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Applications are invited for one full-time PhD studentship (with
scholarship) for
a period of 3 years, at the Department of Informatics,
Bioengineering, Robotics,
and System Engineering, University of Genoa, Italy.
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The position will start on Nov 1st, 2016 on the following research
project:
ACTION-PERCEPTION TRANSFER IN VISUAL AND VISUO-HAPTIC BEHAVIOR
Deadline for Applications: June 10th, 2016
Experiencing the sensory feedback gained from movements allows us to
learn
the contingencies and correlations between actions and sensory
events.
Accordingly, sensing “educates” motor action, but, conversely, and
more
elusively, motor practice can “educate” sensing.
The proposed research aims at investigating the interplay between
action and
perception at different levels:
(1) modelling early action-perception transfer in visual feature
extraction
(cf. neural coding of visual properties) and perceptual judgement
processes
(decoding stages);
(2) experiments on bidirectional perceptual-action influence -
including the
development of systems and devices that integrate vision and
haptics;
(3) applications in neuromotor and cognitive rehabilitation, in
which action is
used to educate perception and perception is used to educate action.
The project will provide the opportunity to work on neural modeling,
visual
and visuo-haptic psychophysics, and robotics. Experimental,
modeling, and
theoretical approaches might be pursued with a different accent
according
to personal attitude.
* HOW TO APPLY
Candidates must have:
- University degree at M.Sc. level (or expect to obtain it by
October 31st, 2016)
in Bioengineering, Computer Science, Physics, or related
disciplines;
-
attitude for problem solving and interest in experimental
work;
- essential skills comprise Matlab and/or C/C++/C# or Python
programming.
Online application is possible till June 10th, 2016 (at noon)
Italian time
providing your CV and qualifications, the name and contact details
of two
references, and a description of your research interests.
* WHERE
The research will be conducted jointly at “The Physical Structure of
Perception
and Computation (PSPC) Lab”, and the “Neuro-engineering and
Neuro-robotics
lab (NEUROLAB)”, led by Silvio P. Sabatini and Vittorio Sanguineti,
respectively.
PSPC-Lab has a long-standing expertise in visual coding and
multidimensional
signal representation, robot perception and computer vision. In the
last years,
the lab's research activity focused on the analysis of the
structural mechanisms
of visuo-spatial cognition, responsible for orienting and
interacting in the 3D
space.
NEUROLAB (http://www.neurolab.dibris.unige.it/)
focuses on experimental
studies on neural control of movement, in normal and pathologic
conditions.
Recent activity aimed at investigating the computational basis of
motor skill
learning, and how this process can be facilitated by robots and
other interactive
technologies.
Our labs are located in Genoa, a small beautiful town in
northernItaly, both from
historical (its historical center is the largest of Europe) and
naturalistic point of
view (sea and mountains coexist creating a unique landscape).
Genoa is only 1.30h away from Milan by train and connected by plane
to
Rome (1.00h), London (2h) and Paris (1.30h).
Regards,
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Silvio P. SABATINI, PhD [PSPC Research Group]
Professor of Bioengineering
DIBRIS - University of Genova | e_mail: silvio.sabatini@unige.it
Via Opera Pia, 11A | phone: +39 010 3532092/3532794
I-16145 Genova (ITALY) | fax: +39 010 3532289/3536533
URL: http://pspc.unige.it
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"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." [Albert Einstein]