Postdoc position on Multimodal Conversational AI for Cultural Heritage at University of Twente

Job description

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work on the project Balancing Personalisation and Polyvocality: Dialogic Interaction for Open-mindedness and Empathy in Conversational AI. The project investigates how conversational agents in museum settings can balance personalisation with polyvocality: adapting to individual visitors while also encouraging engagement with unfamiliar, marginalised, or challenging perspectives.

Many current conversational agents and recommender systems adapt content to users’ existing interests and preferences. While this can improve engagement, it may also narrow what users encounter. In museum contexts, this is a particularly important challenge. Museums aim not only to inform and engage visitors, but also to support reflection, openness, empathy, and cross-cultural understanding.

In this project, you will develop and evaluate a multimodal, polyvocal conversational agent. The agent will use real-time visitor feedback, including eye gaze, speech, and dialogue content, to infer interactional states such as engagement, curiosity, openness, confusion, or resistance. These signals will be used to design adaptive dialogue strategies that maintain engagement while introducing diverse perspectives in a meaningful and responsible way.

The position will be embedded in the Human Media Interaction group at the University of Twente and will contribute to the Hybrid Intelligence Centre. You will work in an interdisciplinary research environment at the intersection of conversational AI, human–computer interaction, multimodal interaction, user modelling, and cultural heritage.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will:

Conduct research on dialogic interaction, multimodal conversational AI, user modelling, polyvocality, and cultural heritage interpretation;

Develop and evaluate multimodal models that use gaze, speech, and dialogue data to infer visitor states such as openness, curiosity, engagement, confusion, and resistance;

Design and compare adaptive dialogue strategies that balance personalization with exposure to diverse perspectives;

Conduct VR-based user studies to evaluate the effects of adaptive dialogue strategies on engagement, openness, curiosity, empathy, and reflection;

Contribute to reusable experimental infrastructure, datasets, evaluation methods, and software components;

Publish research results in high-quality international journals and conferences;

Collaborate with researchers, a PhD candidate working on polyvocal knowledge representation, curators, museum professionals, and other partners in the Hybrid Intelligence network.

Your profile

A PhD in computer science, artificial intelligence, human–computer interaction, computational social science, digital humanities, cognitive science, or a related field;

Experience with conversational AI, dialogue systems, human–agent interaction, adaptive systems, user modelling, multimodal interaction, or a related area;

Experience with empirical research, preferably including user studies;

Strong analytical and academic writing skills;

The ability to work independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team;

Excellent communication skills in English.

Experience with one or more of the following is an advantage:

Multimodal interaction analysis, eye tracking, speech analysis, or affective computing;

VR-based experiments or immersive interaction;

Adaptive dialogue management, reinforcement learning, or decision-making for conversational agents;

User modelling or computational modelling of engagement, curiosity, openness, or resistance;

Knowledge graphs, ontologies, semantic technologies, or Linked Data;

Cultural heritage, museum studies, digital humanities, or participatory design;

Collaboration with non-technical domain experts such as curators or museum professionals.

We especially welcome candidates who can connect technical development with empirical evaluation of human–AI interaction, and who are enthusiastic about working in an interdisciplinary and collaborative research environment.

Our offer

You will be appointed for a period of 1 year full-time (with the possibility to extend for 2 additional years after positive evaluation) within a very stimulating scientific environment. The university offers a dynamic ecosystem with enthusiastic colleagues.

Your salary and associated conditions are in accordance with the collective labour agreement for Dutch universities (CAO-NU);

Gross salary between € 3.546,- (step 0) and € 5.538,- (step 12) per month depending on experience and qualifications;

Excellent benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, a year-end bonus of 8.3% and a solid pension scheme;

The flexibility to work (partially) from home;

Free access to sports facilities on campus

A minimum of 232 leave hours in case of full-time employment based on a formal workweek of 38 hours. A full-time employment in practice means 40 hours a week, therefore resulting in 96 extra leave hours on an annual basis.

Excellent support for research and facilities for professional and personal development.

We encourage a high degree of responsibility and independence, while collaborating with close colleagues, researchers and other university staff.

We are also a family-friendly institution that offers parental leave (both paid and unpaid) and career support for partners.

Information and application

Are you interested in this position? Please send your application via the 'Apply now' button below before August 10, 2026, and include:

A curriculum vitae, including a list of publications;

A motivation letter explaining your interest in the position and how your background fits the project;

Contact details of two academic references.

For more information regarding this position, you are welcome to contact (Shenghui Wang via the following email address: shenghui.wang@utwente.nl).

Screening is part of the selection process

About the organisation

The faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) uses mathematics, electronics and computer technology to contribute to the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). With ICT present in almost every device and product we use nowadays, we embrace our role as contributors to a broad range of societal activities and as pioneers of tomorrow's digital society. As part of a tech university that aims to shape society, individuals and connections, our faculty works together intensively with industrial partners and researchers in the Netherlands and abroad, and conducts extensive research for external commissioning parties and funders. Our research has a high profile both in the Netherlands and internationally. It has been accommodated in three multidisciplinary UT research institutes: Mesa+ Institute, TechMed Centre and Digital Society Institute.