ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS

• A PhD in a quantitative discipline, including computer science, engineering, robotics, computational neuroscience, and similar disciplines
• Documented experience in designing/creating/manipulating virtual environments, writing computer programs using different languages (e.g. python, C#, javascript) and platforms (e.g. Pytorch, Unity3D)
• Strong publication record
• Good command of spoken and written English

ADDITIONAL SKILLS

• Experience in performing quantitative behavioral measurements, implementing ML algorithms, designing/constructing computational models of perceptual processes
• Knowledge of scripted (C#) development in Unity3D
• Ability to work in a challenging and international environment
• Capacity to work autonomously and collaboratively in a highly interdisciplinary environment
• Possess Analytical Reasoning skills and a growth mindset

You will be working in a multicultural and multi-disciplinary group, where junior and senior scientists collaborate, each with their expertise, to carry out a scientific activity with a shared research goal.
The Sensory Processing and Computation Research Unit is coordinated by Peter Neri. The research focuses on understanding how sensory signals are processed by neural devices (e.g. human, insect, or fish brain) to control and drive behavior. This includes thorough and extensive empirical characterizations of the specific process under investigation, which are then used to constrain fully specified computational models that are assessed using mathematics or computer simulations. For this position, the focus will be on understanding how global representations of the world, such as the overall gist of the visual/auditory scene in front of us, can impact early detection of elementary image/sound features.

Within the research team, your main responsibilities will be:

• Design and perform VR/AR experiments to characterize human visual/auditory perceptual processes
• Develop computational models to account for the empirical results