[visionlist] PhD positions available in Monica Gori’s Lab – IIT, Genoa (Italy)

[Monica Gori]

Two fully founded PhD stipends (3 years) are available at the Unit for the Visually Impaired People headed by Dr. Monica Gori (IIT - Italian Institute of Technology - https://www.iit.it/it/research/lines/unit-for-visually-impaired-people )

*** Theme 8. FROM SCIENCE TO TECHNOLOGY FOR LEARNING SKILLS IN CHILDREN***
Technologies supporting smart and personalized inclusion of persons with sensory and motor disabilities is one of the big societal challenges our society. Unit for Visually Impaired People (IIT) is looking for a PhD in the field of multisensory development in young children and adults with visual disability.

The goal of the project is to develop technologies to support the inclusion of adults
and children with visual disabilities through:
• The development of a new set of devices to rehabilitate spatial cognition, mobility and social interaction of children and adults with visual deficits through natural sensory-motor associations.
• The demonstration and the validation of the technology through user, experimental and clinical studies.

Requirements:
The PhD student will be involved in doing psychophysical experiments with children and to help in the development of device from the electronic and software point of view. A background in electronic engineering, basic neuroscience, and programming skills are required.

*** Theme 9. CORTICAL MECHANISMS OF MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS WITH AND WITHOUT VISUAL DISABILITY***
The human brain is highly plastic, able to modify its own structure and functions to adapt to changes within the body or in the external environment. We have recently demonstrated that the absence of one sensory modality (such as vision) impacts on the development of other sensory modalities (such as audition), resulting in a form of cross-modal impairment.

The goals of this PhD theme are:
• studying multisensory integration development in children
• studying how multisensory integration develops in absence of visual input
• investigate the neural mechanisms that subserve the cross-modal development with EEG technique.

Requirements:
The PhD student will be involved in doing psychophysical and EEG experiments with children and adults with and without disabilities. A background in EEG, neuroscience, psychophysics and programming skills are required.

The ** DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION IS JUNE 12, 2018, NOON (Italian time) **

Research themes are available within the curriculum COGNITIVE ROBOTICS, COGNITION AND INTERACTIONS TECHNOLOGIES.
To apply please visit:
https://www.iit.it/phd-school/phd-school-genoa

The main aim of the unit is to identify spatial impairments possibly conditioning the life of children and adults with and without visual disability, with the ultimate goal to develop new technological solutions suitable since the first years of life to overcome impairments and enhance learning skills.

In particular the focus of the group is:
i) to investigate how integration between sensory and motor signals develops during childhood and identify solutions (technologies and rehabilitation procedures)
ii) to enhance the sensorimotor abilities necessary to orient and move in space, to communicate, to access everyday information and, therefore, to interact in social contexts
iii) testing and validating with human-centered techniques the devices (friendly and ergonomic) developed by considering social and clinical context

More infos about the lab here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiSsDLUS_UQ
Please contact monica.gori at iit.it<mailto:monica.gori at iit.it> for further questions.
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