Category Archives: PhD

New PhD vacancies open February

Academic, Announcements, archaeology, augmented reality, Digital Humanities, heritage, PhD, serious games, vacancies, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation,

In February I will have 2 PhD projects open for candidates to apply at this new (merged) Adelaide University- Filter “History, Heritage and Archaeology”

https://adelaideuni.edu.au/research/research-degrees/research-projects/

Radical Co-Design for Filtered Affective Digital Heritage via AR and WebXR

This project explores how technology like Augmented Reality (AR) and WebXR can enhance visitor engagement with Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM), particularly dark tourism sites such as prisons, through game design and storytelling. The project focuses on Adelaide Gaol, one of Australia’s oldest colonial buildings. By involving volunteer communities and former prisoners’ families in the radical co-design process, the research aims to develop AR-based experiences that convey personal narratives that can be filtered and tailored to visitors. Key research questions explore utilising radical co-design for dark tourism sites, whether escape-room style game design enhances engagement and how effectively content can be personalised. The project will use low-cost, open-access tools throughout, and will generate new insights applicable across the GLAM and tourism sectors.

Game Prototyping for Museums and Galleries

This project will examine the development and design of game prototypes for use in museums and galleries with content specialists to create interactive, augmented, or immersive exhibitions and/or the evaluation of these exhibitions and works. A number of methods may be considered and investigated, including Figma, ShapesXR, Blueprints, physical game demos, and other methods. Possible outcomes of the project include non-traditional research outputs as well as contributions to theoretical disciplinary knowledge.

PhD scholarship: Heritage Tours (Adelaide)

Academic, Announcements, augmented reality, heritage, job, PhD, Postgraduate Scholarship, virtual heritage

Partnering with the Adelaide Gaol, we are looking for a PhD student to explore a project that looks at tourism of places with challenging histories in respectful and personalised ways using Augmented Reality. 

You need to be eligible to complete a PhD to apply and you can find the eligibility requirements link at the bottom of the UniSA Project Page.

Project stipend is $32,500 a year and the project supervisors are Associate Professor Ear Zow Digital, Dr. Susanah Emery and Dr. Michele Jarldorn.

PhD Opportunity #2: Escape Room Design

PhD, visualisation, ,

PhD study opportunity* at the University of South Australia (in Adelaide, South Australia) https://unisa.edu.au/research/degrees/participatory-museum-game-design

“ln this project-based research degree, you will investigate and design learning kits for museums and communities and small classes to create escape rooms (physical or hybrid or via a game engine) to help students develop their own learning by designing escape rooms for others. “

*Sorry, there are no degree fees for locals but there is also no scholarship funding attached to this one.

PhD Opportunity: Audio-Augmented Reality

Academic, digital heritage, game, heritage, PhD, serious games, virtual heritage, , , , ,

PhD study opportunity* at the University of South Australia (in Adelaide, South Australia) https://unisa.edu.au/research/degrees/leveraging-audio-augmented-reality

“lead tourists around past & present live music hotspots & live music history locations of Adelaide with directed thematic or user-driven audio tours”

*Sorry, there are no degree fees for locals but there is also no scholarship funding attached to this one.

PhD Project Call, no fees

Announcements, augmented reality, Digital Humanities, game, job, PhD, serious games, Virtual Reality, visualisation, , , , , , ,

PHD project in Adelaide, no scholarship but no fees, with cool museum partner (https://mod.org.au):

The successful candidate will investigate and design learning kits for museums, communities and small classes to create escape rooms either physical or hybrid, or via a game engine. The kit will provide resources and interaction strategies to help budding escape room designers plan escape rooms for their compatriots, and in doing so learn for themselves how to create tricky interactive puzzles, quizzes and physical riddles based on principles in science, mathematics or history. The instructions will be either via virtual examples through a game engine or game engine exporting to VR, or via online instruction videos using the latest instructional video expertise.

Successful completion of the project will provide you with experience in boardgame, physical escape room, digital game or VR escape room design including scripting, prototyping, digital modelling, and potentially animation experience. As well as a background in human-computer interaction and education. Thus, you will be provided with the skills for a successful and exciting research or industry career in a diverse range of areas. 

What you’ll do

In this project-based research degree, you will review, design and evaluate design resources (physical and digital) for the creation of escape rooms by design students.

You will engage and partner with MOD. staff and deploy IVE, VR and AR equipment, as well as run and evaluate escape room design workshops.

