An opportunity to apply for a funded full-time PhD in the Faculty of Environment and Technology, UWE Bristol. The studentship will be funded by UWE Bristol.

The expected start date of this studentship is 1 April 2017.

The closing date for applications is Monday 6 February.

About the studentship

Recent advances in non-intrusive activity and physiological data sensing sensors and data analytics have enabled pioneering work in the area of ambient assisted living. Decisions based on data from sensors can now be made in near real-time and can facilitate feedback to support self-management of activities of daily living.

This PhD will be an evidence-based research study that uses a range of real sensor data relating to older adults with ageing-related impairments, fusing data from multiple sensors to provide a holistic real-time view to support their daily living and care needs. This research builds on existing research into ambient intelligent systems, as well as internet of things technology and big data analytics.

The aim will be to present actionable information to both people and carers in an intuitive manner that enables effective cognitive processing and proactive decision making to facilitate self-management and independent living. The work will therefore also involve co-design activities with care home residents, older adults with ageing-related impairments, and their specialist carers to determine specific long-term independent-living care needs. The information will help with structuring daily activities and tasks, as well as supporting well-being by utilising sensor data to identify patterns of activity and provide prompts to support healthy-living behaviours.

This research is fundamental to designing and developing appropriate responsive and persuasive interventions, which will serve as cognitive assistants or agents and will link to a complementary PhD at Coventry University.

The PhD programme will benefit from support from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory’s Assisted Living Studio and research on behavioural activity analysis and recognition, and UWE’s work in Data Fusion, Integration, and Mining from its Centre for Complex Cooperative Systems, together with external supervisory support from Coventry University’s School for Computing, Electronics and Maths and Centre for Technology Enabled Health Research.

Funding details

The studentship is available from 1 April 2017 for a period of three years, subject to satisfactory progress, and includes a tax-exempt stipend, which is currently £14,296 per annum.

In addition, full-time tuition fees will be covered for up to three years (Home/EU rates only). Overseas applicants will be required to cover the difference between Home/EU and the overseas tuition fee rates in each year of study.

For further information, including eligibility criteria and how to apply, please visit the ‘apply’ link below.

source:jobs.ac.uk