PhD position on Interaction Design of Simulation Games and Geospatial Digital Twins
Are you passionate about interaction design and understanding how groups work with geospatial data and simulations? Are you interested in advancing interaction and visualization techniques for simulation games and geospatial digital twins? Do you want to understand how these are used by diverse groups of stakeholders to gain understanding of an environmental system’s complexity? Join us as a PhD researcher!
The Challenge
This research focuses on the design and use of environmental decision support systems, specifically simulation games and geospatial digital twins. These systems use detailed representations of a real-world environment and its processes by linking to a myriad of data and simulation models. Often building on gaming technology, these systems offer an immersive environment where players can explore the real world, adapt it, and inspect simulated effects. Geospatial digital twins can be seen as the next-generation simulation games, offering similar interaction while setting higher expectations on levels of realism, data resolutions, and (near-)real-time updates. We are seeking a PhD candidate to (1) explore to what extent such high fidelity supports or hinders (groups of) people in grasping cause–effect relationships of world adaptations and system complexity; and (2) design and compare interaction and visualization techniques for using and interpreting detailed and high-resolution information and simulation results.
This research is part of the NWO-funded NO REGRETS program: North Sea Renewable Energy: Gaining the Required Ecological Knowledge for the Transition, which studies the ecological and socio-economic impacts of large-scale offshore windfarms in the North Sea. The program develops scientific knowledge, models and simulation tools to support marine spatial planning in a multi-stakeholder co-creation process. You will join a team of 17 PhDs and postdocs across 15 academic institutes and collaborate closely with partners from government, nature organizations and industry.
The PhD position will be embedded in the Human Centred Design (HCD) chair at the Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET) and partnered with the AI, Games & Media group at Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas), who developed the open-source Marine Spatial Planning Challenge simulation platform. You will use the MSP Challenge to study and advance our knowledge on how (groups of) people interact with high fidelity geospatial information and simulations. Together with BUas researchers, you will develop scenarios, integrate NO REGRETS data and simulation models, and connect interaction technology to the MSP Challenge.
Your scientific contributions, both situated in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, are twofold. Firstly, you will advance our knowledge of what high fidelity support systems, both in general and for marine spatial planning specifically, should offer to support use and uptake of information and cause–effect relationships in multi-stakeholder settings. Secondly, you will design and test novel interaction and visualization techniques for exploring, adapting, and inspecting simulated worlds in high fidelity support systems. The latter includes building on HCD expertise in using tangible interaction and spatial augmented reality in simulation games, as well as BUas experience with mixed reality for the MSP Challenge.
In this position, you will work closely with your UT supervisors, BUas partners, and NO REGRETS researchers. Regular consortium meetings will accommodate knowledge exchange with our partners. The consortium meetings and other events in existing North Sea communities will serve as venues to evaluate designs. Furthermore, you will present your work at (inter)national conferences and publish your findings in journal papers and a PhD thesis.
Information and application
Are you interested in this position? Please send your application via the 'Apply now' button below before January 31, 2026, and include:
- A cover letter (maximum 2 pages A4), emphasizing your specific interest, qualifications, and motivations to apply for this position.
- A Curriculum Vitae, including a list of all courses attended and grades obtained, and, if applicable, a list of publications and references.
The first round of online interviews is scheduled on February 18, 2026. The second round of interviews, preferably in person at the campus of the University of Twente, is scheduled for March 11, 2026.
We aim for this project to start May 1, 2026. We also welcome students to apply who expect to have finished their MSc thesis around this time.
For more information regarding this position, you are encouraged to contact dr.ir. Robert-Jan den Haan (r.j.denhaan@utwente.nl) or prof.dr.ir. Mascha van der Voort.
About the organisation
The Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET) engages in education and research of Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Design Engineering. We enable society and industry to innovate and create value using efficient, solid and sustainable technology. We are part of a ‘people-first' university of technology, taking our place as an internationally leading center for smart production, processes and devices in five domains: Health Technology, Maintenance, Smart Regions, Smart Industry and Sustainable Resources. Our faculty is home to about 2,900 Bachelor's and Master's students, 550 employees and 150 PhD candidates. Our educational and research programmes are closely connected with UT research institutes Mesa+ Institute, TechMed Center and Digital Society Institute.
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