During 2012 new scholarships for dissertation projects are offered in research clusters 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 10 of the Research Training Group “prometei”. The duration of scholarships is between 24 and 36 months depending on topic and entry in the training group. More detailed information about the different dissertation projects as well as information about start and duration of scholarships and deadline for applications are provided in the following. Information about the formal process of application can be found here

Topic 1.1: User-oriented design of medical aids

Aufbauend auf bisherigen Forschungsprojekten werden die Mensch-Technik-Interaktionen in der Anwendung von medizinischen Hilfsmitteln und Chirurgie-Instrumenten unter Berücksichtigung einer Vielzahl von Einflussfaktoren untersucht.

Die Interaktion an der Schnittstelle Mensch-Technik-Mensch stellt spezifische Anforderungen, wenn Patienten bzw. Behinderte selbst Medizinprodukte verwenden, um therapeutische oder rehabilitative Ziele zu erreichen. Störeinflüsse können zu Einschränkungen in der Nutzung von medizinischen Hilfsmitteln führen. Die Systemeigenschaften und Nutzungsbedingungen von Hilfsmitteln (z. B. Orthesen) sind im Zusammenhang mit der nutzergerechten Gestaltung näher zu untersuchen. Ihre Berücksichtigung in frühen Produktentwicklungsphasen bestimmt maßgeblich den Erfolg des Einsatzes eines Medizinproduktes. Ein Monitoring der Therapiemitarbeit (Patienten-Compliance) ist für die Bewertung der abgeleiteten Empfehlungen notwendig.

Im Rahmen des Stipendiums sind Fragestellungen zur prospektiv-nutzergerechten Ge-staltung von Hilfsmitteln zu bearbeiten.

Start: 01.04.2012
Duration: 30 month
Deadline for application: 20 February 2012

Topic 1.2: User-oriented design of instruments for minimal-invasive surgeries

In der minimal-invasiven Chirurgie (MIC) werden operative Eingriffe überwiegend durch sehr kleine Zugänge durchgeführt, wodurch für den Patienten die Schmerzbelastung reduziert und das kosmetische Ergebnis durch geringere Narbenbildung verbessert wird. Gleichzeitig sind MIC-Eingriffe jedoch für das Operationsteam belastender als vergleichbare offene Operationen, da unter anderem Bewegungsspielraum und Sichtfeld stark eingeschränkt sind. Aufgrund der überwiegend manuellen Vorgehensweise hängt der Behandlungserfolg bei der Anwendung von Instrumenten und Geräten minimal-invasiver Techniken stärker von der Arzt-Technik-Interaktion ab als bei anderen Medizinprodukten. In der Systemkonzeption und während der frühen Phasen der Produktionsentwicklung sind primär Anforderungen aus Sicht der chirurgischen Anwender einzubeziehen.

Im Rahmen des Stipendiums sind Fragestellungen zur Verbesserung der prospektiv-nutzergerechten Gestaltung von Chirurgieinstrumenten für minimal-invasive, vorrangig laparoskopische, Eingriffe zu bearbeiten.

Start: 1st May 2012
Duration: 30 months
Deadline for application: 12 March 2012

By visualizing 3D product models in real scale and using possibilities to interact with these models product designers and interdisciplinary design teams are enabled to validate product models in a new way as well as to incorporate resulting insights into the product creation process.

The advertised scholarship is aimed to follow up existing research on virtual reality (VR)-based hybrid prototyping, which applies VR-technologies for experiencing and designing of product concepts in an early stage. Related work of the Fraunhofer IPK covers the areas of Smart Hybrid Prototyping and immersive modelling and sketching. Within this scope the research topic and methods of this scholarship will be determined during the first six months. Prerequisites are an interdisciplinary approach using engineering and psychological methods, emphasis on the area of virtual reality and 3D interaction, and

evaluation of the research results with usability methods. The research topic will be chosen based on the previous knowledge and interests of the scholar and in accordance to research topics of the division Virtual Product Creation.

