Research Intern

ETH Zurich is one of the leading universities of the world with a strong focus on science and

engineering. In 2010 it established the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) in collaboration with the National Research Foundation (NRF) to do interdisciplinary research on pressing problems.

The centre currently runs several research programmes with the Future Cities Laboratory

(FCL) as one of the programmes. It is home to a community of over 100 PhD, postdoctoral

and Professorial researchers working on diverse themes related to sustainable cities and

resilient infrastructure systems. In the course of their work, researchers actively collaborate

with universities, research institutes, industry, and government agencies with the aim of

offering practical solutions.

Project background

The Architectural Cognition in Practice module at FCL Global centres on better understanding the impact of built environments on users and explores how this empirical knowledge can be applied in practice by architects and designers. Putting human psychology first, we not only address how architectural or urban features foster positive human behaviours in complex buildings, but most crucially focus on how we translate these findings into actionable design tools, to inform designers on how to make future urban developments more sustainable and resilient. To achieve this, we work as an interdisciplinary team comprising of cognitive scientists, architects and computer scientists, and we partner with industry bodies to bridge academic research and real-world practice.

This module address three key research pillars:

1. How the built environment influences human behaviour, cognition, decision making, and emotion.
2. Understanding how (and how well) designers conceptualise their users.
3. Considering how designers can incorporate research into practice, and therefore be better equipped to anticipate the complexity of human behaviour.

Across all three streams of research, we apply methods and tools from the cognitive sciences and environmental psychology, which allow us to measure spaces and people. These include physiological, behavioural, neural and affective metrics. Alongside this, we conduct spatial analyses, agent-based modelling, and prototyping. Crucially, we meld these different perspectives and tools so that outputs from different domains can inform one another.

Investigators: Prof. Christoph Hoelscher (ETH), Asst. Prof. Zdravko Trivic (NUS), Asst.Prof. Panos Mavros (Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris).

For more information on the project, consult our web page, https://fcl.ethz.ch/research/integration-and-strategies/architectural-cognition-in-

practice.html

Task/Job description

We are hiring a research intern for the Winter break (approx. 18 Nov – 10 Jan). Start date dependent on university exam timetables. You must currently be a student based in Singapore, or a recent graduate who is local to Singapore.

As a research intern, you will be supporting the overall research aims and deliverables of

the module in collaboration with the researchers based at the Singapore-ETH Centre. Your

key responsibilities will be:

1. Co-developing on-going research. This work may include:

• Conducting spatial analyses.
• Building models of spaces for experiments.
• Helping researchers run experiments, conduct interviews with participants, or look at behavioural and interview-based data from experiments (qualitative and quantitative).
• Administrative work in organising experiments.
• Literature reviews.
• Co-developing and publishing journal and/or conference articles.

2. Supporting the module research efforts in general. This includes:

• Participating in and contributing to team meetings.
• Assisting researchers across entire module in their activities.
• Supporting other module researchers, if applicable to current projects.
• Contributing to the preparation of academic papers and other forms of academic output.
• Presenting the module internally and externally and preparing material for such presentations.

Requirements

You must:

• Mandatory:

- Have 3D modelling skills (preferably using Rhino).

- Be enrolled in a Bachelor's/Master's of Architecture, Urbanism, or another closely related field. Recent graduates also apply, though must be local to Singapore.

- Have excellent academic writing skills.

• Nice to have:

- Computational design skills (using Grasshopper or other programming languages); GIS.

You are:

• Experienced in urban/architectural-analysis, and comfortable using design software.
• Interested in topics related to the research project - particularly demonstrable interest in the intersection of design and human experience.
• Ideally you would also have an interest learning how to run experiments with human participants and how to look at data from experiments.
• Self-motivated and independent.
• A good communicator:

- Proactive: you can signal issues, set and commit to targets

- Rational: you can clearly articulate ideas and thoughts

- Interpersonal: you are able to take and provide constructive feedback

- A professional working proficiency in English is required.

• A team player: collaborative and constructive, and always open to help team members
• Curious and passionate to explore new concepts, methods and technologies. You can have the capability to identify and quickly learn the most suitable tools for research on the go.

We look forward to receiving your online application with the following documents:

cover letter and CV in PDF format

Further information about The Singapore-ETH Centre can be found on our website:

https://sec.ethz.ch/

The Singapore-ETH Centre is an equal opportunity and family-friendly employer. All candidates will be evaluated on their merits and qualifications, without regards to gender, race, age or religion.