PhD Position of eXtended Reality Inclusive Wayfinding and Infrastructure Design

Are you passionate about making public transportation and public space more accessible? Join the BRIDGE-XR project and design inclusive way finding systems using XR to help make urban travel accessible for all.

As cities become denser and more intricate, way finding and navigating urban environments during travel is becoming increasingly challenging for people with disabilities. Outdoor spaces, indoor areas and transport facilities connecting them can become formidable barriers for people with disabilities during a travel journey.

The diverse needs of individuals with different types of disabilities further complicate this issue, as each group may face unique obstacles during way finding and navigation. There is an urgent need for innovative approaches and methods to design and test accessible and inclusive infrastructure and way finding systems.

This PhD position is part of the NWO-funded BRIDGE-XR project, which aims to provide a comprehensive examination of accessibility barriers in the Dutch public transportation and public space context. You will focus on employing Virtual Reality technologies to design and test inclusive way finding systems and infrastructure.

In this role you will:

• Develop a theoretical framework for designing accessible and inclusive infrastructure and way finding systems.
• Develop VR simulators for people with visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive disabilities.
• Conduct VR experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of inclusive infrastructure and way finding systems.
• Employ real‑world testing to evaluate inclusive solutions in real‑world urban settings.
• Collaborate closely with other PhD researchers and project partners across different work packages to ensure that findings contribute to the shared goals of creating accessible and inclusive travel journeys.

Your home base will be the Mobility in eXtended Reality Lab in the Department of Transport & Planning within the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. Our diverse team of researchers, project managers, and professors shares the ambition to create smart, sustainable, and equitable mobility systems. In our 12 collaborative labs we apply advanced technologies such as sensing, data analytics, modelling, and AI to turn scientific research into real‑world impact.

You’ll join an open, supportive environment that fosters learning and professional growth.

Must haves:

• Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., transportation, human‑computer interaction, architecture, cognitive science, or related disciplines).
• Experience with XR technologies, including development in Unity or Unreal Engine.
• Demonstrable experimental and analytical skills, including designing and conducting studies, programming (e.g., Python, C#), and statistical analysis.
• Proficiency in both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
• Excellent communication and writing skills in English and ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in serious game development or interactive simulation design.
• Curiosity‑driven mindset with openness to interdisciplinary research across mobility, HCI, and urban planning.

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world‑famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world‑class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem‑solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale.

That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive…