Postdoctoral Researchers

I view postdocs as valued collaborators who are able to rapidly contribute to existing projects, eventually developing and leading robust independent projects in coordination with me and my faculty collaborators. These scholars bring deep existing expertise and value the opportunity to develop new skills and professional connections on projects of mutual interest. Postdocs will be provided with funds to support their research and the dissemination travel required to achieve high visibility. To the extent possible, I like my postdocs to have access to a cohort of peers for networking and peer mentorship, in addition to formal mentorship from me and from other faculty colleagues directly involved in our joint research projects.

Update: Cultural Anthropologist Boh Chun has joined the interdisciplinary Living and Working with Robots project as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow! The call for applications was originally posted April 1, 2022 with a start date in Fall 2022.

If you are a recent or expected doctoral graduate interested in embodied sociotechnical systems via campus-scale robot deployments, please get in touch with me at eah13 at utexas.edu.

Professional Research Engineers

I and my collaborators plan to hire several Research Cyberinfrastructure Engineers over the next several years. These positions are professional staff positions for those seeking to build a career developing, adapting, and maintaining software, hardware, and infrastructure for robotics and applied AI research. Cyberinfrastructure engineers solve hard problems in robotic systems and research workflows so that scientics can solve hard problems in fields like Long-Term Autonomy, Human-Robot Interaction, and the convergent field of Community Embedded Robotics. Doctoral training may be helpful in these roles, but hands-on experience in research or industry is the most important preparation, regardless of where you developed it.

The ongoing push to properly value and support infrastructural engineering in science mirrors the recognition of the importance of process, maintenance, and systems-level expertise in industry. In industry, these skills might be referred to as “continuous integration and deployment” (CI/CD) or “DevOps engineering” for robotics or other embedded systems. If you do this kind of work in academia, it’s likely that you’re the ‘glue’ person in your lab that makes research easier by developing and documenting helpful workflows. Regardless, you probably enjoy perfecting process and helping a team become more efficient at least as much as doing research. The National Science Foundation, UT Austin, and Texas Robotics all recognize the critical importance of these roles in the context of research.

The ability to safely, reliably, and reproducibly deploy a heterogenous fleet of robots over a wide, populated area is a core aspect of Living and Working with Robots research. It remains a difficult problem with fast-evolving tools and best practices, and excellence in this area will have a broad impact on the ability of researchers to develop better, safer, more adaptable forms of robotic autonomy. We will thus develop, recruit, and support the most promising professionals seeking careers in this area as key partners on our research team.

If you have experience with DevOps for robotic or embedded systems, cyberinfrastructure or workflow optimization for applied AI, or reproducible system configuration and are interested in accelerating the pace of research as a valued member of our team, please get in touch with me!

Doctoral Students

I am recruiting doctoral students to work with me on several of my research projects. My goal for all of my students is a powerful combination of social and technical expertise enabling cutting-edge research on sociotechnical systems. The interdisciplinary combination of skills I target for students at the end of their studies is difficult to come by in undergraduate or masters-level study, so my students usually have deep social scientific OR technical training, with a demonstrated and developing interest in the area they’re less familiar with. For instance, students might have a humanities background and a developing interest in programming interactive fiction; others might have studied computer science but completed training in sociology or anthropology. That said, there are many paths to the field of information, and I welcome inquiries from potential students of any background. If you reach out, please include a paragraph or so about your research interests, the overlap you see with my work, and a CV or resume, to eah13 at utexas.edu.

If you’re interested in working with me as a doctoral student, make sure to include my name in the list of faculty you’d like to work with on the UT iSchool’s doctoral application. Make sure to select one or more other iSchool faculty members as well. I highly recommend elaborating on how the faculty you’ve chosen fit your interests somewhere in your narrative application materials.

My approach to doctoral advising is holistic and structured. I share a variety of resources, skills, and knowledge with my students that have helped me along my scholarly journey. More importantly, I help guide students to build their own set of tools for success as they continue their careers. I draw heavily from the excellent resources created by the National Center for Faculty Diversity and Development (facultydiversity.org), which students will receive access to upon joining UT Austin. I utilize a selection of these resources as an informal core curriculum of academic success skills, such as strategic planning, cultivating a mentorship network, and working through resistance to writing. I will suggest other resources relevant to students’ concerns or specific issues as needed.

Doctoral study is a wonderful opportunity to learn to do advanced research and develop expertise in a topic you are passionate about. It is in most cases only appropriate for students seeking careers in academic or industry research. Doctoral students at UT Austin are provided with a mixture of fellowship, research, and teaching-based funding, so in most cases students will have little to no out of pocket expenses for their research activities. Even though most students can cover modest living expenses during doctoral study via their stipends, there is always a financial opportunity cost of studying compared to working. It’s important to me that all of my students understand the career choices they’re making and are fully informed when they do so. I’m happy to discuss this with any prospective student so that they can feel confident in entering doctoral study, at UT Austin or elsewhere.

As students near the end of their doctoral study, I will assist them in locating and applying for job targets that fit their goals and interests.

I also periodically supervise doctoral students in directed readings or research on topics or projects of mutual interest, regardless of whether I’m their formal advisor. If you’re an existing iSchool or UT Austin doctoral student interested in working with me in this way please reach out.

Masters Students

Each year I am faculty mentor to several masters students at the UT Austin iSchool. If you’re one of my advisees, welcome!

I occasionally work with masters students on my research via independent studies. If you believe my research interests and your goals overlap, please email me at eah13 at utexas.edu to discuss whether an independent project might be appropriate. Students who have completed independent studies with me may be eligible for paid research positions, when available.