Where you’ll be based

You will be based at UniSA Creative, incorporating the South Australian School of Art, which brings together the disciplines of architecture, planning, art and design, journalism, communication and media, film and television and the creative industries to produce flexible graduates with multidisciplinary capabilities. Our research explores the complexities of the world around us. We engage in future-focused, cross-disciplinary research and consultancy to produce inspired solutions that are human-centred and sustainable.  

https://www.unisa.edu.au/research/degrees/designing-an-escape-room-toolkit

PhD scholarship available

Announcements, augmented reality, HCI, heritage, PhD, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation, ,
A Framework for Developing Educational Games in and with Australian Museums

This PhD project focuses on reviewing challenges and successes in Australian museums (MOD, National Maritime Museum and the South Australian Museum) with the aim to develop a participatory open-ended game framework to encourage greater engagement, wider audiences, and increased visitation, as well as reuse of content, data, and related media.

The successful candidate will focus on either the evaluation and framework based on interviews, surveys and workshops with museum experts, or on developing overall game mechanics examples (game prototypes) showcasing best practice game techniques for showcasing Australian museum content, promoting reuse.

This project is funded for reasonable research expenses. Additionally, a living allowance scholarship of $28,854 per annum is available to Australian and New Zealand citizens, and permanent residents of Australia, including permanent humanitarian visa holders. A fee-offset or waiver for the standard term of the program is also included. For full terms and benefits of the scholarship please refer to our scholarship information.

URL here.

3D, Maps and DBPedia

3D and game editors, Academic, Announcements, archaeology, Digital Humanities, infrastructure, Linked Open Data, PhD, visualisation, Web GIS

The UNESCO Chair of Cultural Heritage and Visualisation (10/2016 – 09/2020) project at https://unesco-chv.curtin.edu.au will be shut down in June 2022.

Before then feel free to look at the online Australian map platform with 3D models, Linked Open Data, DBpedia, open data etc… https://unesco-chv.curtin.edu.au/mapplatform but please allow 20-30 seconds for some of the larger 3D models to load.

It was developed for Ikrom Nishanbaev’s PhD project, (supervised with Dr David McMeekin), the thesis by publication has just been successfully reviewed.

Thank you to Ikrom, David, the GIS and cultural heritage people who provided feedback and the reviewers.

Interesting to note Ikrom started the PhD in humanities then when I left Curtin University he moved to Science and Engineering. So it is arguably a truly interdisciplinary Digital Humanities project.

One of his papers received an award. The papers are listed at:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vmha0GcAAAAJ&hl=en

PhD scholarships at UniSA in South Australia

Announcements, Digital Humanities, heritage, job, PhD, serious games

There are two PhD scholarships at the University of South Australia, in Built Environment and Design, that may interest Australian or NZ citizens or Australian permanent residents:

https://www.unisa.edu.au/research/degrees/research-projects/#design-thinking-for-supporting-sustainable-bu

Details of the supervisors are listed against the projects.

No, I am not a supervisor for either, I am currently helping PhD students at my last university submit their theses (two passed so far, three to go!)

To offer a PhD scholarship-supported project at UniSA, I have to propose and have accepted a project, then students can apply. For self-funded PhD study, students can apply straight away.

New Open-access Article on Mixed Reality

Academic, Digital Humanities, Open Access, PhD, publication, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, , , , ,

A new open-access article by Mr Mafkereseb Bekele, a PhD student at Curtin University and his three supervisors (myself, Dr David McMeekin and Dr Hafizur Rahaman): “The Influence of Collaborative and Multi-Modal Mixed Reality: Cultural Learning in Virtual Heritage” https://mdpi.com/1390992#mdpimti via @MDPIOpenAccess

Studies in the virtual heritage (VH) domain identify collaboration (social interaction), engagement, and a contextual relationship as key elements of interaction design that influence users’ experience and cultural learning in VH applications. The purpose of this study is to validate whether collaboration (social interaction), engaging experience, and a contextual relationship enhance cultural learning in a collaborative and multi-modal mixed reality (MR) heritage environment. To this end, we have designed and implemented a cloud-based collaborative and multi-modal MR application aiming at enhancing user experience and cultural learning in museums. A conceptual model was proposed based on collaboration, engagement, and relationship in the context of MR experience. The MR application was then evaluated at the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum by experts, archaeologists, and curators from the gallery and the Western Australian Museum. Questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and observation were used to collect data. The results suggest that integrating collaborative and multi-modal interaction methods with MR technology facilitates enhanced cultural learning in VH.

