About this role
About the position We invite applications for a PhD Research Fellow position in Continuous Experience Recognition for Distributed Co-Creative Immersive Systems, available at the Department of Informatics as a member of the MishMash Centre for AI and Creativity. Starting date no later than February 2, 2027. The fellowship period is three years. Depending on the candidate and the teaching needs of the department, the fellowship period can be extended either for compulsory work consisting of e.g. teaching and supervision duties and research assistance up top 12 months. No one can be appointed for more than one PhD Research Fellowship period at the University of Oslo. Job description The position is part of MishMash Centre for AI and Creativity, which is a Norwegian AI centre funded by the Research Council of Norway (2025-2030). It comprises more than 200 faculty members from many higher education institutions in Norway, in collaboration with numerous public and private sector partners. The primary objective of MishMash is to create, explore, and reflect on AI for, through, and in creative practices. MishMash researchers will develop innovative CoCreative AI systems, investigate AI’s impact on creative processes, educational strategies, and address AI’s ethical, cultural, legal, and societal implications in creative domains. See mishmash.no for more information. In addition, this PhD candidate will be able to participate and exploit synergies with the RCN-funded DRIVE project on brain-driven multi-sensory robotic avatars for remote collaborative physical work. The PhD fellowship position is located at the University of Oslo’s Department of Informatics (IFI) and is hosted by the Network and Distributed Systems Research Group (ND) with co-supervision from IFI’s Machine Learning section and the University of Inland Norway’s research group for User Perception and Engagement in XR Experiences. ND conducts research in networks and distributed systems of all scales, multimedia and AR/VR/XR systems, robotics and machine learning, advancing general and fundamental scientific knowledge driven by specific applications. The successful candidate will join ND’s the Sustainable Immersive Networking Lab (SINLAB), a multidisciplinary team working on systems that enable users to become immersed in remote physical environments, observe them, move in them, and physically act in them, and experience the effects of their actions through multimodal feedback (audio, video, haptics). SINLAB conducts holistic research on distributed, real-time interactive and immersive systems, in particular on enabling a first-person presence in remote, augmented and virtual spaces. We work on overcoming the challenges of limited temporal and spatial accuracy of such remote interactions. We pay particular attention to the exploration of potential and limitations arising from the use of AI-based methods in predictive feedback. The successful candidate will: explore how a combination of multimodal observation (audio, video, LIDAR, thermal vision) and physiological measurements (motion tracking, eye tracking, EMG, BCI, EDA, HRV) can be used to continuously assess the human experience of interaction quality, and how this assessment can be fed back into the AI-based predictor to tune its behaviour in real-time for a highly personalized and context-dependent experience. This research will be conducted in collaboration with partners of the MishMash center. Specific applications in which the candidate will explore are (1) multimodal first-person presence in a remote environment through a robot, and (2) the co-creative collaboration between an embodied AI and one or more human musicians. Additionally, applicability to situational awareness and high-level control in control centers will be considered. What skills are important in this role? The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences has a strategic ambition to be among Europe’s leading communities for research, education and innovation. Candidates for these fellowships will be selected in accordance with this, and expected to be in the upper segment of their class with respect to academic credentials. Required qualifications: Master’s degree or equivalent in informatics, computer science/engineering, mathematics, music/media technology, electrical/electronic engineering, cybernetics, robotics or other field relevant for the position Foreign completed degree (M.Sc.-level) corresponding to a minimum of four years in the Norwegian educational system Documented experience with designing and conducting user experience studies and quantitative performance evaluation Documented experience in the system performance evaluation of computer systems and networks for interactive applications, preferably with AR/VR/XR, robotics, haptics, multimodal or multimedia systems. Directly relevant areas are preferable Documented hands-on experience with machine learning methods, in particular for time series data Documented hands-on programming experience Fluent oral and written communication skills in English Candidates without a master’s degree have until 31.12.2026 to complete the final exam. Desired qualifications: It is a strong advantage to have command of a Scandinavian language due to the collaborative nature of the MishMash center Documented experience in computer networks and/or distributed systems is a strong advantage It is an advantage to be knowledgeable in non-AI statistics and mathematical modeling It is an advantage if the applicant has developed working systems, prototypes, or emulators It is an advantage if the applicant has developed software in fields such as AR/VR/XR, robotics, haptics, multimedia systems or computer games requiring hand-eye-coordination It is an advantage to have experience in AI-based time-series analysis, spatio-temporal prediction or situational awareness It is an advantage to have experience with scientific writing and publication Language requirement: Go