Master's thesis in Data & AI: Patient Acceptance of Virtual Agents: Key Design Considerations (Project Ontzorg de Zorg)
How can virtual healthcare assistants become more acceptable to patients? In this thesis, you will explore how personification can transform automated assistance from being perceived as intrusive to engaging. By leveraging an avatar design prototype, you’ll experiment with features that enhance user acceptance and improve the experience of elderly individuals living independently.
Solliciteer directRequired interest(s)
- Virtual Assistants
- Social AI
- Software Engineering
What do you get
- A challenging assignment within a practical environment
- € 1000 compensation, € 500 + lease car or € 600 + living space
- Professional guidance
- Courses aimed at your graduation period
- Support from our academic Research center at your disposal
- Two vacation days per month
What you will do
- 65% Research
- 10% Analyze, design, realize
- 25% Documentation
This master’s thesis is part of the graduation project ‘Ontzorg de zorg, zorg voor jezelf!’. This project gives the healthcare sector a digital boost through automation and data analysis, allowing caregivers to spend more time with patients while enabling patients to take control of their personal health data.
There is a growing deficit of healthcare professionals due to factors such as an aging population in the Western world. Additionally, most elderly individuals prefer to live independently for as long as possible, which reduces the efficiency of assistance. Automating some simpler home care tasks could free up time for tasks that benefit more from the human touch, thereby extending the period during which independent living remains viable.
Automating assistance, such as reminders to take medicine, can easily be perceived as annoying. Personifying the assisting system could improve patient acceptance. However, careful consideration is needed when deciding how to personify such an agent. This will be the focus of your investigation.
The assignment
You will select a set of features from existing literature that are likely to improve the acceptance of virtual assistance among patients. Within Info Support, an avatar designer prototype has been developed to control various features of a healthcare avatar. You will use this prototype to design a series of avatars, controlling for your selected features. Subsequently, you will conduct tests to investigate how tweaking these features of the avatar affects user acceptance.
About Info Support Research Center
We anticipate on upcoming and future challenges and ensures our engineers develop cutting-edge solutions based on the latest scientific insights. Our research community proactively tackles emerging technologies. We do this in cooperation with renowned scientists, making sure that research teams are positioned and embedded throughout our organisation and our community, so that their insights are directly applied to our business. We truly believe in sharing knowledge, so we want to do this without any restrictions.
Read more about Info Support Research here.
What does Info Support offer you during your graduation period?
Of course, we offer you an excellent package of graduation conditions with various options. These include:
- Laptop, all necessary tools, and development environments to successfully carry out your assignment
- A graduation allowance, where you have the choice of:
- € 1000 gross per month
- € 500 gross per month + lease car with fuel card
- € 600 gross per month + accommodation in Veenendaal
During your graduation internship, you will be included in one of our business units and in our Research Center. This will give you a good understanding of the developments within our projects and our research projects.
In addition, Info Support offers you:
- A challenging master’s thesis at a solid, growing, and financially healthy company
- Professional and experienced guidance, hybrid working
- A graduation program with, among other things, training sessions, knowledge evenings, project visits, activities, and team, unit, and company outings
- Experimentation with new products and releases that are in the pre-release phase
- Brainstorming with other graduates and IT colleagues who are collegial and passionate
- Potential for a permanent position in our IT Top Traineeship program!
About Info Support
Info Support specializes in custom software, data/AI solutions, management, and training and is active in the Finance, Industry, Agriculture, Food & Retail, Mobility & Public, and Healthcare sectors. We provide solid and innovative solutions for complex and critical software issues. Our headquarters are located in Veenendaal (NL) and Mechelen (BE). At present, approximately 500 employees are employed by Info Support.
Info Support’s working method is characterized by a number of core values: solidity, integrity, craftsmanship, and passion. These core values are intertwined in our work and the way we interact with each other. This year, we were also named a Top Employer in the Netherlands!
To ensure that all employees are always up to date with the latest developments, Info Support has an in-house knowledge center that eagerly satisfies the hunger for more or different knowledge and skills.
B2 language proficiency in Dutch is required.
Procedures
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Kennismakingsgesprek
Na je sollicitatie plannen we iets in en bespreken je (studie) loopbaan, interesses en ambities. We vertellen je over Info Support en jij kan al je vragen stellen.
- 2
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Assessment
Gaan we verder? Dan doe je een assessment van je professionele kennis en persoonlijkheid (capaciteit, competenties en motieven).
- 3
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Selectie interview
Vervolgens plannen we een selectie interview waarin we dieper ingaan op je professionele kennis en je persoonlijkheid.
- 4
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De ondertekening van een contract
Verloopt alles positief dan ontvang je een contractaanbieding. Zijn we het eens? Dan starten we de pre-employment screening en nodigen we je uit voor de tekenmomenten.