2022-04628 – Post-Doctoral Research Visit F/M [POSTDOC2022-BIOVISION] Postdoctoral Fellow Position at Inria on Visual Perception Experiments in Virtual Reality

Contract type : Fixed-term contract
Level of qualifications required : PhD or equivalent
Fonction : Post-Doctoral Research Visit

About the research centre or Inria department

The Inria Université Côte d’Azur center counts 36 research teams as well as 7 support departments. The center’s staff (about 500 people including 320 Inria employees) is made up of scientists of different nationalities (250 foreigners of 50 nationalities), engineers, technicians and administrative staff. 1/3 of the staff are civil servants, the others are contractual agents. The majority of the center’s research teams are located in Sophia Antipolis and Nice in the Alpes-Maritimes. Four teams are based in Montpellier and two teams are hosted in Bologna in Italy and Athens. The Center is a founding member of Université Côte d’Azur and partner of the I-site MUSE supported by the University of Montpellier.

Context

As part of a new R&D project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), the Inria BIOVISION team (https://team.inria.fr/biovision) is looking to recruit a postdoctoral researcher to conduct a visual perception experiment in Virtual Reality using a wholly new and open-source PTVR environment (https://ptvr.inria.fr) developed by the consortium (expected release date: September 2022).

No need to know anything about Unity. Just come with some good practice of Python and some ideas of experiments you would like to make in 3D.

Our goal is to give you the possibility to join us to develop your experiment in 3D, share together our expertise, and see how PTVR could help you address new scientific questions that require 3D environments. To reach your objectives, you will be supported by the project coordinators (P. Kornprobst – Inria, and E. Castet – CNRS) and the group of PTVR engineers (J.Termoz-Masson, C. Hugon, and J. Delachambre). You will be at the heart of a multidisciplinary consortium with specialists in vision, 3D and VR, game design, and cognitive sciences, thus allowing you to broaden your horizons. You will work with state-of-the-art equipment and in a dynamic and caring environment.

Assignment

You will be responsible to develop a visual perception experiment running with our PTVR environment, conduct the study with subjects, and write a paper about your findings.

Note that we voluntarily did not define the visual perception task in this job offer. Instead, we expect the task to emerge from discussions with the project’s coordinators. We have, of course, some privileged topics (e.g., low vision, aids for people with visual deficiencies, eye-tracking,  reading, attention), but these topics are not mandatory, and we are open to proposals beyond these topics.

Main activities

• Co-construct with project coordinators a visual perception experiment in 3D that could be easily implemented with PTVR
• Learn and contribute to PTVR library (code and documentation)
• Implement the experiment in PTVR (Python scripting)
• Recruit subjects and conduct experiments
• Analyze data
• Write a paper for scientific journal

Skills

Required

• You have a Ph.D. in any area related to visual perception (e.g., vision/neuroscience, cognitive/behavioral neuroscience, optometry, computer vision)
• You’re fluent in Python and may have experience in Virtual Reality
• You are curious to learn and enjoy discovering new scientific and methodological fields
• You’re excited about being part of a multidisciplinary team on an ambitious project
• You have excellent oral and written communication skills in English and an ability to communicate effectively

Appreciated

• Background or experience in Virtual Reality, Unity, C#
• Expertise with eye-tracking (hardware, data acquisition, and post-processing)
• Experience in software engineering, collaborative work, and collaborative solutions (gitlab, Trello)

Benefits package

• Subsidized meals
• Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
• Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.)
• Possibility of teleworking and flexible organization of working hours
• Professional equipment available (videoconferencing, loan of computer equipment, etc.)
• Social, cultural and sports events and activities
• Access to vocational training
• Social security coverage

Remuneration

Gross Salary: 2653 € per month

General Information

• Theme/Domain : Computational Neuroscience and Medicine
• Town/city : Sophia Antipolis
• Inria Center : CRI Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée
• Starting date : 2022-10-01
• Duration of contract : 1 year, 6 months
• Deadline to apply : 2022-04-30

Contacts

• Inria Team : BIOVISION
• Recruiter :
  Kornprobst Pierre / Kornprobst@inria.fr

The keys to success

The candidate must be keen to be involved in a collective adventure driven by a research project. We expect a systematic and rigorous candidate with a high intellectual curiosity to open up to different fields in a spirit of listening and mutual sharing of knowledge.

About Inria

Inria is the French national research institute dedicated to digital science and technology. It employs 2,600 people. Its 200 agile project teams, generally run jointly with academic partners, include more than 3,500 scientists and engineers working to meet the challenges of digital technology, often at the interface with other disciplines. The Institute also employs numerous talents in over forty different professions. 900 research support staff contribute to the preparation and development of scientific and entrepreneurial projects that have a worldwide impact.

Instruction to apply

Applications must be submitted on the Inria website. In particular, you will be asked to provide the following information:

• A cover letter (in English) where the applicant describes his/her personal motivation and relevance with respect to the requirements of the advertisement.
• A research proposal (maximum three pages) which could link your research experience to the focus of the project (developing new visual perception experiments in 3D).
• CV, certificates and diplomas.
• Transcripts and diplomas for bachelor’s-, master’s- and PhD degrees.
• Academic works – published or unpublished – that you would like to be considered in the assessment (up to 3 items).
• Name and contact information of three referees. Those references should be able to vouch for your skills, abilities, and qualifications as they relate to the job you apply for.

Defence Security :

This position is likely to be situated in a restricted area (ZRR), as defined in Decree No. 2011-1425 relating to the protection of national scientific and technical potential (PPST).Authorisation to enter an area is granted by the director of the unit, following a favourable Ministerial decision, as defined in the decree of 3 July 2012 relating to the PPST. An unfavourable Ministerial decision in respect of a position situated in a ZRR would result in the cancellation of the appointment.

Recruitment Policy :

As part of its diversity policy, all Inria positions are accessible to people with disabilities.

Warning : you must enter your e-mail address in order to save your application to Inria. Applications must be submitted online on the Inria website. Processing of applications sent from other channels is not guaranteed.

Please click here to apply.