During the research work the scholar will be granted access to an extensive infrastructure within the Virtual Reality Solution Center (VRSC) which is operated by the division Virtual Product Creation of the Fraunhofer IPK and the chair of industrial information technology of the Berlin Institute of Technology. The VRSC contains a five sided VR-CAVE, high-performance visualisation clusters, a VR-Holobench-System, two high-resolution head mounted displays, various tracking systems and various force feedback devices.

Further information regarding research activities of the Fraunhofer IPK in the field of Virtual Product Creation the can found at: www.ipk.fraunhofer.de/divisions/virtual-product-creation

Start: 1st May 2012
Duration: 29 months
Deadline for application: 01 March 2012

Topic 5.1: Behavioral Effects in Interaction with (Likelihood-)Alarms

Alarms and alerts constitute an important component of many complex human-machine systems. They are implemented to support the operator in detecting and identifying critical system states or events. The effectiveness of these systems is direct dependent on operators responding in an appropriate and responsible manner to the occurrence of an alarm. Yet, this cannot be taken for granted. For example, numerous incidents and accidents in aviation, the chemical industry and nuclear power plants have been traced back to operator errors in the interaction with the alarm system (Bliss, 2003). One possible cause is the fact that even very good alarm systems usually are not perfectly reliable but produce a certain number of false alarms or misses of critical events. Such failures can impair the trust of operators in the system and may lead to inappropriate responses in interaction with alarms. In order to design effective and safe alarm systems such behavioural effects and their underlying mechanisms have to be well understood and accounted for, and this represents the main focus of research in cluster 5. Previous and present dissertation projects of this cluster investigate, e.g., how the performance and behavioural strategies of operators interacting with alarms is affected by the reliability and verifiability of alarms (Nina Gérard), an increase of the information value of alarms by using likelihood alarm systems (Rebecca Wiczorek), or different framings of alarms (Torsten Günzler). In addition, another project specifically deals with the effects of different warning strategies as part of navigation systems for surgery (Maria Luz).

The new dissertation project shall contribute to the further theoretical and methodological development of the research within the cluster. Specifically the current research in the cluster on the effects of likelihood-alarms will provide a good basis for this. Although likelihood alarms represent a particular ambitious and innovative concept of alarm systems which in theory provide many advantages in supporting the decision-making of operators, only less research is available, thus far, that would have addressed the behavioural effects of this sort of alarms. However, also other research topics with a clear link to the overall topic or the other projects of the cluster could in principle be addressed, depending on the specific interests and competencies of the new scholarship-holder.

The project will be conducted in close cooperation with the other scholarship-holders of the cluster. It is further part of a research program on issues of human-automation interaction which constitute a major research activity of the Chair of Work, Engineering and Organisational Psychology at TU Berlin (www.aio.tu-berlin.de). Applicants must have a master degree in psychology or human factors. Most appreciated are applicants who have an academic focus and are interested in experimental research. Very good knowledge of empirical research methods and statistics, as well as interest in active cooperation within a motivated research group is presumed.

Start: 1st July 2012
Duration: 27 months
Deadline for application: 15 March 2012

Topic 6.1: User Experience in the Course of Human-Machine Interaction Description

User experience (UX) is of central importance for the acceptance of any technical product, be it an audio player, a cell phone or a piece of software. It is influenced by the experienced usability of the system, but also by its visual appearance and other qualitative features. Although UX is a rather new research topic in Human Machine Interaction (HMI), there are already a number of studies investi¬gating the influence of these factors. Building on the results of these studies, the new PhD-project will address the impact of positive as well as negative experiences during HMI on the user’s emotional state, behavior and appraisal of the system. In particular, the role of surprises during the interaction with the system will be investigated. Theories on emotions, such as the Belief-Desire Theory (Reisenzein, 2008), will serve as theoretical background.

The PhD project will be conducted in close cooperation with the other scholarship-holders of the research cluster 6 “Usability Workbench”. It will be part of a research program of the Chair of “Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics” at TU Berlin. Applicants for this projects must have a master degree or diploma in psychology, human factors, ergonomics or cognitive science. Expertise in empirical methods and statistics as well as good skills in German and English are required. Knowledge of cognitive psychology, research on emotions, physiological measures or usability research is desired.

