Information about Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA) in the VEMI Lab

We are currently accepting applications for 3 new graduate students to join the lab. The funded assistantships for each project require different expertise and interest domains; please read the following descriptions carefully to determine whether you are a good fit. The lab is interdisciplinary, so students from a variety of academic backgrounds are encouraged to apply. A positive graduate experience involves a keen interest in the subject matter under study as well as a good fit with the advisor and lab culture. With respect to my advising philosophy, I am hands-on in that I will provide a lot of input and feedback about the theoretical motivation and experimental design of your research. I will challenge you to think deeply about your project(s) and will work closely with you to set out a research plan and establish realistic goals and milestones in order to complete this plan. However, I do not believe in micro-managing and am rather hands-off once I am comfortable that you have a plan and know what to do to make it happen. I work best with students who are detail oriented, ask questions, and who can work independently and enjoy taking on new challenges.  Creative problem solving is critical for designing interesting experiments. With respect to the VEMI Lab culture, we have a collegial environment where lab members frequently interact with each other and share ideas on projects or other topics of interest. I encourage students to use the lab as a centralized hub where they can assist each other with experimental design, troublesome code, data analysis, or whatever else comes up.

So you can be best informed, please read the following project descriptions, browse the pages about our lab, and explore the departmental mission and graduate requirements. More information about the department is found at http://www.spatial.umaine.edu/.

All students apply to the department through the Graduate School. As applications are processed on a rolling basis, there are no set deadlines for applying. Applications can be downloaded from the graduate school website at: http://www2.umaine.edu/graduate/.

Email: Graduate@maine.edu

All of the following assistantships offer highly competitive support, including Master's and Ph.D. stipends which are well above the UMaine graduate school averages. The assistantships also include tuition, books for the first year, a contribution toward health insurance, and conference travel to present grant-related research. In addition to the lab, departmental, and campus-wide resources, there are many attractions of the surrounding area (Maine is called "Vacationland" for a reason).

Assistantship 1:

This position relates to funding recently obtained from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on a project entitled "Multimodally encoded spatial images in sighted and blind" (with collaborators J.M. Loomis, UCSB and R.L. Klatzky, CMU). The project investigates how spatial information from different inputs is represented in memory and processed in the brain. Students will conduct behavioral studies comparing spatial learning and the building up of spatial images (working memory representations of 3-D space) from vision, touch, 3-D audio, and spatial language. Some of the research methodologies we will use include psychophysical approaches, virtual environment technology, and cognitive techniques. Multimodal spatial cognition is a topic area of growing interest across several disciplines and this project affords a student the possibility to make important contributions in the areas of functional equivalence and multisensory information processing. This work may also influence the design of multimodal interfaces. Thus, cross-talk with other more applied projects in the lab is encouraged. A strong background in Experimental Psychology / Cognitive Science is important for students interested in this assistantship.

We have two funded projects looking at various aspects of how people learn and navigate indoor spaces and the development of technologies to support these endeavors. Whereas GPS is useful for providing where-am-I information, route guidance, or access to surrounding locations of interest when traveling outside, there is no equivalent technology or databases for conveying this information when navigating indoor environments.

Assistantship 2:

This assistantship relates to a recent project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) entitled "Information integration and human interaction for indoor and outdoor spaces" (in collaboration with M. Worboys, UMaine). The project investigates the best user interface for a visually-based (or multimodal) navigation system for providing seamless indoor/outdoor navigation assistance on a portable device like a cell phone. This is an exciting challenge as environmental information, data structures, technology aids, and navigation behavior differs for outdoor (O) and indoor (I) spaces. There is little research on how a system would bridge the O/I gap to provide seamless navigation in and across both types of environments using a unified spatial model and computing platform. This project will involve behavioral experiments to determine the best user interface for a portable system, and interface design and testing of different visual displays. It will incorporate virtual indoor and outdoor environments and their physical analogs.

Assistantship 3:

This position relates to a project funded by the NSF entitled "Cyber Enhancement of Spatial Cognition for the Visually Impaired" (with collaborators K. Daniilidis, UPenn; S. Roumeliotis, UMN; and R. Manduchi, UCSC). This project deals with basic questions about determining the information requirements for efficient spatial learning and navigation without vision, and usability research with non-visual, multimodal interfaces supporting navigation of real and virtual environments. This work, in collaboration with other project colleagues, aims to develop an infrastructure independent, autonomous system for supporting indoor navigation based on non-visual environmental access and guidance using 3-D audio, haptic cues, and speech-based descriptions.

Candidates for assistantships 2 and 3 will be working extensively with virtual environment technology as an experimental testbed. Students will be involved with the design of multimodal interfaces as well as conducting usability testing with blind and sighted participants. These positions require technical skills and are best suited for people with backgrounds in disciplines such as computer science, mechanical or electrical engineering, cognitive psychology, cognitive science, or behavioral geography. The positions require programming experience (or a willingness to learn our experimental software if a strong programming background is lacking). The heart of our VR system is the Vizard 3D rendering application, which is based on the Python programming language. Most of the experiments will require you to write Python scripts in Vizard (www.worldviz.com), which allows for the coordination of experimental trials, sequences of user input/output behavior and capturing and logging data from the position and inertial trackers. Knowledge of other languages, such as C++, will be useful if you do not currently have a strong Python background. Knowledge of Matlab, databases, and basic GIS would also be a benefit.

Interested candidates should send a cover letter and CV to Dr. Nicholas Giudice. In the cover letter, please specify what assistantship you are most interested in and why you believe you would be a good fit for this position.