From: Thomas Pietrzak [mailto:thomas.pietrzak@univ-lille1.fr]
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2018 1:38 PM
To: Ravin Balakrishnan <ravin@dgp.toronto.edu>
Subject: Postdoc and PhD positions in HCI at Inria Lille
Hi Ravin,
Can you transmit these job offers to your group, please?
Many thanks!
The LOKI research group (http://loki.lille.inria.fr) is looking for excellent and highly motivated candidates for one post-doctoral researcher and three PhDs positions, on the following subjects:
1) Post-Doctoral researcher on understanding users' reactions to unexpected changes in GUIs
Duration: 16 months fixed term (start date: November 2018)
Application deadline: March 26th 2018
Supervised by Sylvain Malacria, Géry Casiez and Mathieu Nancel, Loki (Inria, University of Lille, France)
Detailed offer: http://loki.lille.inria.fr/jobs/2018-Changes-en.pdf
Contacts: Sylvain.Malacria@inria.fr, Gery.Casiez@univ-lille.fr, Mathieu.Nancel@inria.fr
This project investigates the consequences of situations where the user interface updates or reflows independently of users’ inputs, at a visual (notifications, changes of layout , pop-up windows, etc.) or control (input-output mappings) level. These situations raise interesting and novel research questions about the consequences of control and visual changes on a daily use: When does a change become noticeable, or unexpected? Do people understand the causes of these changes? How do these changes impact everyday use of computing systems, both positively and negatively? etc. The selected applicant is expected to characterize the causes, noticeability, and consequences of these changes, and to design and evaluate possible solutions to either avoid or take advantage of them.
2) PhD in Computer Science, 3D interaction techniques and devices for immersive virtual environments
Duration: 3 years (start date: October 2018)
Application deadline: May 1st 2018
Collaboration between Thomas Pietrzak, Géry Casiez, Loki (Inria, University of Lille, France), and Martin Hachet, Potioc (Inria Bordeaux)
Detailed offer: http://loki.lille.inria.fr/jobs/2018-3DInteraction-en.pdf
Contacts: Thomas.Pietrzak@univ-lille.fr, Gery.Casiez@univ-lille.fr, Martin.Hachet@inria.fr
Immersive virtual environments gained popularity in the past years although technical limitations used to degrade the immersion sensation and control capabilities. Recent VR headsets are promising technology to improve immersion thanks to better display resolution and head tracking accuracy. They are also shipped with input devices which provide multiple degrees of freedom. Overall, these technical improvements make it possible to study interaction in this kind of environment more effectively and finely. The goal of this thesis is to design and study new interaction techniques and devices for elementary tasks such as pointing and navigation in immersive VR environments. These novel techniques may for example leverage touch interaction and haptic feedback to increase performance and enhance control.
3) PhD on interaction with flexible devices
Duration: 3 years (start date: October 2018)
Application deadline : April 3rd 2018
Cotutelle in collaboration between Thomas Pietrzak, Stéphane Huot, Loki (Inria, University of Lille, France), and Audrey Girouard, Creative Interactions Lab at Carleton University (Ottawa, CA)
Detailed offer: http://loki.lille.inria.fr/jobs/2018-Flexible-en.pdf
Contacts: Thomas.Pietrzak@univ-lille.fr, Stephane.Huot@inria.fr, Audrey.Girouard@carleton.ca
Flexible devices are a relatively new approach that offers continuous input modality. Similarly to joysticks, flexible devices pertain to the category of elastic devices. They move back to their initial position when the user releases them. Depending on their elasticity, they either behave like an isotonic (like a mouse) or isometric device (like a trackpoint). In this thesis, the candidate will design, implement and evaluate new flexible devices and interaction techniques in relevant contexts an application domains to be identified (e.g., mobile interaction, creativity support tools, control with numerous degrees of freedom such as robotics, etc.). On a more theoretical perspective, he, or she, will study the relation between input actions and feedback (sensory-motor loop) in this very new and particular context, in order to inform the design of efficient flexible devices for direct manipulation.
4) PhD on rethinking command histories as full-fledged interactive objects
Duration: 3 years (start date: October 2018)
Application deadline : May 1st 2018
Supervised by Mathieu Nancel and Stéphane Huot, Loki (Inria, University of Lille, France)
Detailed offer: http://loki.lille.inria.fr/jobs/2018-Causality-en.pdf
Contacts: Mathieu.Nancel@inria.fr, Stephane.Huot@inria.fr
Histories of commands have undergone little evolution since their initial design, the ubiquitous "undo-redo", decades ago. This PhD project stems from the observation that the information used in the computation of editing commands is under-used and forgotten too quickly, as soon as the command is completed. The goal will be to treat the user's actions as full-fledged interactive objects, thus allowing users to edit and manipulate not only the most recent version of a document, but also its entire creation process. The thesis will explore new ways to design, navigate, and exploit these augmented histories for content editing, error correction, and creative process sharing. The outcome of this project will be to augment the flexibility and operational vocabulary of interactive systems by including complete and interactive command histories at the lowest level of their design and use.
Work environment
Loki is a dynamic HCI research group whose research aims at producing original ideas, fundamental knowledge and practical tools to inspire, inform and support the design of human-computer interactions. Members of Loki frequently publish in top-tier HCI conferences such as ACM CHI and ACM UIST. The Loki research group is based in the Lille - Nord Europe Inria research center, located in the Lille area. Lille is at the northern tip of France and its metropolitan area is the 5th biggest in France. At the crossroads of northern continental Europe and thanks to its Eurostar train station, it is 35 minutes away from Brussels, 1 h away from Paris and 80 minutes away from London. With four international airports (including Paris Charles de Gaulle and Brussels Zaventem) less than one hour away by bus or train, it is of easy access from virtually anywhere in the world.