PhD Position: Serious Gaming in order to enable participatory design in healthcare

Universiteit Twente. De plek waar talent zich het best ontplooit. Studenten en medewerkers staan centraal. 3.300 wetenschappers en professionals zorgen samen voor baanbrekend onderzoek, relevante innovatie en inspirerend onderwijs voor meer dan 9.000 studenten. Ondernemerschap zit in onze genen. Op de campus zijn zo'n 100 (student)bedrijven gevestigd. Daarnaast heeft Universiteit Twente al meer dan 700 succesvolle spin-off bedrijfven voortgebracht! Kennispark Twente stimuleert en faciliteert startende ondernemers. Op onze prachtige, groene campus gebeurt echter veel meer. De faciliteiten voor sport en cultuur zijn uniek en met evenementen als 's werelds grootste denktank Create Tomorrow en het grootste studentensportevenement de Batavierenrace is de campus een begrip. De campus inspireert en bruist! Universiteit Twente, de ondernemende universiteit.

De faculteit Construerende Technische Wetenschappen (CTW) is een van de zes faculteiten van de Universiteit Twente met circa 1800 bachelor- en masterstudenten, 300 medewerkers en 150 promovendi. De faculteit verzorgt drie bacheloropleidingen en vijf masteropleidingen op het gebied van Civiele Techniek, Industrieel Ontwerpen en Werktuigbouwkunde. Het onderzoek van de faculteit is gehuisvest in vakgroepen/leerstoelen en de faculteit is actief betrokken bij locale en nationale onderzoeksinstituten. Met industriële partners en onderzoekers in nationaal en internationaal verband worden intensieve relaties onderhouden.

De uitdaging / The challenge

Health care facilities evolve constantly. They not only need to be renovated, but also adjusted to the constantly changing health care standards, health related policies, and newly available technical innovations. Designing such new evolutionary adjustment of facilities is not an easy task because of the large amount of stakeholders that designers need to integrate in the design process. Participatory design is an approach that promises to actively involve all these stakeholders in the design process as co-designers. However, in practice participatory design efforts often fail because a sufficient exchange of knowledge between the participants is not easily realised. Early simultaneous experiments of the Laboratory of Design Production and Management and the Center for Visualization and Simulation in Construction have already hinted that Virtual Gaming technologies can support this necessary knowledge exchange during participatory design efforts. The goal of this project is to move this area of research beyond these initial experiments and to explore how Virtual Gaming technologies can support participatory design efforts across the gamut of health care products, starting from medical devices, to interior room layouts, to the design and construction of complete health care facilities.

Principle Responsibilities:

·         You will review the background and state of the art in the use of serious gaming as part of participatory design processes.

·         You will obtain hand-on experience in the development and application of virtual gaming technologies by conducting case studies at our industry partners

·         You will translate your case study findings in a design approach that guides designers in when and how to apply what virtual gaming technologies within participatory design processes.

·         You will be expected to actively get involved in the ongoing cooperation with the industry partners of the Laboratory of Design Production and Management and the Center for Visualization and Simulation in Construction. This interaction includes the active support of ongoing design efforts in practice with virtual gaming technologies.

·         You will be expected to acquire and apply the necessary technical skills to develop new and custom tailor existing virtual gaming technologies to the needs of our industry partners.

·         You will be responsible for documenting and disseminating the project results throughout the project duration. You will be expected to finish the project with a PhD thesis and disseminate the results through publications in peer-reviewed journals, presentations at international conferences, and knowledge transfer sessions with industrial partners.

·         Your main responsibility will be to carry out research, but you will also be given the opportunity to acquire some teaching experience. 

Ons aanbod / Our offer

We offer a very challenging position in an inspiring multidisciplinary environment. As a PhD candidate you will be appointed in a full-time position for a period of four years with an assessment after one year, at the end of which you must have completed your PhD thesis. The monthly salary of a PhD candidate, in accordance with the collective labor agreement for Dutch universities (CAO-NU), ranges from EURO 2042 gross in the first year to EURO 2612 gross in the fourth year. Additionally, the University of Twente provides excellent facilities for professional and personal development, a holiday allowance and an end-of-year bonus, and a number of additional benefits.

Uw profiel / Your profile

You should be a highly motivated researcher who possesses the communication and management skills to thrive within a multidisciplinary research team. Further, you should have intellectual curiosity and knowledge about computer graphics, virtual gaming technologies, and design methods that are formally manifested in an MSc degree in Engineering Design, Architecture, Industrial Design Engineering, or a related topic. Fluency in English is required. In order to interact meaningful with our industry partners, Dutch language skills are advisable. Non-Dutch speaking candidates will be supported in the form of language classes.