About the research centre or Inria department

The Inria Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée center counts 34 research teams as well as 8 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 virtual reality (VR) developer to strengthen its team and its ability to develop an open-source environment for cognitive science research.

This position will allow you to work on a project with a strong societal impact on visual disability. You will be at the heart of a multidisciplinary consortium with specialists in vision, 3D and VR, game design, and cognitive sciences, which will allow you to broaden your horizons.

You will work with state-of-the-art equipment and in a dynamic and caring environment.

Beyond the scientific objective of this project, this position will be an opportunity for you to immerse yourself in the world of research, discover the inner workings of a research institute, and contribute to developing the societal impact of the research carried out there.

Assignment

The engineer will be responsible for the development activities to be carried out within the framework of the ANR DEVISE (https://team.inria.fr/biovision/anr-devise). The BIOVISION team is in charge of a workpackage entitled “VR Software developments: Core HMIs and psychophysical experiments’ design”. The tasks defined in this workpackage will define the objectives of your work. You will become the team’s referent vis-à-vis the other members and developers of the consortium.

Your primary mission will be to contribute to the software development of an already existing VR platform whose foundations are well established. Two general objectives will guide your work. The first one is to provide the cognitive science community with a powerful tool to perform VR experiments. The second is to lay the foundation for new VR e-health solutions for the visually impaired by focusing on the interaction aspects.

From a technical point of view:

• You will work with HTC Vive Pro Eye helmets.
• You will use the Unity 3D game engine (C#, Unity API).
• You will contribute to the realization of communication systems between the VR helmet and the control PC to allow the operator to conduct controlled experiments in real-time. This communication will be done via a front-end interface realized in Python.
• You will work on the real-time collection of behavioral data from the VR helmet (head movements, eye tracking).

Main activities

• Assimilate the basics and understand the implementation choices of the existing code
• Contribute to the development roadmap at the project level
• Work in a team using adapted tools (git, Trello)
• Understand and analyze needs precisely
• Carry out research and development of software and hardware solutions related to the needs expressed.
• To be a force of proposal
• Realize prototypes or mock-ups
• Programming in C# / Python following best practices in software engineering
• Test and modify its code until end users validate it
• Participate in the corrective and evolutionary maintenance of the platform
• Writing documentation
• To make the code evolve according to the feedback from the first experiments.
• Write reports
• Present progress to colleagues
• Contribute to good communication between the developers of the consortium by participating in regular meetings.
• Carry out a technology watch

Skills

Required:

• Good command of Unity 3D environment, C#, and Python language
• Good knowledge of English necessary for oral and written communication
• Rigor, autonomy, and interpersonal skills for teamwork management
• Curiosity and adaptability in a multidisciplinary environment
• Listening: being able to understand requests from a non-specialist.
• Pedagogy: being able to explain one’s work and technical constraints to a non-specialist.

Appreciated:

• Knowledge in procedural graphics generation (e.g., shaders)
• Experience in video game development (game design, level design)
• Experience with real-time measurement and processing of eye movements

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 (after 6 months of employment) 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

• From 2632 euros gross monthly (according to degree and experience)
• 12-months working contract renewable for 15 months

Additional Info:

• Contract type : Fixed-term contract
• Renewable contract : Oui
• Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent
• Other valued qualifications : School of engineering or computer science with specialization in virtual reality / Game Programmer / Thesis around virtual reality
• Fonction : Temporary scientific engineer
• Level of experience : From 3 to 5 years

Please click here to apply.