Start: 1st April 2012
Duration: 36 months
Deadline for application: 27 February 2012

Topic 6.2: Modeling the Perception of Causal Relationships in Human-Computer Interaction

Under which conditions do we perceive two events as causally related and classify them as cause and effect? Early works by Michotte (1962) and experiments by Einhorn and Hogarth (1986) provide answers to this question from a psychological perspective. Both lines of research indicate that the perception of a causal relationship depends on a number of cues, such as temporal order and spatial contiguity. Starting from these classical works, the PhD project will build a computational model for the perception of causality. The model will be developed in the cognitive architecture ACT-R (Anderson et al., 2004). Events during human computer interaction will serve as cases for the modeling and experiments will be run to validate the models.

The PhD project will be conducted in close cooperation with the other scholarship-holders of the research cluster 6 “Usability Workbench”. It will be part of a research program of the Chair of “Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics” at TU Berlin. Applicants for this projects must have a master degree or diploma in psychology, human factors, computer science or cognitive science. In particular, experience in modelling with ACT-R is required. Expertise in empirical methods and statistics as well as good skills in German and English are also expected.

Start: 1st April 2012
Duration: 36 months
Deadline for application: 27 February 2012

Topic 7.1: Evaluation of quality of multi-modal telecommunications

Die wahrgenommene Qualität bei der Übertragung und beim Erleben von audiovisueller Medien spielt eine wichtige Rolle in Industrie und Forschung. Bisher wird der Qualitätseindruck über standardisierte Bewertungsskalen im Anschluss an die Präsentation eines Testreizes erfragt. Es ist allerdings nicht geklärt, wie dieses bewusste Urteil zustande kommt, welchen Anteil unbewusste Prozesse dabei spielen, und welche physiologischen Veränderungen damit einhergehen. In einer ersten Versuchsreihe konnten Hirnstrommessungen (EEG) als zusätzliche Größe bei der Bewertung der Qualität von Audiosequenzen etabliert werden. Das ausgeschriebene Dissertationsvorhaben soll dieses und weitere physiologische Maße hinsichtlich ihrer Eignung für die Qualitätsbewertung und -vorhersage überprüfen.

Start: 1st April 2012
Duration: 30 months
Deadline for application: 26 February 2012

Topic 7.2: Design and evaluation of mobile multi-modal interactions

Ein wichtiges Anwendungsfeld multimodaler Interaktionen sind mobile Telekommunikationsdienste, wie sie auf Smartphones und Tablet-Computern angeboten werden. Um eine möglichst hohe Nutzungsqualität sicherzustellen, sind sowohl nutzerzentrierte Protopying- und Entwicklungszyklen als auch Wissen über die Verwendung und Präferenz adäquater Eingabe- und Ausgabemodalitäten wichtig. Dabei spielt der mobile Anwendungskontext und damit verbundene Einflussfaktoren (Nutzungsziel, Umgebungsfaktoren, Ablenkung durch parallele Tätigkeiten etc.) eine zentrale Rolle. Anhand von typischen multimodalen Apps aus dem Universitätsumfeld sollen in diesem Dissertationsvorhaben neuartige Methoden zur Gestaltung und Evaluierung multimodaler Apps entwickelt und in Experimenten erprobt werden.

Start: 1st Aril 2012
Duration: 30 months
Deadine for application: 26 February 2012

This research cluster offers two new scholarships starting at 1st August 2012 (duration 25 months) and 1st September 2012 (duration 24 months), respectively.

More information about the topics and deadlines for application will be provided here very soon.

• Mrs. Sandra Widera (questions concerning administrative issues of application) sandra.widera-Entfernen Sie diesen Text-@zmms.tu-berlin.de
• Prof. Dr. Dietrich Manzey (spokesmen of the research training group) dietrich.manzey-Entfernen Sie diesen Text-@tu-berlin.de