Device renewal accounts for a large part of the environmental impact of the IT sector. This is particularly true for smartphones. Depending on countries and life-cycle analyses, the material part (from production to disposal) accounts for 60 to 90% of their impact (vs energy consumption during use). While fashion, desirability and material breakdowns (broken screens, used battery) trigger new buys, software issues are also a factor of renewal through bloat, slowdowns, or compatibility problems.
Our goal is to map out factors leading to obsolescence (quantitatively and qualitatively), design remediations that can be studied in-situ, and explore long term approaches to durability through speculative design.
We are looking for two PhD students to work on this topic, one with a CS background and another with a Design background to complement each other.
Advisors: Aurélien Tabard (Université Lyon 1) and Nolwenn Maudet (Université de Strasbourg)
Start date: Between September and December 2022 (open to discussion).
<aside> ✉️ Send you application to [email protected] Application deadline June 15th, and rolling until the position is filled. Reach out before sending a full fledged application if you have questions.
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Funding: Salary ranges from 1500€ to 1600€ / month after taxes (including healthcare, pension, 50% of transit costs or bonus for bike use.) Optional teaching hours are paid on top (~40€/h).
It is a fixed-term 3-years contract.
We cover all expenses related to the project (trips, laptop and other devices, software, etc.) We support students spending time in another lab abroad (typically 3 months, optional).
Academic requirements: Masters degree in Computer Science, Design, HCI, or equivalent.
Location: Lyon or Strasbourg, both cities are highly ranked in best cities to live in France.
Team: The project is multi-disciplinary with students from Computer Science and Design. ****Thomas Thibault from Collectif BAM is currently Designer in residence in our lab working on a related project on Digital Limits. A postdoc should join the project later in 2023/24.
We seek to create a dynamic, stimulating, and caring work environment. We will happily put you in touch with past students if you’d like to have first-hand accounts of life in the lab and our advising styles. In Lyon, our broader group works on visualisation, gamification, learning analytics, or spatial cognition.
All applications are welcome, regardless of age, gender, social or ethnic origin, sexual orientation or disability