PhD Studentship: Enhancing Human-Robot Interaction: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Emotional Intelligence in Robotics

This PhD research focuses on Emotional Intelligence (EI) in robotics, with an end goal of enhancing Human Robot Interaction(HRI).

Achieving this requires a multidisciplinary approach involving robotics, psychology, automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, sound analysis, computer vision, and machine learning. Despite substantial progress in this area, challenges remain in accurately recognising emotions and understanding the context in which they occur. 

The PhD research will mainly focus on using multimodal data, including visual, auditory, biometric data amongst other types of sensory data with an aim of addressing the following issues:

• Improving the accuracy of human emotion recognition using facial expressions and emotional speech analysis
• Facial Emotion Recognition: Developing algorithms to detect and interpret facial expressions while accounting for factors like environment, lighting, cultural background, human presence and type of conversation.
• Speech Emotion Recognition: Enhancing the recognition of emotions in speech, overcoming challenges like vocal variation, Linguistic markers, and background noise.
• Understanding the emotional context, such as social norms and environmental factors.
• Developing algorithms that can convey emotions through visual expressions on screens or other displays in a way that feels natural and believable to humans. This includes creating lifelike facial expressions, eye movements, and other visual cues that align with the robot's emotional state. The challenge lies in ensuring these expressions are not only visually accurate but also contextually appropriate, matching the emotions detected in the human user and the interaction.

Primary supervisor: Mohamad Saada

Entry requirements:

• Applicants will normally need to hold, or expect to gain, at least a 2:1 degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Engineering, or an appropriate Master’s degree.
• Expertise or skills in the following technical areas is desirable:
• Machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and speech processing for emotion recognition and multimodal data integration.
• Programming (ideally python or C++) and some familiarity with robotics related frameworks, hardware and tools (e.g., ROS, RGBDs, SBCs, SOCs, etc.).
• Some experience in empirical research, algorithm development, and data analysis.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving abilities to address challenges within this research.

English language requirements:

Applicants must meet the minimum English language requirements. Further details are available on the International website.

Funding information:

The studentship is for 3 years full-time equivalent and provides a tax-free stipend of £19,237 per annum for the duration of the studentship plus university tuition fees.

Please note that studentships will be awarded on a competitive basis to applicants who have applied to this project and other advertised projects starting with advert reference ‘SCI25-’ in the School of Science. Successful candidates will be informed during April 2025.

How to Apply:

All applications should be made online via the above ‘Apply’ button. Under programme name, select ‘Computer Science’. Please quote the advertised reference number: ‘SCI25-MS’ in your application. 

To avoid delays in processing your application, please ensure that you submit a CV and the minimum supporting documents. 

The following selection criteria will be used by academic schools to help them make a decision on your application.

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