We are searching for a PhD candidate with a master degree in engineering, psychology or neuroscience and an interest in human/brain machine interfaces. Expertise in EEG and/or oculometry is expected The subject of the thesis is linked to the difficulties for human operator to control/monitor highly automated system. This performance problem remains difficult to characterize. The first goal of this project is to characterize the OOL (Out Of the Loop) performance problem at the physiological level. Particularly, we propose to document the relation between vigilance, attention and the degradation of the monitoring activities. Using EEG recordings and oculometric measures in supervisory task, we propose to study the dynamics of vigilance and attentional mechanisms during the emergence of OOL performance problem and their respective impact on the monitoring activities. These results will help us to characterize the state of the brain leading to the degradation of the monitoring activities and to develop tools for OOL episodes detection. This project will be co-directed by three researchers in interdisciplinary fields, Bruno Berberian (ONERA) who is expert in human control of highly automated systems, Arnaud Delorme (CerCo) who is expert in vigilance process and EEG signal processing, and Aurélie Campagne (LPNC) who is expert in the characterization of neurophysiological correlates of cognitive states for applications in passive brain-computer interfaces. The location of the PhD will be Salon de Provence primarily and secondarily in Grenoble. If you are interested, please send your CV, two contacts for reference, a motivation letter (max one page) and reference letters (optional) to Bruno Berberian<Bruno.Berberian@onera.fr>. Please group all documents into one PDF for easier processing.