15 PhD research positions in the field of virtual characters simulation and animation

CLIPE: CREATING LIVELY INTERACTIVE POPULATED ENVIRONMENTS

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Innovative Training Networks (ITN)

Horizon 2020 (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019)

 

The primary objective of CLIPE is to train a generation of innovators and researchers in the field of virtual characters simulation and animation. Advances in technology are pushing towards making VR/AR worlds a daily experience. Whilst virtual characters are an important component of these worlds, bringing them to life and giving them interaction and communication abilities requires highly specialized programming combined with artistic skills, and considerable investments: millions spent on countless coders and designers to develop video-games is a typical example. The research objective of CLIPE is to design the next-generation of VR-ready characters. CLIPE is addressing the most important current aspects of the problem, making the characters capable of:

  • behaving more naturally;
  • interacting with real users sharing a virtual experience with them;
  • being more intuitively and extensively controllable for virtual worlds designers.

To meet our objectives, the CLIPE consortium gathers some of the main European actors in the field of VR/AR, computer graphics, computer animation, psychology and perception. CLIPE also extends its partnership to key industrial actors of populated virtual worlds, giving students the ability to explore new application fields and start collaborations beyond academia.


BENEFITS

  • A multidisciplinary research network with the possibility to work in different research centres and top industrial partners across Europe.
  • Full time PhD scholarships for 3 years with a very competitive (gross) salary comprising of: mobility allowance of 600 EUR/month, family allowance of 500 EUR/month (depending on family status) in addition to living allowance of 3,270 EUR/month.

 

Please note that the total gross salary amount will be in line with EU requirements, which may vary between countries. For more information, please contact the relevant contact person for each position, as indicated in the table below.

  • The successful candidates will be exposed to different industry requirements through their placements/internships in world-renowned companies (industrial partners), such as BBC, UBER, Treedy’s, Amazon Development Center, etc.

 

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

  • not to have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country where the PhD takes place, for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date;
  • be in the first 4 years of their research career and not have a doctoral degree (The 4 years are measured from the date when the applicant obtained the degree which would formally entitle him/her to embark on a PhD);
  • have a Master's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or Engineering (or an equivalent diploma allowing them to pursue a PhD);
  • excellent/ good oral and written English language skills (if English is not his/her first language);
  • good skills in scientific writing and results presentation.

 

If you fulfil the eligibility requirements, please contact us via email as soon as possible (contact details per institution are shown below). Please, also attach a detailed Curriculum Vitae including undergraduate/ postgraduate degree results and a list of publications (if any).

 

Starting date is by September 2020.

For more information about the project, please visit: http://clipe-itn.eu/  and check the specific requirements and deadlines per institution at: https://www.clipe-itn.eu/announcements

 

LIST OF POSITIONS AND CONTACT PERSON

Fellow

Host institution (Country)

Contact person

Supervisor

Title

ESR1

University of Cyprus (Cyprus)

Yiorgos Chrysanthou yiorgos@cs.ucy.ac.cy 

Yiorgos Chrysanthou

Motion retargeting with stylistic control

ESR2

University of Cyprus (Cyprus)

Yiorgos Chrysanthou yiorgos@cs.ucy.ac.cy 

&

Marios Avraamides

marios@silversky3d.com 

Y.Chrysanthou & 

M.Avraamides

Text based control for characters and small groups

ESR3

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

(Spain)

Nuria Pelechano npelechano@cs.upc.edu 

N.Pelechano & G.Patow

Procedural modelling of Crowd Simulation

ESR4

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

(Spain)

Nuria Pelechano npelechano@cs.upc.edu 

N.Pelechano

& C.Andújar

Real Time animation synthesis

ESR5

Inria

(France)

Julien Pettré 

julien.pettre@inria.fr 

J. Pettré
& L. Hoyet

Attention-driven characters for populating immersive environments

ESR6

Inria

(France)

Julien Pettré julien.pettre@inria.fr 

L. Hoyet
& J. Pettré

Perceptually-driven simulation & animation for expressive crowds

ESR7

University College London (United Kingdom)

Anthony Steed a.steed@ucl.ac.uk 

A. Steed

Interaction by demonstration

ESR8

University College London (United Kingdom)

Anthony Steed a.steed@ucl.ac.uk 

A. Steed

Social Evaluation

ESR9

Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

Carol O'Sullivan carol.osullivan@scss.tcd.ie 

C.O’Sullivan

Physiology driven variation of human animation based on body type, age & ability

ESR10

Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

Carol O'Sullivan carol.osullivan@scss.tcd.ie 

C.O’Sullivan

Immersive characters for Mixed Reality Scenes

ESR11

Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Germany)

M. Black

apply-clipe@tuebingen.mpg.de

M. Black

Image/video-based holistic modeling for animation of body, face, hands, feet, clothing and interaction

ESR12

Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Germany)

M. Black

apply-clipe@tuebingen.mpg.de 

M. Black

Integrated statistical models for animation of face, hands and body

ESR13

KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (Sweden)

Christopher Peters  chpeters@kth.se 

C.Peters &

J. Beskow

Adaptive communicative social behaviours for virtual characters in small conversational groups

ESR14

Ecole Polytechnique (France)

Marie-Paule Cani

marie-paule.cani@polytechnique.edu 

MP. Cani
& J. Pettré

Scenario and interaction-ready agents

ESR15

Ecole Polytechnique (France)

Marie-Paule Cani

marie-paule.cani@polytechnique.edu  

MP. Cani &

D. Rohmer

Groups of humans in natural environments: a multi-scale approach