Missions

With the aim of promoting the development of secure digital practices and preserving user trust, the ALIAS project seeks to enable people with disabilities to authenticate simply and securely. The ALIAS project is a collaboration between the University of Poitiers, CNRS, and Open Sezam company. Open Sezam's technology allows simplified access to authentication services that can benefit people with disabilities. To achieve this, we need to conduct research on the behaviour, practices, and cognition of target users.
We are seeking a specialist in cognitive ergonomics (or applied cognitive sciences) to plan, conduct, and analyse scientific research with end users. You will actively participate in promoting the research conducted within this project. This promotion will primarily focus on publishing scientific articles in international journals and presenting at conferences and public events.

Activités

- You will conduct a state-of-the-art review and maintain scientific watch of the literature;
- Initially, you will be responsible for collecting and formalizing user needs and practices by conducting field research;
- You will carry out experiments on the ergonomics of solutions developed within realistic usage scenarios;
- You will analyze results using statistical methods;
- You will play a key role in promoting research findings through international publications and conferences;

Compétences

- You hold a PhD in Psychology or Cognitive Ergonomics, or an equivalent degree;
- You are capable of following a user-centered approach using scientific methodology (experimental design, hypotheses, statistical data analysis);
- You have skills in and an affinity for innovation, digital technology, interface ergonomics, or user research;
- You have excellent communication skills in French and are comfortable with English, particularly in writing.

Contexte de travail

CeRCA stands for "Center for Research on Cognition and Learning". It was established in January 2008 and is directed by Christel Bidet-Ildei, professor at the University of Poitiers, and Badiâa Bouazzaoui, research engineer at the University of Tours, as deputy director. CeRCA is a Joint Research Unit of the University of Poitiers, the University of Tours, and CNRS, comprising about fifty permanent members (CNRS researchers, teacher-researchers, technical and administrative staff) and about forty contract members (doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers, contract lecturers, temporary staff) who are mainly hosted at the House of Human and Social Sciences in Poitiers and at the Tanneurs site of the University of Tours, as well as some at the Department of Psychology or the Henri Laborit Hospital in Poitiers.
The major objective of CeRCA is to conduct fundamental research to better understand the cognitive and social aspects that characterize individuals. These mechanisms are studied particularly in relation to individual characteristics (age, gender, abilities) and environmental characteristics (social aspects, task characteristics). Furthermore, research conducted at CeRCA aims to address several societal challenges, particularly concerning education (educational inequalities, role of digital technology in learning), health (assistance in diagnosis and management of motor, cognitive, or psychiatric disorders, preservation of autonomy), and work (gender inequalities, human-artificial system collaboration).
Team Interaction: Communication and Sensorimotor Skills
The objective of axis 3 of the team is to study the impact of different modes of interaction between humans and digital systems on the performance of finalized activities. Digital systems, whether software or physical (for example, robotics), participate in goal-oriented tasks, either as an interface or by actively collaborating with humans. We study both joint work modalities (e.g., servo control, delegation, supervision) and the nature of exchanged information (e.g., visual information, verbal communication, haptic feedback) that contribute to task success by evaluating and optimizing associated cognitive parameters: mental load, situation awareness, trust, emotional and attentional engagement.
The experimental work conducted in this axis uses immersive interfaces, such as virtual reality, haptic interfaces, or natural dialogue to improve the control of systems with autonomy capabilities, using feedback to guide action (for example, force feedback), to assist in reasoning and complex decision-making (i.e., auditory, visual feedback), or to build a shared representation of the situation between two communicating partners (e.g., emotional feedback). The targeted applications are those related to Industry 4.0, immersive training and digital twins, new forms of interactions (extended reality, XR), as well as dialogue and trust in systems based on artificial intelligence: conversational interfaces, semi-autonomous vehicles, etc.
Partner Presentation:
OPEN SEZAM (https://www.opensezam.com/) develops an innovative and highly secure authentication solution without passwords and without application installation. This solution is aimed at online service operators who wish to offer their customers a high level of security to protect their personal data and provide a frictionless user experience. OPEN SEZAM develops an authentication process based on the analysis of weak signals: it analyzes not only biometric data but also additional data that characterize the user, such as device position or keyboard typing speed, to confirm a user's identity over time. These weak signals are also used to ensure continuous verification of customer identity.