In spoken interactions, face-to-face meetings are often preferred. This is because the human face is highly expressive and can facilitate coordinated interactions. Embodied conversational agents with expressive faces therefore have the potential for smoother interactions than voice assistants. However, knowledge of how the face expresses these social signals – the “language” of facial expressions – is limited, with no coherent modelling framework.

This ambitious project aims to mathematically model the human face as an algebraic generator of dynamic social signals and build a psychologically and culturally valid generative model of social face signalling that is transferable to social robots. 

As part of the continued development of the School of Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, applications are invited for two Lectureship posts on the Teaching and Research (T&R) career track. The candidates must have a track record of outstanding independent research, as evidenced by high quality publications in leading academic journals and have interests which extend any of the School’s existing research strengths.