04 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Aston University, Birmingham, England

The new Aston Digital Futures Institute has Postdoctoral Research Associate vacancies.

Precision healthcare is an emerging approach for personal healthcare, medicine and disease prevention that considers the individual’s variability in health, genes, lifestyle, and environment. While still in its infancy, this approach is developing quickly due to new technologies and the accumulation of complex multi-scale and multi-modal health-related data.

This research fellowship will be focused on the development of new and adapting/improving existing automatic models for time series data originating from electronic health records, physiological, biological, physical activity data, and other health-related data.

The successful candidate will be expected to develop and enhance the new Institute research activities in the field of multi-sensory data analytics and XR (Extended Reality) with a particular focus on healthcare provision within the metaverse. Expertise and previous exposure to medical image processing, machine learning, data analytics and digital media design and technology are highly desirable. The candidate is expected to be an active researcher with a track record of well-cited publications in the field of sensors and data analytics, medical imaging, XR and/or relevant fields.

The new Aston Digital Futures Institute has Postdoctoral Research Associate vacancies.

Gamification improves productivity by 90%, employee retention by 69%, performance by 72%, and enjoyment by 95%. Gamification uses game elements with a purpose such as challenges, rewards, competitions, and progress in non-game contexts. Generally, it is accompanied by progress tracking metrics. This research fellowship will thoroughly examine the design and development of gamified interfaces and gamification frameworks, including the use of virtual and augmented reality systems and psychophysiological feedback devices such as EEG, GSR, heartbeat, etc. 

The research fellow is expected to make significant contributions to the development of novel tools and techniques for the visualisation of gamification data analytics as well as multi-sensory multimodal analytics using virtual and augmented reality systems and biofeedback devices in a number of application domains to measure human motivation and improve performance, such as:

•    Digital Twins & Digital Society

•    Human Performance & Wellbeing

•    Knowledge & Emergency Management

The researcher will contribute to the Supergen Bioenergy Impact Hub, undertaking experimental work on the area of “Low carbon hydrogen production”. The researcher will mainly work using a lab-scale gasification system for hydrogen production from biomass conversion, and the main research activities will take place at the Energy & Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI). The researcher will conduct laboratory-based experimental work and will be required to set-up and manipulate a wide range of analytic equipment. Previous knowledge on thermochemical conversion of biomass, synthesis and characterisation of catalysis, fluidised beds, high-pressure gasification, will be relevant.