there are several positions open in the humanoid, cognitive, neuro-, and collaborative robotics group coordinated by Dr. Matej Hoffmann (https://sites.google.com/site/matejhof/) at the Department of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague. The positions include PhD, post-doc, and tenure-track.

Group webpage: https://cyber.felk.cvut.cz/research/groups-teams/humanoids/

The topics are in the context of the newly starting 5-year project entitled “Whole-body awareness for safe and natural interaction: from brains to collaborative robots” for excellence in fundamental research from the Czech Science Foundation (see  https://cyber.felk.cvut.cz/news/new-gacr-expro-project for more information) and include:

• Employing humanoid robots with artificial skin to construct embodied computational models of body and peripersonal space representations 

• Neural network models of multisensory integration and peripersonal space

• Physical human-robot interaction with special focus on tactile and proximity sensing

• Social human-robot interaction focusing on touch and interpersonal distance

Open positions:

PhD student. The topic will be co-defined with the student depending on his skills and interests. The standard duration of the PhD study is 4 years. The funding corresponds to a gross salary of CZK 40 000 per month (approx. 1600 EUR), plus direct bonuses for scientific achievements such as top-tier publications.

Postdoc. The postdoc will independently conduct research and will also be involved in shaping the research of the group and supervising students. The gross salary will be in the range of CZK 50 000-70 000 per month (approx. 2000-2700 EUR) depending on qualification,  plus direct bonuses for scientific achievements such as top-tier publications.

Tenure-track. This position is open in the humanoids group or in the broader context of Vision for Robotics and Autonomous Systems group   (https://cyber.felk.cvut.cz/research/groups-teams/vras/) and the Research Center For Informatics (http://rci.cvut.cz/).

Robots and infrastructure

The humanoids group has at its disposal several humanoid robots (iCub - procurement being finalized, 2 Naos - 1 with whole-body sensitive skin) and collaborative or lightweight manipulators (KUKA LBR iiwa, UR10e with Airskin, Kinova Gen3). Additional infrastructure includes several robot hands (Barrett Hand BH8-282, QB Soft Hand) and grippers, a 3D Motion Capture System, Impact measuring devices (GTE), and integrated devices for collaborative robots (http://smartrobots.it/).  The group has also access to the facilities of the Research Center for Informatics such as a high-performance computational cluster.

International collaborations

There is a large group of international experts who have agreed to act as collaborators/advisors on the project. These include experts in

- developmental psychology: Dr. Kevin O’Regan (CNRS, Paris), Prof. Jeffrey J. Lockman (Tulane University, New Orleans) 

- cognitive psychology and neuroscience: Prof. Matthew Longo (Birkbeck University, London), Prof. Tobias Heed (Bielefeld), Prof. Andrea Serino (University of Lausanne), Dr. Jean-Paul Noel (Center for Neural Science at New York University), Drs. M.Gori and Giulia Cappagli (Italian Institute of Technology, Dr. S. Signorini (IRCSS Fondazione Mondino Pavia) 

- physical human-robot interaction: Prof. Sami Haddadin (TU Munich),  Dr. Arash Ajoudani (Italian Institute of Technology), Dr. Michael Zillich (Blue Danube Robotics – manufacturer of Airskin)

- social human-robot interaction: Dr. Alessandra Sciutti (Italian Institute of Technology), Dr. Hagen Lehmann (University of Macerata)

How to apply. The application should include: 

- Motivation letter (max. 1 page)

- CV (including 2 reference persons)

- 1 Letter of recommendation (can be from 1 of the reference persons above)

Please send the applications or inquiries to matej.hoffmann@fel.cvut.cz with (“[PhD / Postdoc / tenure-track] application” in the subject). The positions are open until filled. 

Best regards,

Matej Hoffmann