Research Fellow in Environment and Behaviour (GIS/Planning)

The project is entitled ‘Built Environment in Falls and ArthrITis Study’ (BE-FIT) and is a collaboration between the Singapore-ETH Centre, the National Healthcare Group, the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, ETH Zurich and CNRS@CREATE / Telecom Paris. The BE-FIT project explores the relationships between the Built Environment (BE), and psychosocial factors (including mediating and contextual factors) and their impact on physical activity, social participation and functional outcomes in the vulnerable elderly subpopulation with mobility challenges (osteoarthritis (OA) and falls (FA) patients) to guide practice and policy. The project includes cross-sectional as well as longitudinal studies, as well as implementation science. More broadly the project involves an international consortium of experts from medical, public health, behaviour science and geographic information science.

The Research Fellow will primarily work on conducting a qualitative and quantitative longitudinal study and measuring kinematic and mobility data of a group of senior citizens from different parts of Singapore. The position will require periods of fieldwork in Singapore, for data collection with participants. This aims to link individual-level behaviour and wellbeing with built-environment (BE) characteristics. The project requires continuous and very close collaboration with colleagues from other partners (Singapore ETH Centre, NTU, NUS, SingHealth) responsible for other data within and between work-packages (qualitative observations, interviews, and survey data collection activities). Data from different sensors and sources will be combined and analyzed with statistical modelling to draw insights that can inform BE policy.

The position is ideal for someone with a strong interest in human behaviour and a background either in Geographic Information Science with a focus on built environments, or in Architecture/Planning with strong GIS skills. It will be necessary to have experience using GIS, computational skills (R, Python) and a good understanding of statistics. Open-science methods will be encouraged.

Required:

• PhD defended in Geographic Information Science (GIS), Cognitive Science, Architectural Science or related fields.
• Specific skills in experiment design, GIS, statistics, machine learning, and programming (Python, R)  will be appreciated.

Desirable:

• Spatial network analysis
• Experience with open-science methods (git, public repos, pre-registration)
• Experience with human behaviour data, eye-tracking, biometric data
• Experience with a big/urban data

It is expected that the candidate shows a high motivation for the project, as well as good communication (writing, oral) skills for publications in conferences and scientific journals. Excellent interpersonal skills to foster collaborations with colleagues in the BEFIT project are required. Ability to work in an international environment (with English working language), learning from experienced researchers and transfer knowledge, is also a mandatory requirement.

Keywords:

1. Built Environment
2. Physical activity
3. Walkability
4. Spatial network analysis
5. Geographic Information Science
6. Fall-risk
7. Healthy Ageing
8. Longitudinal behavioural study
9. Kinematic data / actigraphy
10. Open-science