Doctoral Researcher/Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Project Researcher (Gamification), 2-5 positions

Gamification Group of Tampere University is seeking several researchers for positions ranging from 2-5 years on levels of PhD candidate, Postdoctoral researcher or project researcher. We welcome applications with any research foci related to and around of the research of the Gamification Group related to the gamefulness of technology, society, culture and economy from any scholarly discipline. In addition, however, we are especially seeking candidates with the following research focus (please see more elaborate descriptions below).

• Wearable (gaming) technology
• Gamification and logistics and related security
• Gamification, datafication & visualization of academic publishing and impact (postdoc only)

Gamification Group (GG) is a multidisciplinary research group that examines the gamefulness of technology, society, culture and economy, and operates within two universities in Finland: Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University and Faculty of Humanities at University of Turku. The group is led by the Professor of Gamification, Dr. Juho Hamari. GG is also a part of the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies and University Consortium of Pori. These positions are administrably related to Tampere University.

Gamification Group’s research covers several topics such as gamification and gameful experience, games, game-based learning, persuasive technologies, virtual reality and wearables, social networking services, online video streaming, esports, sharing economy, crowdsourcing and virtual economies. GG has published several seminal empirical, theoretical and meta-analytical scholarly articles from the perspectives of user/consumer behavior, human-computer interaction, game studies and information systems science.

Job Description and Requirements

In all these positions, the work is mainly composed of research-related activities including conducting empirical research, writing and publishing (in top venues of the given area) articles, acquiring (or assisting in acquiring) further funding, co-organizing seminars, meeting with companies, participating in industrial and academic conferences and conventions related to the candidate’s research topic. However, the job description may also include a small portion of teaching-related activities. The position “Gamification, datafication & visualization of academic publishing and impact (postdoc only) includes approximately 25% of university management activities related to mining, analyzing and visualizing the scholarly output of the faculty as well as possibly working as an adjutant of the vice-dean. The goal, however, is that these activities would be synergistically linked with the research of the candidate.

Wearable (gaming) technology

This position will focus on wearables and game design. The accepted candidate will work on designing, developing and researching wearables by focusing on its playful features and will explore a wide range of topics in which wearables can be used such as virtual reality environments, digital games, mobile games and gamification applications.

The following qualities are appreciated:

– Background in some of the following areas or on a closely related one: Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Industrial Product Design, Interaction Design, Game design or related areas to game technologies and design.

– Prior knowledge of research on wearables, virtual reality, game design and game research.

– Experience and/or knowledge in quantitative research methods (including e.g. setting up experiments, survey research, quantitative data analysis)

– Experience in game design / HCI design / web design.

– Experience in prototyping, integration of sensors, working with maker tools such as Arduino, Rasberry Pi.

Ideal candidate for this position should be able to combine strong technical skills such as electronic prototyping and coding with a creative skillset including a deep understanding of design processes and methods such as ideation, user inclusion, participatory design and so forth. We expect that the ideal candidate with a design background will have a technical orientation and experience on skills such as electronic prototyping, coding etc., while the ideal candidate with an engineering background have openness to and ideally experience on creative activities, design research and practice. We appreciate the candidates with a maker mindset and expect applicants to have experience in or willingness to learn crafting and rapid prototyping (using 3D printers, creating rough prototypes with simple materials etc.)

Gamification and logistics and related security

The candidates will work on research area of gamification in logistics and related security. The following qualities are appreciated:

– Methods: Experience in running field experiments, using (psychometric) survey -based research methods

– Design and design research: Experience from designing and creating mobile and web applications/games

– Prior research/study background in logistics -related field, computer science, applied psychology

– High and demonstrated ability to work in collaboration with the industry

– Capability to communicate in Finnish is considered a plus

Gamification, datafication & visualization of academic publishing and impact (postdoc only)

The following qualities are considered especial strengths:

– Abilities to pool, crawl, mine data from different digital sources and create databases as well as create reports and visualizations from data

– Abilities to use different methods of data analysis including mathematical and semantic approaches

– Abilities to administer (psychometric) surveys and conduct related data analyses

– Prior research background in or in combination of library / information science / computer science / (motivational) psychology of work

– General good level of understanding of academic publishing, impact and its systems

– Capability to communicate in Finnish is considered a plus but not mandatory

All of the positions start as soon as possible. The positions can range from 2-5 years depending on the mutual negotiation, fit and other factors. The salary will be based on both the job demand level and the employee’s personal performance in accordance with the Finnish University Salary System. According to the criteria applied to teaching and research staff, the position of the Doctoral Researcher is placed on the job demand level 2-4 depending on the advancement of the thesis, Postdoctoral Researcher on level 5-6 and Project Researcher on level 2-4. In addition, employees will receive performance-based salary.

How to apply

Applications must be submitted as soon as possible, latest by 15 May (at 23:59 EET) through the electronic application system of Tampere University (Apply for the job). The positions are filled as soon as possible. Applicants should enclose with their application a CV, list of publications, and a free form cover/motivation letter previous projects that demonstrate candidates’ ability to produce working prototypes (portfolio, web site or a list of links to related projects are preferable) and other documents that may influence the filling of the position.

Applications must include the following attachments written in English and preferably in PDF format:

1. Letter of motivation, including a description of research interests (max. 2 pages)

2. Full curriculum vitae listing all relevant experiences

3. List of publications

4. Indication of which position the candidate is primarily interested in: 1) wearable gaming technology, 2) gamification of logistics, 3) gamification, datafication and visualization of academic activity or 4) any topic around related to research areas of the Gamification Group (e.g. gamification, games, VR/AR/MR, serious games, esports, streaming, etc.).

Please note! Before applying, you are encouraged to contact Juho Hamari (juho.hamari@tuni.fi) (and Oğuz Turan Buruk (oguz.buruk@tuni.fi) in relation to the wearable technology -position) if you have any questions about the positions. Not receiving a timely response to queries does not imply unfitness of the candidate.

For more information, please contact:

Additional information is given by Professor Juho Hamari, juho.hamari@tuni.fi, +358 50 318 6861