Description This chatbot will be designed as an animated avatar to serve as an interactive and engaging tool for training managers and other personnel with line-management obligations. The objective is to enhance their ability to recognize and empathetically address employee well-being issues. This project leverages large language models to facilitate real-time conversational adaptation, thus enabling the simulation of various scenarios. This initiative will be developed in collaboration with MHR (https://mhrglobal.com/uk/en) following their in exploring the potential of AI to advance interface types beyond traditional web forms. Start Date: As soon as possible End Date: 31-Aug-2025 (approximately) - end date is 26 weeks from the start date Working Hours: up to 8 hours a week Pay Rate: £16.65 per hour plus holiday pay Location: Cobot Maker Space, Jubilee Campus Dress Code: Casual The duties will include: - The project will produce important insights about how to communicate with empathy in work environment. - The project will lead to customized and interactive AI-based support for communication using specific embodiment, such as virtual reality headset or robots. - A real-world software demonstration of the developed system, with user trials. - The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and / or at academic conference(s). - The project will be promoted via social media, professional societies, and public engagement events. Skills and experience required for the role: This project would be suitable for a Research Assistant from the discipline of computer science and the following skills would be beneficial: - A curiosity and passion for researching in computer science, AI, virtual/mixed reality, robotics. - Programming in Python/ C#. - Background in machine learning, language models (LLama), 3D engines (Unity) and data processing. - Oral and written communication skills. - Team-working and interpersonal skills. - Organisational and administrative skills. What you can expect to gain during this role: The Research Assistant will: - Gain important research/professional skills (e.g., systematic searches, data collection and analysis, experimental design, scientific writing) and knowledge (e.g., multimodal AI, language models, virtual reality) that will benefit them in their career. - Author various outputs (e.g., peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, seminars, blogs), where the Research Assistant will be encouraged to be a lead author/presenter. - Receive valuable formal and informal training and development, in the form of support and mentoring from experienced researchers. - Build their professional network of contacts in academia. Application Instructions: Application Closing Date : 28/02/2025 The Careers and Employability Service supports student and alumni to make choices about their future after their studies. To support you every step of the way, the team can help you to: ace the recruitment process providing advice on CV writing and interview preparation. explore a wide range of careers areas through web resources and sector events. connect with employers with vacancies through careers fairs. generate career ideas if you're not sure what you want to do. develop the skills you need to be successful in the workplace. Go to the Careers and Employability Service website to find out more. Our University is a supportive, inclusive, caring and positive community. We warmly welcome those of different cultures, ethnicities and beliefs – indeed this very diversity is vital to our success, it is fundamental to our values and enriches life on campus. We welcome applications from UK, Europe and from across the globe. Further information: The University of Nottingham will ask you whether you have any unspent criminal convictions as part of our pre-assignment checks. If the position you are applying for is ‘exempt’ from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 you will be asked to confirm both spent and unspent convictions at the point of offer. Examples of such posts include clinical, medical and allied health roles, roles involving childcare services. A DBS check may also be required. The University will only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so in line with our Data Protection Policy. Personal data relating to criminal convictions will be retained confidentially and securely and access to that data will be strictly controlled. More information relating to the manner in which we process your personal data is located within our privacy notice for staff, job applicants and others working at the University. Information about your rights relating to the use of your personal data can be found within our website privacy notice. What Next: To apply for this vacancy please click ‘Apply Now’ to complete your details. Please contact JobZonenottingham.ac.uk for further information. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.