Available to:
UK, Europe (Non-UK), International (Non-UK/EU)
At level(s):
PG (research)
Application deadline:
17 December 2015
The Wearable Technologies Laboratory (Dr. Daniel Roggen, http://www.sussex.ac.uk/strc/research/wearable), part of the Sensor Technology Research Centre at the University of Sussex (UK), is looking for candidates for a PhD in the field of Wearable/Mobile/Ubiquitous Computing and Activity/Context Recognition.
One fully funded scholarship is available for a candidate showing interest in one of the projects described below. The scholarship offers a stipend of £14,057 towards living expenses and a full fee waiver at the UK/EU rate (currently £4,052) over 3 years. We welcome non-UK/EU applicants as well, but they will have to cover the shortfall between UK/EU and Overseas fees. The positions are to be filled by December 31st.
Ideal candidates have master’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, or equivalent. They have a very strong interest in research and outstanding technical skills. They have a passion to contribute to the development of next generation wearable systems, and a strong interest in research at the crossroads of signal processing and machine learning, embedded systems, sensor technologies and their applications. They should be committed to publish research results and to obtain a doctoral degree. Additionally, we expect mastery of written and spoken English, self-motivation, an inquiring mind, be able to work independently and in an interdisciplinary environment.
The selected candidate will join an interdisciplinary research centre with state of the art computing and electronics facilities and a wide range of techologies at hand: augmented reality glasses, smartwatches, novel sensor technologies, ad-hoc sensor nodes, etc…
Project 1: Open-ended activity and context awareness in wearable computing
As wearables become accepted by the general public, there is a tremendous potential to use them as smart assistive devices. Wearables are continuously on the user or in its close proximity; therefore they can make use of sensors to infer its activities and behaviour and the context in which they occur. This offer new possibilities to provide personalised and real-time assistance.
This project aims to develop systems capable of recognizing an open-ended set of human activities and context. By contrast, current wearable system only recognize very limited pre-defined set of activities or contexts, which is insufficient for the next generation of smart assistants. This project develops methods to reduce the effort associated with acquiring machine learning training data which are used to classify wearable sensor signals (e.g. motion, sound) to activities or context. This is achieved by exploiting crowd-sourcing principles and reuse and translation of datasets (e.g. from Youtube to wearable sensors) with implicit (e.g. system identification) and explicit (e.g.
transfer learning) shared representations.
You will join a team with a postdoc working on related aspects of open-endedness.
Some of the research areas you may come in contact with this PhD include signal processing, applied machine learning, data mining, big data, cloud services, crowd-sourcing, system identification, sensor technologies, computer vision, mobile/embedded programming.
Project 2: Wearable technologies and applications
As wearable technologies become more accepted by the general public, there is a tremendous potential to use them as smart assistive devices. Wearables are continuously on the user or in its close proximity; therefore they can make use of sensors to infer the activities and behaviour of the user and the context in which they occur. This offer new possibilities to provide personalised and real-time assistance to the user. The domains of applications are very broad: from healthcare (“memory prosthesis” for people with dementia, Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis support, rehabilitation), to sports performance analysis and training, educational uses, human-robot interaction, industrial and safety applications.
A PhD in wearable technologies and their applications is necessarily interdisciplinary. Some of the research areas you may come in contact with this PhD include signal processing, applied machine learning, human-computer interaction, embedded systems, sensor technologies, and mobile programming, with a concern about validation in ecologically valid user trials.
Project 3: Low-power contextual awareness in flexible wearable electronics
As technology advances the electronics of wearables will eventually become flexible (the university of Sussex is one of the leading UK university researching flexible and stretchable transistors) to be integrated into “smart shirts”, in flexible patches, or even to be directly implanted under the skin.
Within this project you will develop novel means to infer human activities and context that are suitable for the next generations of flexible and implantable wearables. It will comprise designing unconventional algorithms for contextual awareness from large number of sensors (sensor fusion) that are extremely low power and can be realised in a tiny footprint. This may involve design of dedicated algorithms at the gate (digital) or even transistor (analog) level.
Some of the research areas you may come in contact with this PhD include flexible and stretchable electronics, signal processing, human activity/context recognition, wearables, signal processing, applied machine learning, embedded systems, digital and analog circuit design, sensor technologies.
The Wearable Technologies Laboratory (Dr. Daniel Roggen,http://www.sussex.ac.uk/strc/research/wearable), part of the Sensor Technology Research Centre at the University of Sussex (UK), is looking for candidates for a PhD in the field of Wearable/Mobile/Ubiquitous Computing and Activity/Context Recognition.
As wearables become accepted by the general public, there is a tremendous potential to use them as smart assistive devices that can react to specific user activities, contexts and needs. Developments in flexible electronics also opens up new possibilities for wearables and implantables.
Several PhD research projects are available; the interested candidate must indicate preference for one of the following research topics:
1. Open-ended activity and context awareness in wearable computing
2. Wearable technologies and applications
3. Low-power contextual awareness in flexible wearable electronics
For more details on these projects, seehttp://www.sussex.ac.uk/strc/research/wearable/positions
The selected candidate will join an interdisciplinary research centre with state of the art computing and electronics facilities and a wide range of technologies at hand: augmented reality glasses, smartwatches, novel sensor technologies, ad-hoc sensor nodes, etc.
Depending on the project, some of the research areas you may come in contact during your PhD include signal processing, applied machine learning, data mining, big data, cloud services, crowd-sourcing, sensor technologies, mobile/embedded programming, human-computer interaction, circuit design, etc.
Type of award
Postgraduate Research
Award amount
£14,057 tax free stipend plus a fee waiver to the UK/EU amount
Eligibility
Ideal candidates have master’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, or equivalent. They have a very strong interest in research and outstanding technical skills. They have a passion to contribute to the development of next generation wearable systems, and a strong interest in research at the crossroads of signal processing and machine learning, embedded systems, sensor technologies and their applications. They should be committed to publish research results and to obtain a doctoral degree. Additionally, we expect mastery of written and spoken English, self-motivation, an inquiring mind, be able to work independently and in an interdisciplinary environment.
Application procedure
Prior to applying, contact Dr. Daniel Roggen ([email protected]), under whom you would carry your PhD research, for an informal discussion.
Afterwards, Applications must be submitted via the University of Sussex Postgraduate Admissions System athttp://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/pg/applying/2015entry. Applicants should select the Engineering PhD.
Please indicate on the application that you wish to be supervised by Dr. Daniel Roggen and mention which project you are interested in. Applicants should provide a statement outlining your particular interest in the project for projects 1&3; for project 2 a research proposal is requested.
Timetable
The deadline for applications is December 17th.
The positions are to be filled by December 31st.
Further information
More details on the project:http://www.sussex.ac.uk/strc/research/wearable/positions
More information about the Sensor Technology Research Centre:http://www.sussex.ac.uk/strc
More information about the Wearable Technologies Lab:http://www.sussex.ac.uk/strc/research/wearable
Contact details
Prior to applying, contact Dr. Daniel Roggen ([email protected]), under whom you would carry your PhD research, for an informal discussion.
How to apply & Further information
Prior to applying, contact Dr. Daniel Roggen ([email protected]), under whom you would carry your PhD research, for an informal discussion.
Afterwards, Applications must be submitted via the University of Sussex Postgraduate Admissions System athttp://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/pg/applying/2015entry. Applicants should select the Engineering PhD.
Please indicate on the application that you wish to be supervised by Dr. Daniel Roggen and mention which project you are interested in. Applicants should provide a statement outlining your particular interest in the project for projects 1&3; for project 2 a research proposal is requested.
