Connectionists: Fully funded PhD position on “Surprise” in Smart City Data Analytics

[Herzallah, Randa]

Fully funded PhD studentship in Aston University, UK

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ANN823/surprise-in-smart-city-data-analytics/<https://jobs.aston.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=R160152>


Applications are invited for a three year Postgraduate studentship, supported by the School of Engineering and Applied Science, to be undertaken within the Non-linearity and Complexity Research Group<http://www.aston.ac.uk/eas/research/groups/ncrg/> at Aston University. The successful applicant will join an established experimental group working on signal processing and probabilistic modelling and control of complex dynamical systems. The studentship is offered in collaboration with Living PlanIT<http://www.living-planit.com/> SA.

The position is available to start in October 2016 (subject to negotiation)

Financial Support
This studentship includes a fee bursary to cover the home/EU fees rate plus a maintenance allowance (£14,296 in 2016/17).

Applicants from outside the EU may apply for this studentship but will need to pay the difference between the ‘Home/EU’ and the ‘Overseas’ tuition fees (approximately £12,000 per annum). Confirmation that this additional funding support is in place will be required as part of the application process.

Background of the Project
In collaboration with Living PlanIT<http://www.living-planit.com/> SA, this project will focus on the data analytics, interactive visualisation and the automatic detection of surprise (anomalous behaviour) under dynamic and non-stationary situations. Using mathematical models derived from data sampled from an urban scene, this project will explore departures from expected normal behaviour of small cohorts of individuals. The analysis of video and image streams supplemented by smart phone and social media sources of information will be used to derive human-interpretable visualisation of mass information. The project will explore principled information-theoretic measures of “surprise” denoting expected departures of predicted behaviour, which could be used as alerts feeding into decision making systems to inform town authorities or planners or control systems managing the urban environment.

Person Specification
The successful applicant should have a first class or upper second class honours degree or equivalent qualification in areas such as Electrical & Computer Engineering, Applied Mathematics or Applied Physics. Preferred skill requirements include knowledge/experience of signal processing, machine learning, time series methodologies, data mining, probabilistic modelling, and computational analysis.

We would particularly like to encourage applications from women seeking to progress their academic careers. Aston University is committed to the principles of the Athena SWAN Charter<http://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charter-marks/athena-swan/>, recognised recently by a prestigious Silver Award to EAS, and we pride ourselves on our vibrant, friendly and supportive working environment and family atmosphere.

For informal enquiries about this project and other opportunities within the Non-linearity and Complexity Research Group, contact Randa Herzallah by email r.herzallah at aston.ac.uk<mailto:r.herzallah at aston.ac.uk> or David Lowe d.lowe at aston.ac.uk

The online application form, reference forms and details of entry requirements, including English language are available here<http://www1.aston.ac.uk/eas/research/prospective-research-students/how-to-apply/>.

Applications must also be accompanied by a short research proposal including a brief relevant literature review linked to this project, and explaining how your knowledge and experience will benefit the project.

____________________________________________
Dr Randa Herzallah
Non-linearity and Complexity Research Group
Aston University
Aston Triangle
Birmingham, B4 7ET
UK
tel: +44 121 204 3533
fax: +44 121 204 3685
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