MSc Positions in Human-Computer interaction at Queen's University's Human Media Lab
The Human Media Lab at Queen's University is inviting applications for MSc students in Human-Computer Interaction.
Projects
Watch this Discovery Channel documentary for a quick intro on the research conducted at the Human Media Lab: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM2Lyjvhrko
Over the past years, there has been a quiet revolution in display manufacturing technology. The E Ink electrophoretic pixel, combined with advances in organic thin-film circuit boards have resulted in displays that are so thin and flexible, they are beginning to resemble paper. Soon displays will completely mimic the high contrast, low power consumption and flexibility of real ink. This will cause a revolution in computer user interface design: where interactive computer displays can have any organic form or shape, other than flat. One where the shape of the computer is the input device. One where any object, no matter how complex, dynamic or flexible its structure, can display information. The proposed research is to study the design of Organic User Interfaces from an engineering, design and empirical standpoint.
As part of this project, students will work with some of the world's top designers to design new user interfaces based on new form factors allowed by flexible E Ink and FOLED display technologies (http://t.co/vNbhqXUA). Some example form factors will include flexible computers such as the HML designed PaperPhone (seehttp://www.humanmedialab.org/paperphone), spherical displays and actuated display technologies. As part of the project team, you will be responsible for designing and building hardware prototypes, as well as for designing and implementing software interaction techniques for these prototypes. You will subsequently be working with a team of expert usability specialists to evaluate the designs using known empirical methods. Positions are supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation related but not limited to research in Organic User Interfaces (OUI).
Criteria
Applicants to the MSc programs must hold a Bachelor in Computing or equivalent degree. All applicants must have a strong interest and multidisciplinary background in human factors, computer science, industrial design,cognitive science or electrical engineering. Applications must also meet the regular admission criteria and will undergo the regular admissions processes.
Funding
The Human Media Lab and School of Computing will provide support to all admitted students.
The level of support will be highly competitive with that offered by other Canadian universities, and may consist of a combination of grants and research and teaching assistantships.
Application
The deadline for applications is January 15, 2012. Late applications may be considered as time and resources permit. Please contact Dr. Roel Vertegaal by sending an email to mayron@cs.queensu.ca for further information. Please tag your email with the subject line "MSc Application". Please also fill out the application form to the School of Computing degree program found at the following link:http://www.cs.queensu.ca/students/graduate/GradHandbook/app_form.php
Industry Partners
The project is in collaboration with industrial partners Autodesk Research (known for their Maya line of products), and fuseproject (with designer Yves Behar). Opportunities exist for internships at these and other institutes. The Human Media Lab also partners with the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University and a host of other academic institutions.
About the Human Media Lab
The Human Media Lab (http://www.humanmedialab.org) is one of Canada's premier laboratories for high-tech research in Human-Computer Interaction. It employs a growing team of 15 students, postdocs and assistants that is housed in our new headquarters, designed by world-famous designer Karim Rashid (http://t.co/MAPTD8YO). The Human Media Lab is part of the School of Computing, one of the top five departments in Computing in Canada. Queen's University is consistently ranked as one of the top Ivy League universities in Canada, according to MacLean’s magazine and other polls. The new Human Media Lab headquarters will be hosting the Sixth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI 2012) in February 2012. http://www.tei-conf.org.
Other links
For an example research project in OUI, visit http://www.hml.queensu.ca/paperphone
For an iTunesU intro on HML visit http://tinyurl.com/yga7ujy
For more information about Organic User Interfaces visit http://www.organicui.org
Information about the School of Computing's graduate programs and the application procedure:
http://www.cs.queensu.ca/students/graduate/
http://www.queensu.ca/sgs/Prospectivestudents/thinkingofapplying.html
Information about Queen's University and living in Kingston, Ontario:
http://www.queensu.ca/ http://tourism.kingstoncanada.com/
