers of dementia. This way, they can experience more autonomy, sense of meaning in life and self-esteem.
During the dementia-process, people with dementia (PwD) are increasingly in need of social and healthcare support. This may become a heavy burden for informal carers, while care professionals are less available in the current job market. Artificial Intelligence solutions, such as social agents and robots, offer promising opportunities to alleviate some of this burden. 
As a PhD candidate on this project you will therefore contribute to the development of a ‘social agent and robot’ (SAR) framework that aims at an optimal Quality of Life by contributing to the experienced autonomy, sense of meaning in life and self-esteem of an older PwD using an empowerment approach being published shortly. Its personalised, enduring and adaptive support is intended to improve over time, based on data-driven learning technologies, and will include a virtual conversational agent that supports PwD in their daily activities and social relations. A first version of a virtual agent for supporting older adults has been developed and tested. In addition to the conversational agent technology, the envisioned framework includes cloud computing, game development, machine learning, symbolic modelling and reasoning, and home automation and/or wearable sensing devices. These technologies will be advanced and combined, in co-creation with stakeholders, into a SAR framework for ‘blended’ network care (i.e. care from informal and professional carers, supported by social AI). Your teaching load may be up to 10% of your appointment.
A description of the project is available upon request.
Profile

• You should have a Master’s degree in artificial intelligence, computer science, cognitive science, communication science, behavioural science, or a related field. A Research Master’s degree is a plus.
• You have affinity with people with dementia.
• You have strong computational skills (being able to program in Python/C#/Unity), and an affinity with social AI and/or language technology and/or game development.
• You have good organisational, communication and social skills, and are willing to learn and think across disciplines.
• You are collaborative and like to work in a team (you will work in a group of 8 PhDs).
• You have excellent writing and presentation skills in English.
• You speak Dutch fluently (or are willing and able to quickly learn Dutch).

We are
You will be employed by the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) at Radboud University. BSI is a multidisciplinary research institute and one of three research institutes of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Radboud University. Our researchers collaborate across the boundaries of psychology, educational science, and communication science. Our mission is to strengthen people through understanding the foundations of human behaviour, by creating synergy between different paradigms and by facilitating craftsmanship, curiosity and connection in academic research. BSI has seven research programmes covering three major research themes: 1) development and learning, 2) health and mental health, and 3) social processes and communication. BSI conducts fundamental as well as applied/translational research and has excellent facilities and support for lab and field research. BSI is globally recognised for its top quality research on human behaviour. Moreover, BSI is known for its successful graduate school and strong commitment to Open Science. 
The desired societal impact of your work is to realise an increased quality of life for PwD in all phases of their condition. The scientific impact of this project is a validated AI-supported operationalisation and extension of an empowerment approach with technology (i.e. theoretically and empirically founded design patterns for a social AI platform). The PhD position is placed within the ‘QoLEAD – Quality of Life by use of Enabling AI in Dementia’ initiative, funded by NWO, and in particular within a joint work package with TU Delft.
We offer

• It concerns an employment for 0.8 (5 year contract) – 1.0 FTE (4 year contract).
• The gross starting salary amounts to €2,541 per month based on a 38-hour working week, and will increase to €3,247 from the fourth year onwards (salary scale P ).
• You will be employed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4 year contract) or 3.5 years (5 year contract).
• You will receive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Care Services . Our Dual Career and Family Care Officer can assist you with family-related support, help your partner or spouse prepare for the local labour market, provide customized support in their search for employment and help your family settle in Nijmegen.
• Working for us means getting extra days off. In case of full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the legally allotted 20.

Additional employment conditions
Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University’s primary and secondary employment conditions . You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.
Would you like more information?
For questions about the position, please contact Prof. Tibor Bosse, Professor of Communication Science and Artificial Intelligence at tibor.bosse@ru.nl .
Practical information and applying
You can apply until 20 November 2022, exclusively using the button below. Kindly address your application to Prof. Tibor Bosse. Please fill in the application form and attach the following documents:

• A letter of motivation.
• Your CV.

The first round of interviews will take place in week 48 or 49. You would preferably begin employment on 1 January 2023.
We can imagine you’re curious about our application procedure . It offers a rough outline of what you can expect during the application process, how we handle your personal data and how we deal with internal and external candidates.
Apply now

Application deadline 20 November 2022

We would like to recruit our new colleague ourselves. Acquisition in response to this vacancy will not be appreciated.

Prof. Bosse, T. (Tibor)

Professor of Communication Science and Artificial Intelligence

tibor.bosse@ru.nl

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You are an internal candidate if you:

• Work at Radboud University (i.e. have an employment contract with Radboud University).
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• Currently work as a student employee at Radboud University through the campus employment office.
• Work as a temporary employee at, or have been seconded to, Radboud University.

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Last modified:
21 October 2022

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