PhD in Computing Science – Bringing the Augmented Society to Reality, Exploring the Societal Impact of Everyday Augmented Reality

AUGSOC (https://augsoc-project.org/) is an ERC Starting Grant (funded via UKRI Horizon Guarantee), led by Dr. Mark McGill and starting in August 2024, with the aim of exploring the societal impact that mass adoption of everyday Augmented Reality (AR) glasses and headwear will have in facilitating the Augmented Society – a world where spatial computing and mediated perception become the norm. AUGSOC aims to understand how this capacity for perceptual mediation will be used both for social good (empowering individuals and communities to control how they and their societies are perceived) and social harm (violating user and bystander privacy, and perpetuating and amplifying our capacity to enact information disorder, censorship, discrimination and manipulation).

We are looking for excellent and enthusiastic students to join AUGSOC. We are recruiting for up to 3 PhD positions (3.5 years) across 2024 and 2025, with this first round of recruitment targeting 1st October 2024 start date; and a second round in 2025 targeting 1st October 2025.

The studentships are fully funded for fees and stipend for UK and EU citizens. Recruited PhDs will be paid at UKRI stipend rates. Unfortunately, the funding is not open to non-UK/non-EU students.

We are looking for candidates that have experience with qualitative and/or quantitative methods (ideally both) from a Human-Computer Interaction perspective. Experience with immersive applications is also a big plus. You’ll have an opportunity on this project to develop or deepen your technical skills and develop immersive applications on cutting edge virtual, augmented and extended reality headsets. Applicants should have experience designing and running user evaluations and analyzing the results of surveys, interviews, and performance data. Experience developing immersive applications (e.g. in Unity), demonstrated technical/development ability, and experience with related technologies (e.g. RGBD sensing, computer vision, use of generative AI) would also be beneficial, but we are open to strong non-computing science candidates with a capability to develop their immersive technology development skills.

You’ll be working with Mark McGill, Joseph O’Hagan, Graham Wilson, Mohamed Khamis and others in the world-leading Glasgow Interactive Systems Section (GIST) in the School of Computing Science at Glasgow. You can see some of the exciting research we have been doing on our google scholar pages, and the publications page of the AUGSOC website.

If you have any questions, or if you intend to apply, please contact mark.mcgill@glasgow.ac.uk

For details on how to apply please visit the prospective students page for the School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow.

How to Apply: Please refer to the following website for details on how to apply:

http://www.gla.ac.uk/research/opportunities/howtoapplyforaresearchdegree/.

Keywords: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Extended Reality, Mixed Reality, Human-Computer Interaction