ECHOES

I am proud to announce a very exciting new project I am involved in, ECHOES II: Improving Children's Social Interaction through Exploratory Learning in a Multimodal Environment.

The intention of the ECHOES project is to develop a safe, motivating, and inclusive multimodal learning environment allowing Aspergers and Typically Developing children to explore different social situations to improve their social interaction and communication skills. ECHOES II will provide a unique opportunity to explore a place in which learning happens and in which learning can be studied.

The ECHOES project is a multi-site (Edinburgh, London, Sussex, Birmingham, Dundee, Glasgow, and Cardiff), three year project funded jointly by ESRC and EPSRC via the TLRP TEL call. This project which will combine the latest and most innovative methods in participatory design of education technology with cutting-edge multimodal interfaces including motion, gesture, and facial expression capture, audio reactivity and gaze tracking within an augmented reality 3D environment. Further details on the project can be found here:

http://www.lkl.ac.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=287&Itemid=91

The ECHOES project is currently at the recruitment stage. We are looking for a range of full-time, part-time RAs and PhD students. These posts are spread across the various sites. Details are below. If you are interested in any of these posts please follow the links below and contact the people named in each advert.

*Check each advert for closing date as it varies across posts*

Full-Time Research Fellow (School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh)

The successful applicant will contribute to the design and development of an intelligent multimodal interface, using a combination of an interactive whiteboard, 3D graphics, speech synthesis, and video input technology. The post will involve development of the ECHOES software architecture and organisation of software modules developed at the other sites. Experience in software engineering and multi-modal interfaces is highly desirable.

http://www.jobs.ed.ac.uk/vacancies/index.cfm?fuseaction=vacancies.detail&vacancy_ref=3009321

Part-Time Research Assistant (School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh)

Job description same as above except RA will focus more on combining existing interface technologies, e.g. motion tracking + gaze tracking, into the ECHOES architecture.

http://www.jobs.ed.ac.uk/vacancies/index.cfm?fuseaction=vacancies.detail&vacancy_ref=3009321


Full-Time Research Fellow (London Knowledge Lab, University of London)

The successful applicant will collaborate in the development of the ECHOES II environment with other researchers, focusing particularly on the design and implementation of the learning activities and interventions along with the ‘action engine’ responsible for the selection of the activities based on user input .

http://jobs.ioe.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=7AC-CPLKL-4665

Part-Time Research Assistant (London Knowledge Lab, University of London)

The successful applicant will collaborate in the design of the ECHOES II environment with other researchers, focusing particularly on the design and testing of the learning activities and the evaluation of the educational impact of the environment.

http://jobs.ioe.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=7AC-CPLKL-4664

Full-Time Research Fellow (School of Informatics, University of Sussex)

The successful candidate will use participatory design methods with children in order to design and implement the interface for the ECHOES II environment, and collaborate in the develompent of the environment with the other researchers, focusing particularly on the development of 3D characters and avatars and “mirroring” the user’s actions through video input.

Enquiries should be address to Dr. Judith Good (J.Good@sussex.ac.uk).

Full-Time PhD. (School of Computing, University of Dundee)

The School of Computing invites applications for a PhD student to work on the functional communication of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and similar disabilities within a wider project to develop and evaluate a technology enhanced multimodal learning environment designed to scaffold children’s social interaction and communication skills.

The successful candidate will collaborate with other researchers who will be designing a system for the exploration and learning of social interaction skills, and will be focussing of how the ECHOES environment impacts on the interactive communication of children with ASD, specifically Asperger Syndrome.

A first class or good 2:1 Honours or Masters degree, or equivalent, in Applied Computing, Computer Science, Psychology, Cognitive Science or related discipline is essential, as are knowledge of user-centred design methods, computer vision, and an ability to organise and run studies involving children, parents and professionals. Good written and communication skills are essential.

Enquiries and application requests should be addressed to Dr Annalu Waller (awaller@computing.dundee.ac.uk ).

Closing date for applications: 15 September 2008