Title

Short- and Long-term Adaptation of Attention Allocation Strategies to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

Deadline

September 15, 2009

Expected start date

November, 2009

Institution

Human Systems Integration

Volvo Technology Corporation

Website: www.tech.volvo.com

City, Country

Göteborg, Sweden

Job description

This PhD research is about Short- and Long-term adaptation of attention allocation strategies to advance driver assistance systems.

The PhD applicant we are seeking has has a cross-disciplinary Human Factors (HF) background from engineering and behavioral science. Human Factors practitioners typically come from a variety of (often cross-disciplinary) backgrounds including engineering, psychology, cognitive science, and computer science. HF practitioners within vehicle and traffic safety typically have knowledge regarding accident causation analysis, driver behavior performance analysis, and human machine interaction (HMI).

Broadly speaking, the PhD candidate will work with drivers’ behavioural adaptation and its underlying processes over time in response to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) use. Behavioural adaptation refers to those behaviours (positive or negative) which may occur following the introduction of ADAS to the road-vehicle-user system. Within this context, the specific thesis topic will adress short- and long-term adaptation of attention allocation strategies following the introduction of ADAS. For example, attention allocation (gaze patterns) may be improved when using ADAS or the driver may become more distracted because of more time spent on secondary tasks.

Examples of tasks:

Methodology:

• Formulation of research questions and hypotheses, definition of experimental design and procedures, definition of performance indicators,
• Planning and set-up of field data experiments and/or data mining of existing naturalistic driving datasets
• Oversee data collection phase – use of instrumented vehicles, eye-tracking equipment, etc

Analysis:

• Analysis work calculating safety indicators: quantification and reduction of dependent variables regarding safety-related driver behaviors.
• Data processing and analysis in Matlab (time-series data), and statistics packages (reduced data)
• Result reporting

Requirements

The PhD applicant we are seeking has either:

(a) a masters degree in behavioral science (e.g. psychology, cognitive science, or equivalent) with a demonstrated cross-disciplinary interest in engineering,

or

(b) a masters degree in engineering (computer science, physics, electronics or equivalent) with a cross-disciplinary background in behavioral science.

The applicant should have demonstrated skills in Matlab and Statistics packages. All candidates must be fluent in spoken and written English. We encourage female applicants.

How to apply

Applications (in English) including a CV, certificates of the grades of examination, a motivation letter as well as two letters of recommendation should be sent by e-mail to Dr. Trent Victor, trent.victor(at)volvo.com

Remuneration

The remuneration will be in line with the EC rules for Marie Curie grant holders and consists of a salary augmented by a net mobility allowance. http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7.

Person to contact for further information

Dr. Trent Victor, trent.victor(at)volvo.com; Tel +46 31322 66 51