PhD position 4: Individual factors
This position has been filled.
Your role in the project
This advertisement is for PhD student 4 within the EASYLI project. The research you will conduct will focus on (a) identifying individual differences that modify susceptibility to occupational listening-related fatigue (Phase 1) and then (b) applying the information learned to drive development and evaluation of personalized hearing interventions (Phase 2). The Phase 1 work will take place at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) near Copenhagen and at the University of Manchester in the UK. While at the University of Manchester) you will complete a systematic literature review and then you will conduct a mixed methods study in which your participants will complete questionnaires, do some hearing tests (quantitative research), and interviews regarding the difficulties they encounter hearing and listening at work. (qualitative research). Your participant group will be people who work in professions where their role requires sustained listening in noisy settings with poor acoustics – for example primary and secondary school teachers. In Phase 2 you will perform a study at Eriksholm Research Centre (Oticon A/S) in Denmark where the aim is to investigate whether personalized interventions using hearing devices can reduce listening-related fatigue. You will be employed at Eriksholm Research Center (Oticon A/S) in Denmark, and you will obtain your PhD from the Hearing Systems Section in the Department of Health Technology, at the Technical University of Denmark.
Where will you be working?
Eriksholm pursues audiological discoveries with the potential to significantly enhance end-user benefits in future hearing care. We work in close collaboration with academic research institutions, clinicians, and end-users, and being part of Oticon ensures that our scientific insights are applied in solutions that empower people with hearing loss.
We are a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team of scientists that respect and care about each other and we work in a very informal environment. We are all dedicated to exploring the unknown and striving for excellence, and we have scientific integrity and room for taking chances. Eriksholm has research facilities that include EEG, Ear-EEG, motion capture, eye-tracking, fNIRS, speech testing, a large anechoic chamber with speaker array, and a fully supported clinic and audiological facility.
Technical University of Denmark
DTU is a leading technical university globally recognized for the excellence of its research, education, innovation and scientific advice. We offer a rewarding and challenging job in an international environment. We strive for academic excellence in an environment characterized by collegial respect and academic freedom tempered by responsibility.
DTU develops technology for people. With our international elite research and study programmes, we are helping to create a better world and to solve the global challenges formulated in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Hans Christian Ørsted founded DTU in 1829 with a clear vision to develop and create value using science and engineering to benefit society. That vision lives on today. DTU has 12,900 students and 6,000 employees. We work in an international atmosphere and have an inclusive, evolving, and informal working environment. DTU has campuses in all parts of Denmark and in Greenland, and we collaborate with the best universities around the world.
The University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is the largest single-site university in the UK with around 38,000 students and more than 11,000 staff. We are committed to delivering an outstanding teaching and learning experience; contributing to the social and economic success of local, national and international communities; producing the highest caliber graduates; and developing our staff to be amongst the very best of their peers.
During the secondment to The University of Manchester, you will be supervised by Prof. Gabrielle Saunders and Dr. Rebecca Millman, who are both members of the Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness (ManCAD). ManCAD is a world leader in research and teaching that underpins and delivers improved services in healthcare and education for adults and children with hearing loss or who are deaf. We have a strong network of both international and UK postgraduate research students with a wide range of experience and skills. This diverse group plays a key role in the cutting-edge research currently being undertaken within the group.
Seniors involved in this project are Hamish-Innes Brown, Dorothea Wendt, Gabrielle Saunders and Rebecca Millman.