Keywords: mixed reality; virtual heritage; collaborative interaction; multi-modal interaction; engagement; cultural learning

Playing With The Past 2nd ed.

Academic, archaeology, Architecture, Book, Digital Humanities, PhD,

Are second editions of specialist academic books worth the rewrite? Springer asked me to consider a second edition of Playing With the Past (https://lnkd.in/gXYH5Uy), as 10,000 chapters have been downloaded..but it requires some work to update it.

Apparently, 20% can be rewritten but as most of the main chapters were written in 2003-4, updated before publication in 2011, to update to 2021 will be quite some work. There weren’t so many books and papers in the area when I started! On the other hand it is an opportunity to review what I was trying to determine in 2001-2004 during my PhD candidature. And I would love to replace the original cover. Decisions, decisions!

PhD scholarship-University of York and Museum of London

Announcements, archaeology, digital heritage, PhD, virtual heritage

PhD Studentship: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership PhD in Archaeology: Digital Recording, Fieldwork and Craft at Museum of London Archaeology

Anticipated start date for project: 1 October 2020

Closing date for applications: 1 May 2020 (was 1 April)

(interviews w/c 17 May)

Project description:

This Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) PhD, Digital Recording, Fieldwork and Craft at MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) investigates the impact of digital methods on the documentation, interpretation, publication, and dissemination in archaeological knowledge production. The proposed PhD will evaluate digital recording strategies for commercial archaeological units, using MOLA as a primary case study and with consultation from the Archaeology Data Service. Previous studies of digital recording have focussed on academic projects that do not have the scope, impact or challenges of the large, ongoing projects such as those performed regularly at MOLA. This research also examines the process of how archaeologists interpret remains, understand the past and how we may better transmit this understanding to others. Work in this area is emerging and applicable to broader questions of learning.

Potential research questions:

  • Do digital recording strategies impact the interpretation of archaeological remains?
  • Can digital recording be used to improve working conditions and enskilling of archaeologists?
  • How does data captured in the field feed into collaborative analysis projects that are already primarily digital?
  • How do digital recording methods in the field sit within the context of the wider use of digital data capture by finds and environmental specialists?
  • Can digital recording strategies enable broader public engagement, reuse or creative synergies outside of the traditional archaeological audience?

These are potential research questions for the student to undertake; the successful applicant will be able to shape the PhD with the support of the student’s supervisors.

This project will be jointly supervised by Dr Colleen Morgan (University of York) and Louise Fowler (MOLA). The student will be expected to spend time at both York and MOLA, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK.

Funding notes: 

AHRC CDP doctoral training grants fund full-time studentships for 45 months (or part-time equivalent). The studentship has the possibility of being extended for an additional 3 months to provide professional development opportunities, or up to 3 months of funding may be used to pay for the costs the student might incur in taking up professional development opportunities.

The studentship covers  (i) a tax-free annual stipend at the standard Research Council rate (£15,285 for 2020-2021), (ii) an allowance of £1000/year to enable collaboration with the partner organisation (as they are based in London), (iii) an additional allowance of £1000/year for expenses incurred in undertaking research, and (iv) tuition fees at the UK/EU rate.

Entry requirements: Students with, or expecting to gain, at least an Upper Second Class Honours degree, or equivalent, are invited to apply. The interdisciplinary nature of this research project means that we welcome applications from students with backgrounds in any relevant subject that provides the necessary skills, knowledge and experience for the project, including archaeology, user-experience design and computing, anthropology, and digital sociology. We endeavour to be inclusive and flexible regarding applicants with caring obligations, disabilities and other considerations.

Nationality restriction: 

Candidates must have a relevant connection with the UK to qualify for a full AHRC award, i.e. they must have been ordinarily resident in the UK throughout the three-year period preceding the date of application, or have settled status in the UK. Non-EU candidates who have not been ordinarily resident in the UK for the last three years, or who were resident wholly or mainly for the purposes of education, are not eligible to apply.

Candidates from EU countries are eligible for full awards if they have been resident in the UK, for education or other purposes, for at least three years prior to the start of their programme. Candidates from EU countries who have not resided in the UK for three years prior to the start of their programme will normally be eligible for a fees-only award.

The University is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive community – a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed on merit. We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, campus facilities and services to support staff from different backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from BAME, LGBTQ+ and disabled candidates, who are currently under-represented within the University of York in Archaeology.

