PhD studentships in Usability and Internationalisation

The Centre for Internationalisation and Usability at Thames Valley
University (TVU) is pleased to announce The Vice-Chancellor's full-time
research
Studentships.

TVU is among just three London universities to climb 17 places or more
in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008. To celebrate TVU's
performance in the RAE2008 and strengthen our research student base, the
Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter John is pleased to announce up to
fifteen full-time research scholarships throughout the university. A
proportion of these will be in the field of usability and
internationalisation.

Rooted in the discipline of human-computer interaction (HCI) the Centre
for Internationalisation and Usability supports software developers in
building systems that meet all the needs of end users. There are two
challenges underpinning our work. Computer science and interdisciplinary
challenges that need to be solved to provide tools, techniques and
methods that can be used by software developers internationally to build
usable systems. Two separate strands have been identified in HCI for
global commercial software development and HCI for international
economic and social development.
http://www.tvu.ac.uk/computing/research/comp_ciu.jsp

Possible topic areas for the studentships include:

- Cross-cultural HCI
- Internationalisation of products and systems
- Interaction Design for Social/International Development
- Sociotechnical Interaction-Design
- Usability and healthcare
- Empirical Studies of Software Development
- Agile Methods and User Centred Design

Informal enquiries about our research can be directed to Dr. José
Abdelnour Nocera, jose.abdelnour-nocera@tvu.ac.uk

Applications are invited from suitably qualified students to commence
study in September 2009. You should hold or expect to be awarded a 2 (i)
Hons degree or above. A Master's degree in an appropriate subject area
is desirable. Those candidates whose first language is not English must
demonstrate evidence of appropriate English language proficiency,
normally defined as a minimum IELTS score of 7. In addition to their PhD
studies, duties will include up to 6 hours per week (during term time)
assisting with teaching on appropriate modules.

Informal academic enquiries may be directed to Professor Sibel Roller,
Head of Graduate School, sibel.roller@tvu.ac.uk.

To apply, send your full Curriculum Vitae and a covering letter
indicating your area of interest and including a supporting statement
of no more than 500 words describing your reasons for wishing to
undertake a research degree to Maria Pennells, Graduate School,
Thames Valley University, St Mary's Road, London W5 5RF
(researchdegrees@tvu.ac.uk). If applicable, evidence of English language
proficiency should also be included.
Closing date for receipt of applications: Friday 12 June 2009.

If short-listed for one of these awards, you should be prepared to
attend an interview at TVU in London in June/July 2009.