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''Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) enables excellent Chinese students to obtain their PhD degrees at TU/e with a 4-year scholarship from the CSC. Students from all Chinese universities are eligible for this program. The program aims to foster long-term research co-operation between Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and Chinese universities. Students who receive a scholarship are provided with a living allowance as prescribed by the Chinese Government for the term of the scholarship, return airfare to the Netherlands by the most economical route, student visa fees and the cost of health insurance for international students.''

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 . '''PhD in''' '''Design of Systems with Emerging Technologies in a Societal Context''' '''at Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology''' '''2024'''

<<TableOfContents>>

== Introduction ==
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is among the top 150 universities according to the QS Global World Ranking. It is located in a highly industrialized region, known as [[https://brainporteindhoven.com/int/|‘Brainport’]]. This region is internationally recognized as a top technology area with a special focus on the integration of design and technology. The Department of Industrial Design was established in close collaboration with the technological industry, and, because of this, focuses its research on the ''Design of Systems with Emerging Technologies in a Societal Context''. We aim to advance the field of Design by creating new knowledge, tools, and systems that foster a new breed of designers who can meet the increasingly complex challenges of our world.

=== PhD program Industrial Design ===
Industrial Design is a department that develops design engineering and design research expertise. We contribute in the field as scholars, engaging in design and technology development. From its early days the department has used a truly multi-disciplinary approach in education and research. The main contributing disciplines have been design, engineering, and social sciences. In recent years the role of health sciences has been growing, as health increasingly becomes a focal application area for our research.

Making is key to our research. We have intensely and consistently led and shaped the Research-through-Design (RtD) paradigm, in many respects more so than other design research programs. RtD typically involves a constructive element to address a design challenge and develop novel directions and opportunities for design, coupled with empirical studies involving individuals or groups interacting with the created artefacts. The artefacts designed at our department are smart products, systems and services involving ICT: we see ourselves thus as creative technologists, our focus on technology being one that traditionally concerns embedded systems following the visions of ambient intelligence/ubiquitous computing. We explore interactivity, focusing on aspects such as physicality, playfulness, user experience, etc.

We address design research challenges where the main objective is to create value and opportunities in systems with emerging technologies and materials. Additionally, we leverage new forms of interaction where the main objective is to realize and study networks of systems in a societal context and to design and analyze the emerging interaction patterns using recent developments in data acquisition and data analysis technology.

As a PhD student, you will work on research topics related to the aspects above by exploring future technology through probing prototypes in everyday-life settings (e.g. Experiential Design Landscapes).

== Expected Background ==
Applicants to this PhD research shall have a background in industrial design, digital arts and interactive media, human-computer interaction, computer science, information technology, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering and physics.

== Research Topics ==
We are aiming to recruit up to three CSC Ph.D. candidates in 2024. The applicants can apply for one of the following research directions :

 * ''Computational Design Systems'': A Computational Design System (CDS) is a framework of integrated technological and methodological components to facilitate design practice and research at scale. It provides access to emerging technology platforms, creates a shared language and conceptual structure, and its adoption fosters a community of practice. Based on the current and future needs of the design research community, we create CDSs for designers to prototype at scale and create robust and reliable designs of higher quality. This will facilitate methodology development building on new topics and technologies such as machine learning, EdgeAI, decentralized systems, and multi-modal learning. The new infrastructure will enable designers to explore existing and new design spaces and gain an understanding of systems and the implications of design interventions.

 * ''Interactive Matters:'' Computation is becoming more and more incorporated into our physical world. In addition to screens and smart devices, sensing, actuation, computation, and communication will be integrated into novel ecologies of materials, artifacts, humans, and non-humans that we live with, wear, and interact with, addressing multiple senses. New adaptive systems will anticipate our intentions and invite our actions. Our design vision is to make these experiential systems meaningful and respectful to human and non-human entities situated in the context. We strive to develop highly interactive and adaptive embodied experiences for both humans and non-humans.

 * ''Making with ... :'' We consider design as a relational, exploratory, and material practice, emphasizing the connections between entities rather than the entities themselves.  We engage with people, materials, more-than-human entities, AIs, social groups, multi-actor/multi-sector organizations, and more. We aim at addressing questions such as:
  1. How does making inform design processes , and how can we develop strategies around new materials?
  1. What kinds of new aesthetics could be designed with new materials and post-human perspectives?
  1. How can we foster new ways of being, living, and working together? 

 * ''Designing with Intelligence:'' We view designing with intelligence as more than ‘designing with AI’: we incorporate multiple forms of intelligence, whether artificial, machine, human or biological. We identify five qualities that make designing with intelligence unique:
  1. Aesthetics of Uncertainty: harnessing uncertainty as a positive source of surprise, curiosity, exploration, and reflection.
  1. Caring for Instability: Promoting care as a basic attitude towards changeable socio-natural-technical systems.
  1. Harmonizing Agencies: Balancing intelligent systems’ agency with the human need to feel competent, autonomous and in control.
  1. Expressing Intentionality: In human-AI collaboration, humans and systems make their intentions known to one another.
  1. Anticipating Emergence: Preparing for potential emergent behaviors in intelligent systems and their consequences for larger socio-cultural systems.

 * ''Socio-Digital Systems: '' We take a Systems Thinking approach to design in order to create interactive systems that deliver value to stakeholders, with a special emphasis on using technology to bridge existing divides in society that hinder inclusion and self-development as well as divides brought about by emerging technologies such as big data and AI. Individuals with special needs, children, elderly, or patients suffering from chronic conditions are often not only disempowered by their inherent limitations, but also by existing social structures. Socio-technical systems, such as social media and AI-enabled surveillance, may accentuate such disadvantages. We strive to enrich the field of design with methods, theories, and empirical evidence derived from other research fields and conversely contribute to these respective fields by designing in a societal context. This will enable us to develop a richer understanding of how design can have an impact on societal challenges related to empowerment and self-actualization.

 * ''Transdisciplinary Research & Design:'' We need a transdisciplinary approach to address today’s societal challenges. This means that we combine research efforts by different disciplines to develop new conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and translational innovations. However, past efforts at transdisciplinary research have been hampered by ontological and epistemological debates on subjective vs. objective knowledge. We aim to overcome this friction by promoting the generative knowledge and emergence of design. Design generates concrete artefacts as embodied knowledge based on both objective (e.g., sensor data) and subjective (e.g., lived experience of participants) data, which can break norms about the kind of shared reality we want to bring about in our highly interconnected world.

 * ''Future of Design Education:'' Designers and design researchers can play a unique role in creating new approaches and tools for teaching.  We aim to develop knowledge and document innovative best practices on how to teach design and educate designers. We focus on pedagogical approaches, tools supporting teaching and learning, and how design education can lead to new design research fields. We distinguish three themes:
  1. Research on Design Education (describing innovative educational practices and evaluating their impact on students’ learning)
  1. Research for Design Education (developing materials, tools and platforms supporting teachers and students),
  1. Research through Design Education (how to conduct design research through innovative educational practices)


== Application Procedure ==
It is a two-step process:

 1. Applying with us. According to the quality of the application documents, you might be invited for an interview (video conferencing, if necessary). If the interview gives positive advice, you will be offered with an admission letter, with a tuition fee waiver.
 1. Applying at CSC. We will help you adjust, refine and improve your research proposal, and help you improve the quality of other application documents. We will assist and advise you throughout the CSC application process.

If you are interested in applying, please first address your interest to dr. Jun Hu: j.hu@tue.nl as early as possible for questions and guidance, and later prepare the following documents and submit them to j.hu@tue.nl , with "CSC PhD application 2024" in the subject:

 1. Curriculum Vitae
 1. Research plan according to one of the aforementioned topics (no more than 4-pages of A4 in English, Including Background, Objectives and Research questions, Methodology, Planning, Expected results, Feasibility, Future Plan after your PhD, and References).
 1. Motivation letter (no more than 1-page A4).
 1. Copy of Master Degree (if available, or a letter from your university to prove that you are expected to graduate in due time).
 1. Letter of recommendation from your supervisor at the home university.
 1. Any indication of your English level (IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL 95, or equivalent) according to the requirements from CSC (http://www.csc.edu.cn/) and TU/e.
 1. If you have a design or art background, portfolio of your design or artwork.

If these documents are too big to be attached to an email, you are advised to simply send in a link to a single online ZIP file that contains all the documents.

== Deadlines ==
Please notice the deadlines: '''January 31, 2024 at TU/e'''; Please check the CSC website http://www.csc.edu.cn/ for the deadline applying at CSC. For better support for your application, we would encourage you to apply as early as possible.

== For more information ==
For more information, please contact dr. Jun Hu: j.hu@tue.nl

More about research at ID, TU/e: https://www.tue.nl/en/our-university/departments/industrial-design/research/

More about the requirements in applying for the Scholarship from China Scholarship Council (CSC) for Chinese PhD candidates: http://www.csc.edu.cn
Information will be available later.

Information will be available later.

JunHu: CSC (last edited 2023-11-17 12:33:29 by JunHu)