Psychology Research

The Discipline of Clinical Psychology at UTS offers the following research degree:

• Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology) (PhD)

If you would like to discuss a potential PhD project not listed here, please see our available Supervisors below, with links to their staff profiles and research interests.

PROJECT TITLE: Using computational cognitive models to improve human-robot collaboration

Project description:

Collaboration between humans and robots is rapidly increasing, creating a need for integrative work between engineering and psychology to improve robots' collaborative skills. One promising approach is to equip robots with cutting-edge cognitive computational models of their human collaborators' decision-making processes. These models would enable robots to account for latent factors guiding human decisions (e.g., beliefs, inferences, preferences, risk, confidence, caution), during collaborative tasks. This could enhance the efficiency of robots' observational learning and allow them to take actions that support and optimise human decision-making, ultimately improving teamwork and productivity.

The project will be supervised by Dr. Milan Andrejevic, a Lecturer in Psychology, and Dikai Liu, a Distinguished Professor in Robotics from the University of Technology Sydney, and entail a collaboration with Prof. Jakob Hohwy, a Professor in Philosophy from Monash University.

Candidate requirements:

• Honours or Masters degree in: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and a good grasp of statistics OR Engineering, Computer Science OR other related and relevant discipline and a strong interest in psychological science;
• Willingness to learn computational cognitive modelling approaches;
• Excellent academic writing skills;
• Experience with, and/or willingness to learn coding and using statistical software (R, Matlab, Python, and/or alike);
• Demonstrated work ethic.

Also desirable:

• A record of contributing to academic publications;
• Experience with mathematical / computational modelling

Scholarship: 

This project includes funding for a living stipend scholarship at the UTS rate of $37,000 per annum (tax-exempt) with fee waivers provided. 

Contacts: Milan Andrejevic and Dikai Liu

Duration: 3.5 years 

School: School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering and Robotic Institute

Application Closing date: when filled

Domestic and International applications accepted.

Our research supervisors are outlined below. 

• Mindfulness Integrated Therapies Research Clinic
• TelePsych Laboratory
• UTS: Family Child Behaviour Clinic
• Body Image and Eating Disorder Academic Network
• Behavioural Sciences and Technology 

Visit the UTS scholarships, prizes and awards page for more details about all scholarships, prizes and awards offered by UTS.

A selection of our current PhD candidate projects are outlined below