Research Fellow / Senior Research Fellow (1-year contract), SMU Urban Institute

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Job Description

The SMU Urban Institute, launched in early 2024, is a university-level research institute dedicated to advancing an interdisciplinary research agenda. Leveraging SMU's strategic position as a dynamic management university in Singapore's city centre, the Institute aims to make a meaningful impact through the study of Asian cities.

We are searching for a Research Fellow to work with the Lead PI on a project that builds a field-based, wearable-sensing infrastructure to measure how residents experience urban density and use neighbourhood amenities in Singapore. The RF will work closely with the PI to execute the project.

The job scope involves:

• Qualitative and field research: designing and piloting participant-facing survey instruments (phone-based start/end surveys and watch-based micro-surveys); screening, recruiting, and supporting participants across two study neighbourhoods; running the controlled outdoor walking studies; and engaging government agencies and community stakeholders to keep the study grounded in real planning needs.
• Quantitative research: deploying and managing large-scale wearable and mobile sensing (Apple Watch / Cozie micro-EMAs, GPS, and supplementary environmental and psycho physiological sensors such as EEG, ECG, EDA, and eye-tracking); implementing location- and context-aware (JITAI-style) survey triggering; assuring data quality across sensor streams under Singapore's field conditions; and cleaning, integrating, and analysing the resulting datasets (e.g. accessibility versus observed amenity use, and urban morphology versus perceived density and physiological response) for handoff to the companion analytics project.
• Project management: coordinating amongst project PIs; assisting the Lead PI with administrative tasks like IRB approvals; organising stakeholder workshops in Singapore and overseas; liaising with internal and external project stakeholders; annual project reporting.
• Publishing: drafting papers for publication in top-tier academic journals; developing and delivering the final project outputs.
• People management: managing research assistants, student assistants, and fieldwork assistants.
• Any other ad hoc tasks that will contribute to the success of the project.

Qualifications

• PhD (completed, submitted, or near completion) in urban planning, urban studies, urban informatics, the built environment, geography, environmental psychology, or a closely related field; candidates from more technical backgrounds (e.g. data science, ubiquitous or wearable sensing, human-computer interaction, or engineering) with a strong demonstrated interest in cities are also encouraged to apply.
• Hands-on experience collecting data at scale in the field using wearables and mobile sensing (e.g. Apple Watch/Cozie, GPS, ecological momentary assessment or micro-surveys, and/or physiological sensors such as EEG, ECG, EDA, or eye-tracking).
• Substantial experience in urban planning, urban design, or spatial planning, and the ability to translate field evidence into planning- and policy-relevant insight.
• Strong mixed-methods research skills spanning study design, participant recruitment and management, and quantitative analysis of sensor and survey data.
• Excellent written communication skills (demonstrated through published work).
• Experience coordinating multi-stakeholder or multi-agency projects, ideally including engagement with government or planning agencies.
• A demonstrated interest in smart cities, urban density and liveability, health and the built environment, and related debates, particularly in (Southeast) Asian cities.

Other Information