How to apply:

Application is by covering letter, CV and online application form, and should be made through the University of York online application system.

Please read the ‘How to apply’ tab before submitting your application: http://www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/postgraduate-study/research-postgrads/application/

Further Enquiries

For further enquiries, please contact Colleen Morgan (colleen.morgan@york.ac.uk).

Unable to take on new students or staff

Academic, Announcements, job, PhD, Postdoc

Hello I am regularly receiving requests for postgraduate supervision or Postdocs. Apart from one current PhD scholarship which was technically closed (but I am still considering applications), for the foreseeable future I am currently unable to take on new students, research staff or postdocs, I am sorry for this. Best of luck with your applications.

(NB I took the above photo  of Alvar Aalto’s home office in Helsinki, it is not my office).

 

PhD Scholarships for S American Students

Announcements, PhD, , ,

South American students wishing to study for a PhD at Curtin or 3 other Australian technical universities please read this

https://www.atn.edu.au/scholarships-grants/atn-latam-scholarships/

Applicants must be a citizen of: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru or Uruguay.

Applications close 31 January 2019.

ATN-South American Scholarships

The Australian Technology Network (ATN) is pleased to announce the ATN-LATAM Research Scholarship Scheme.

This will provide a minimum of 10 scholarships for eligible applicants to undertake PhD research at one of the four ATN universities in Australia. These are Curtin University, University of South Australia, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and RMIT University.

The scholarship provides:

  • Full research tuition fee scholarship for 3 years with possible extension to 3.5 years
  • Stipend valued at a minimum of AUD 30,000 per year, for 3 years with possible extension to 3.5 years
  • Contribution to relocation costs to Australia
  • Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) insurance

Awardees must be able to commence studies in 2019

Eligibility

Applicants must be a citizen of one of the following countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru or Uruguay.

When applying to your University of choice, please ensure you mention this scheme.

Applications close 31 January 2019.

The Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN) brings together five of the most innovative and enterprising universities in Australia and is recognised as a global leader of a new generation of universities focused on industry collaboration, real-world research with real-world impact and produce work-ready graduates to become global thinkers in business and the community.

UniversityCityResearch Degree Admission InformationResearch Scholarship Information
Curtin University PerthFind more information hereFind more information here
RMITMelbourneFind more information hereFind more information here
UniSAAdelaideFind more information hereFind more information here
UTSSydneyFind more information hereFind more information here

PhD Scholarships at Curtin University

archaeology, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, job, Open Access, PhD, respositories, virtual heritage, visualisation

The call for PhD scholarships (UNESCO Cultural Heritage and Visualisation) at Humanities, Curtin University, has now been extended to 17 October 2016. See https://scholarships.curtin.edu.au/scholarships/scholarship.cfm?id=2782.0

I can be contacted for enquiries or submission but I am away from 1-16 October so email replies may be slow.

 

PhD Scholarships-Cultural Heritage & Visualisation

3D and game editors, Announcements, archaeology, Architecture, Conference, Digital Humanities, PhD, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation, , , , , ,

There are 2 PhD scholarships now open at Curtin University, for students interested in 3D models of heritage sites, community participation, heritage issues and preservation of the 3D models themselves:

http://scholarships.curtin.edu.au/scholarships/scholarship.cfm?id=2782.0

 

UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage & Visualisation at Curtin University of Technology

Announcements, archaeology, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, heritage, PhD, Postdoc, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation, ,

Just received this by email, last night:

Establishment of a UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Visualisation at Curtin University of Technology. Third Parties: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

So the agreement is signed and I will hear from Human Resources regards the provision of two PhD students and a contracted Research Fellow. The majority of their work will be in providing workflows and tutorials and repository guidelines for the storage and deployment and educational use of 3D heritage models/site simulations. I will have to find other avenues of funding for my major line of research, game-like simulation design of heritage sites and historical events and processes.

The specific objectives of this Chair are to:

  • create a Cultural Heritage and Visualisation network to use and advise on 3D models of World Heritage Sites, as well as to show how 3D models can be employed in teaching and research;
  • build capacity through community workshops and learning materials and distribute the teaching resources digitally at no cost to the end user, as well as train research students, post-doctorate scholars and visiting fellows;
  • recommend long-term archive guidelines and ways of linking 30 models to scholarly publications and related scholarly resources and infrastructures;
  • disseminate the results of research activities at conferences and workshops, via online papers, applications and learning materials; and,
  • cooperate closely with UNESCO on relevant programmes and activities, as well as with other relevant UNESCO Chairs.

