The research groups Research[x]Design at the Department of Architecture, and Robotics at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, are offering a fully-funded, 4-year PhD position at KU Leuven university (Belgium). As the research is interdisciplinary in nature, an ideal PhD candidate should be able to combine relevant knowledge from (architectural) design, human-computer interaction (HCI) and robotics.
The research group RxD of prof. Vande Moere at the Department of Architecture follows a design-oriented research approach to investigate the unexplored creative opportunities of various emerging technologies. While this research methodology typically produces fundamental theories and design recommendations, it typically also creates opportunities towards commercial university spin-offs.
The research group of prof. Bruyninckx focuses on the specification and control of complex, multi-robot tasks; the online estimation and decision making for "force" based robots; and the development of new robotics software platforms in open source. The formal representation of knowledge, and the corresponding reasoning, take an ever growing role in that R&D context.
Both research groups have been successfully collaborating before. As such, they also share a wide range of advanced robotic, sensing and actuation equipment specifically reserved to advance robotic fabrication research.
Project
The general aim of the PhD research is to significantly expand the material expressive capabilities of digital and/or robotic fabrication. The research is based on the premise that sequential sculpting and carving operations can manifest very intricate expressions in clay, and that the robotic execution of these operations can exploit the underlying plasticity and malleability properties insofar that these expressions cannot be digitally modelled or simulated.
The planned research follows up on our previous research endeavours on craft-inspired digital fabrication, which has been partly published in Tokac et al. “Craft-inspired digital fabrication: A study of interactive robotic clay carving”, Tokac et al. “Fabrication grammars: bridging design and robotics to control emergent material expressions” and Tokac et al. “A programming grammar for robotic fabrication: incorporating material agency into clay textures”. This research has even been applied in a real-world architectural design project, which received the most prestigious design award in Belgium (see: https://henryvandevelde.be/en/awards/24/robotische-serendipiteit).
On the technical side, the PhD researcher has the chance to collaborate closely with academic experts in advanced robotic control, perception and programming. As such, the PhD research will first acquire expert knowledge from human practitioners in clay carving and sculpting, so to capture how they reason during their hands-on interactions with clay. This crafting knowledge will then be modelled via knowledge graphs to relate concrete material properties with specific robotic perception and control capabilities. The PhD researcher will then develop one or more interactive “interfaces” that unlock this situated knowledge during the creative design process, potentially via the emerging power of generative artificial intelligence (e.g. LLM). Consequently, this research should allow designers to produce serendipitous yet reliably “expressive” material outcomes in clay that reach well beyond what can be achieved manually and/or robotically.
Profile
Following the proposed research plan, this PhD position is suitable for someone with skills in one or more of the following areas. If a candidate does not possess all these skills, (s)he should demonstrate the ability to acquire them efficiently during the PhD itself:
• digital or robotic fabrication, which preferably involves the direct manipulation of malleable materials.
• computer science, which definitely includes the ability to program (e.g. Python), and preferably involves dealing with robotic control, computer vision, machine learning, or AI.
• design science, which preferably involves matters of parametric design, 3D modelling, or creative design reasoning.
• human-computer interaction (HCI), which preferably focuses on the physical prototyping and user-centred evaluation of interactive interfaces that are tangible, virtual (e.g. VR/AR) or generative (e.g. LLM) .
• a scientific research-oriented attitude and the natural ability to work in an interdisciplinary team.
Candidates are highly encouraged to include a portfolio document that demonstrates the requested skillset mentioned above, as well as their personal creative design or crafting capabilities and sensitivities. Candidates should have sufficiently high academic achievements to be accepted as a PhD student at the KU Leuven Arenberg Doctoral School of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences.
During the interview process, short-listed candidates will be asked to fulfil concise assignments to test their proficiency. For additional and/or informal information, please contact prof. Andrew Vande Moere.
Offer
• We offer a contract of 4 (2+2) years as a PhD researcher of KU Leuven.
• When hired, you will become a member of both research groups, and thus form part of a highly motivated interdisciplinary team operating in an extensive international network.
• You will also become member of KU Leuven, one of the largest research universities of Europe, the most innovative university of Europe (ranked first in Reuters ranking), located in the heart of Europe.
• You will have the chance to take part in international conferences and academic collaborations to become a top notch academic researcher, or pursue the opportunity to commercialise our state-of-the-art findings in a university spin-off.
• You will receive a competitive salary and benefits. Furthermore, you will supported in your career by the university and are offered to follow countless courses to improve your personal skillset.
Interested?
For more information please contact prof. dr. Andrew Vande Moere via e-mail: andrew.vandemoere@kuleuven.be. Mention the title of this position in the subject.
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