Research Scientist and Lecturer Homepage

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Personal profile of Petar Jerčić

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Research Scientist and Lecturer in Healthcare, Life Sciences and Computational social science

As a research scientist and lecturer specializing in healthcare and life sciences, I have gained valuable experience in entrepreneurship, academia, and industry. My primary focus is on developing innovative healthcare applications that leverage human physiology and emotions, and to achieve this, I use Data Science, Computational Modeling, and System Architecture to support decision-making and regulate emotions in individuals. My particular interest lies in real-time systems that can make a positive impact on people's lives.

What I am looking for in my work are Opportunities to grow, Flexibility in work-life balance, and Collegial teamwork. My most significant competencies are highly Self-motivated, Curiosity about new challenges, and sensitivity/receptiveness in Social communication. My biggest weakness is that I need to be more willing to take risks, a challenge I work on with myself. My most important values are Independence, Meaningful work, and time for Contemplation.

Positions and Professional Affiliations

Postdoc in the field of Computational social science (CSS) at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) Austria

Research Focus

The research is mainly focused on measuremens and interpretation of emotional states in users with the use of psychophysiological methods and equipment. These have been integrated in serious games for the biofeedback training in emotion-regulation, with the goal to improve human decision-making on the task. In order to achieve this, knowledge and understanding of fundamental theories of Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Neuroengineering and Affective Computing has been employed. Mentioned theories also explain the cognitive and emotional aspects of the players interacting with serious games.

Research Interests

Emotions, Emotion-regulation, Psychophysiology, Serious Games, Affective computing, Computational social science

Key Skills

  • Python (Pandas tooling), Matlab, R, C++/C#
  • Data science

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science, Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden)

  • Research focus: Game Design and Development
  • PhD dissertation: The Effects of Emotions and Their Regulation on Decision-making Performance in Affective (Digital) Serious Games

M.Sc. in Computer Science, University of Split (Croatia)

  • MS thesis: Business layer logic in information system for job applications

Mindfulness MBSR teacher, Mindful Academy (Spain)

Service

  • Keynote speaker at the International Week Health & Social Studies 2023 at HAN University of Applied Sciences (Nijmegen, Netherlands)
  • Invited speaker at Human Factors NL Congress 2019 (Sosteberg, Netherlands)
  • Organizational board member for Games for Health Journal
  • Technical Program Committee for IEEE Global Conference on Computing, Power and Communication Technologies (GlobConPT 2023), Joint Conference on Serious Games (JCSG2023)
  • Reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, Games for Health Journal, Games for Health Journal, Robotics, New Ideas in Psychology
  • Reviewer for International Conference on Entertainment Computing (IFIP), International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games), IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC 2019), International Conference on Entertainment Computing (IFIP)
  • Reviewer for Springer Workshop on Digital Transformation for an Inclusive Society

Awards and Honors

  • The Honorary Mention Best Paper Award, IFIP-ICEC ‘Entertainment Computing’ 2019 and 2018

Languages

  • English (fluent)
  • German (intermediate)
  • Japanese (intermediate)
  • Croatian (native)