Centres that engage in virtual heritage, archaeology and games research

heritage, PhD, Postdoc, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality

I get asked this by people quite often and while this is by no means a definitive list, it might help those interested in game-focussed archaeology/heritage PhD opportunities and postdocs:

USA:

Europe:

Asia-Pacific:

As I said, this is by no means a definitive list (and very English language-biased) but I have noticed the above often promote PHD and Postdoc opportunities. I will have some opportunities in PhD positions and a postdoc that I will put on this site, hopefully before June.

CAA UK 2013: Game Issues for Scholarly Discourse or for Public Understanding

Conference, Digital Humanities, game, PhD, slides, virtual heritage, , , ,

I just gave a paper via Google hangout to CAU UK 2013 (Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology – UK Conference 22nd – 23rd February, 2013) in London.

Fullscreen Powerpoint did not seem to work but PDF did. Hmm.

I see some of the problems in Virtual Heritage//Digital Archaeology as how to

  • involve crowdsourcing
  • simulate ritual
  • design suitable and contextual interaction
  • design and evaluate meaningful learning
  • build templates so communities can develop their own interactive 3D environments
  • provide for archaeological scholars and the general public (separate environments, separate levels of detail, separate narratives?)

I forgot to say:

  • You can download related (free) book chapters in the ETC Press Game Mods book here.
  • Aarhus University has a PhD scholarship on Digital Heritage and Virtual Culture for those interested, very lucrative funding!
  • We hope to have a cultural heritage workshop in June on related issues.
  • End of October, Digital Heritage 2013, a vast collection of heritage conferences, will take place in Marseilles.
  • I have a book project on this and very happy to field suggestions about how game studies and game environments can advance to help virtual heritage and digital archaeology.

UPDATE: The slides and audio commentary are online at http://www.lparchaeology.com/caauk/game-issues-for-scholarly-discourse-or-for-public-understanding/

They are also at http://dougsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/game-issues-for-scholarly-discourse-or-for-public-understanding/

I cannot bring myself to listen to my own voice for any length of time (is that what I sound like, at least I did not try to sing) but a big thank you to the organizers.

PhD in DIGITAL HERITAGE AND VIRTUAL CULTURE (4+4 OR 5+3) Aarhus University

Academic, Announcements, Digital Humanities, PhD, virtual heritage, , , , ,

Link http://talent.au.dk/phd/arts/open-calls/phd-call-116/

The Graduate School of Arts, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University invites applications for a PhD scholarship in Digital Heritage and Virtual Culture. This scholarship is available as of 1 September 2013 for a period of up to three years (5+3) or up to four years (4+4). Candidates who are awarded the scholarship must commence their PhD programme on 1 September 2013.
Digitized and digital resources with archival institutions such as museums, libraries and research institutions are increasingly being made accessible for research, educational and public use and interaction. Digital resources and data may be both cultural heritage and everyday culture resources, and making such resources accessible and enriching them for innovative research, educational and public use and interaction are central tasks of the digital humanities.
The Danish Digital Humanities Lab (DIGHUMLAB DK), anchored at Aarhus University, is a national consortium engaged in digital humanities projects and in developing digital research infrastructures for the humanities and social sciences. With interdisciplinarity and collaborative research at the core of our vision, DIGHUMLAB can offer the PhD scholar collaborative networks with AU research centres (eg Centre for Advanced Visualization and Interaction, Centre for Participatory IT) and with interdisciplinary research environments including Smart Aarhus and the university’s research programmes in digital design, information science, media studies, archaeology, museology, anthropology and experience economy, as well as with international research networks and projects.
Proposals for PhD projects should focus on research in and development of methods, tools and applications for production, representation and dissemination of digital heritage and virtual culture, and may involve applied research in the development and deployment of GIS-based projects, digital heritage archives, 3D visualizations, interactive digital simulations, design or evaluation of cultural simulations in virtual environments, or game-based learning for digital archaeology and interactive history projects.
There is also a related research application to set up a network of digital heritage research, which Aarhus University is pursuing with other leading European Universities. If that grant is successful, the applicant may work as part of this new international network in digital heritage, or the research could be fractionally combined with the PhD scholarship in Heritage Studies.
Application deadline: 15 March 2013 at 23:59 Reference No: 2013-218/1-116