Fully funded PhD position, University of Genoa, Italy – Binocular visuomotor systems

Applications are invited for one full-time PhD studentship (with scholarship) for a period of 3 years, at “The Physical Structure of Perception and Computation” (PSPC) lab of the Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics, and System Engineering (DIBRIS), University of Genoa, Italy.

The position will start on Nov 1st, 2022 on the following research project:

* The impaired binocular visual system: models and rehabilitation endpoint assessment *

The main goal is to characterize and to model how sensory and motor impairments affect the normal binocular functionality and development of the visual system. The PhD student will work on two complementary tracks:
(1) designing biologically inspired models of the early visual system, grounded on previous research, to mimic different impairments; (2) developing specific 3D visual and visuomotor experimental protocols to investigate binocular performance of healthy subjects and patients. Experiments will be based on 3D visual displays and HMDs, integrated with binocular eye tracking technologies.
The resulting framework, integrating neural modeling with psychophysical experimentations, will be used to investigate the computational principles of the impairments, and their impact on binocular visual processing and perception.

The PhD position in within the NIH project “ARBi” (Feb 2022-Jan 2027) coordinated by Northeastern University, Boston and with UC Berkeley and the Boston Children’s Hospital [https://reporter.nih.gov/search/PEJReFETsE6Vx5T-METOdg/project-details/10366392].

Cooperation at international level will ensure a highly interdisciplinary and stimulating environment at the crossroad of engineering, visual neuroscience, and clinics.

Successful applicants would have a good honors M.Sc. degree in engineering, computer science, physics or related disciplines, a keen interest in reverse-engineering the brain. Knowledge on computational neuroscience, machine learning, image processing and programming languages (C/C++ or Python) are a plus. Previous experience in behavioral experiments is also a plus.

Online application is possible till June 30th (at noon) Italian time

Full details on the call and the application procedure are available at:
https://unige.it/en/usg/en/phd-programmes
and
http://phd.dibris.unige.it/biorob/index.php/how-to-apply (click on ‘Bioengineering’).

Prospective students, please contact in advance Silvio P. Sabatini (silvio.sabatini@unige.it), providing CV and qualifications, the name and contact details of two references, and a description of your research interests.

DIBRIS is a unique inter-school department of the University of Genoa, bridging together researchers from the former Science and Engineering Faculties. It offers an excellent multidisciplinary, interactive and collaborative research environment combining expertise in computer vision, computational neuroscience, neuromorphic computing, robotics and mechatronics.

PSPC-Lab has a long-standing expertise in visual coding and multidimensional signal representation, stereo and motion perception, and neuromorphic computing.
The laboratory is equipped with computers used for model simulation, psychophysical research, and general office activities, two workstations for high demanding graphical programs and 3D video rendering, three eye
trackers, one 3D passive monitor (42’’) and two 3D active monitors (27’’), a high precision 3D Range Laser Scanner (Konica Minolta Vivid 910), and a Vive Pro Eye HMD.