Department of Computer Science and Technology
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 3 years.
A doctoral studentship is available in the forthcoming Aspirational Computing Lab (February 2026) in the Department of Computer Science and Technology (CST) at the University of Cambridge.
The goal of this PhD programme is to launch one "deceptive by design" project that combines the perspectives of human-computer interaction (HCI) and critical computing. High-level topics include:
social identity cues in the design of LLM-based chatbots or social robots
trust and reliance on conversational agents designed to be charming and disarming
so-called "dark patterns" and manipulative tactics in the user interfaces of a range of technologies
voice and vocal cues that subtly change behaviour
Other critical computing topics that may be difficult to research in certain nations at this time-including all matters of diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI), accessibility and inclusive design, feminism and intersectionality, trans and gender diversity studies, and misinformation and information deception-will also be considered.