An exciting new PhD project is starting soon, co-supervised by Dr Laura Katus, Senior Lecturer in Psychology. The PhD will be based at the University of East London with Professor Sam Wass, principal supervisor for the PhD, in collaboration with Procter & Gamble, and focus on the development of tools to measure naturalistic parent-child interactions during nappy changes using wearable technologies.
Dr Katus and Prof Wass are interested in the parent-child relationship and how it is positively influenced by factors like parental stress and the early social environment, with early-life environments impacting long-term child development. The study will adopt an innovative methodology, using new wearable technologies (video, sensors, machine learning and AI enabled algorithms) to conduct dynamic, real-time data analysis of emotional and physical states. The project also involves a collaboration with Procter & Gamble to use these new techniques to develop tools to measure how nappies affect parent-child interactions, tracking emotions during nappy changes to improve product development and customer satisfaction, and developing versatile new tools that can be used to measure child-caregiver interaction in multiple settings. This collaboration between the academic team the Procter & Gamble research team will provide valuable insights into an industrial research environment.