HCI Ph.D. Positions
Our lab is recruiting Ph.D. students to join the Department of Computer Science at University of Rochester in 2024 Fall. We work on enabling novel interactions with Mixed Reality avatars (HandAvatar), interfaces (SemanticAdapt), and environments (ColorDepth); augmenting multimodal communications between user and interface (PrivateTalk), and between multiple users (ConeSpeech); modeling user perceptual and behavioral patterns in Mixed Reality interactions (BodyOffset). We welcome applicants whose research interests align with these topics or expand the topics towards exciting directions where we have the neccesary expertise.
How to apply?
The admission process of URCS for PhD students is centralized, and you can find all information here. Applications will get looked at by the PhD admissions committee. All full-time PhD students receive full-tuition scholarships and stipends, and there is no application fee to apply for the program.
Applicants do not necessarily need to have undergraduate degrees in computer science, while should have solid programming skills or they are motivated to pick up the skills through the program. We had several successful projects done with students from various backgrounds (psychology, architecture, industrial engineering, design) who managed to acquire the necessary coding skills through the projects. So no need to worry about coding as long as you are willing to learn it. However, due to the interdisciplinary nature of HCI research, it might be a necessary skill to quickly pick up new skills.
Regarding the application package, a personal statement (statement of purpose) is required. Including descriptions of past research experiences, how your training has prepared you for conducting research, and a high-level discussion of the areas you want to work on may help provide the admissions committee insight into your fit in the program. You can highlight your interest in working in the lab in your statement of purpose. In addition, UR requires a diversity statement in your application package. You can find advice on how to write one here. PhD applicants are not required to submit GRE Scores. The deadline for 2024 Fall admission is January 1, 2024.
ROC-HCI Group
Our lab is part of ROC-HCI Group, where Dr. Yukang Yan serves as a co-director. ROC-HCI strives for technical novelty in advancing scientific discovery and addressing real-life challenges in learning (e.g. K-12 AI literacy, socio-emotional learning, scientific inquiry), social interaction (e.g. collaboration, communication, credibility), and wellness for people with diverse abilities and needs (e.g. Autism, Deaf and Hard of Hearing, severe anxiety, ageing). ROC-HCI offers an inclusive and collaborative learning environment that respects diverse academic and cultural backgrounds.
AR/VR initiative
The University of Rochester has launched a multi-faceted initiative to establish world-leading AR/VR research across the campus. In 2020, the university received a 5-year National Science Foundation award to offer interdisciplinary educational traineeships and fellowships to prepare PhD candidates for transformative research in AR/VR across CS, Brain and Cognitive Science, Optics, Electronics and Computing Engineering and related fields.
Yes, it is a new lab!
Joining a new lab can be both exciting and challenging. The "downsides" include that there might be just you, me and a few folks in the lab at the beginning and you may want to have more people to chat with. That's fair but solvable! We will be part of the bigger ROC-HCI group and may share the physical lab space with Horizon Lab (lead by Prof. Yuhao Zhu) who are also interested in AR/VR systems. Furthermore, the university encourages interdisplinary collaboraions across different departments, so if you are interested, we can reach to great researchers beyond URCS. Obviously, there are a lot of upsides too. What can be more fun than building a great lab together? Reach out if you want to know more!