Study level

  • PhD
  • Master of Philosophy
  • Honours
  • Vacation research experience scheme

Faculty/School

Faculty of Science

School of Computer Science

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Research centre

Supervisors

Associate Professor Alessandro Soro
Position
Associate Professor
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Science

Overview

We're seeking brilliant and highly motivated students to work on an project seeking to improve the accessibility and usability of automated vehicles for disadvantaged users.

Automated Vehicles are often touted as a solution to enable mobility for older users and people with disabilities, but these user groups are rarely included in their design. As a result, current developments are largely focused on the needs and skills of affluent, younger users, and ironically risk to further marginalise, instead of empowering, those who need them most.

This project seeks to rethink the UX of autonomous vehicles, starting from the needs, skills, and everyday experiences of ordinary people, and particularly those whose mobility is primarily at stake in the new automation revolution.

Research activities

You will conduct research under the supervision of the project chief investigators, and in collaboration with a vibrant community of students and research fellows, with a variety of skills and research interests.

The project has two main goals:

  • To conduct qualitative investigations of use cases for a automated mobility, with particular attention to the needs, skills, circumstances, and ways of learning technologies of underserved communities of users.
  • To co-design and prototype novel interfaces for autonomous vehicles, that leverage the social skills and ways of learning of real users, and that address their specific needs, expectations, and characteristics.
  • To evaluate and assess the prototypes in QUT's state of the art facilities, using combinations of real world and simulated drives, and in-vehicle interfaces based on augmented reality and internet of things.

Outcomes

We will investigate and create novel interface to support the automated mobility of people of all ages, skills, and backgrounds.

We envision a world in which mobility is a lifelong capacity, and not a privilege of the younger, wealthier, and more digitally literate.

Skills and experience

We're a multidisciplinary research team with skills and interests ranging from:
  • interaction design
  • road safety and automotive interfaces
  • 3D modelling and development
  • co-design and participatory design
  • digital fabrication
We value diversity and we're a welcoming and inclusive team. We especially welcome applications from students bringing unique perspectives, for example (but not exclusively):
  • female students
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
  • students who identify with minority groups.
The ideal applicant will have an unlimited curiosity, contagious enthusiasm, and a restless creative mind.

Scholarships

You may be eligible to apply for a research scholarship.

Explore our research scholarships

Keywords

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.