SPHERE is a £12M EPSRC flagship Healthcare Technology research programme comprising more than 35 postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers.
Imagine an invisible system of sensors integrated into your home, monitoring you in sickness and health, predicting the illnesses you are personally at risk from and giving personalised advice, based on your own risk factors, for how you could avoid illness in the future. Advances in sensing technologies and predictive data analytics make this vision of data-driven preventative health much more than science fiction – indeed already we are beginning to see the first wave of simple commercial apps and devices.
We are looking to nurture a new breed of healthcare scientist and engineer, pushing the capabilities of wireless, sensing, video, data analytics and energy harvesting and addressing the exponential growing healthcare needs of the global population. Meeting these needs in an economically-viable manner is currently a hot topic in industry, with many household names establishing R&D activity in this space. SPHERE includes project partners from industry (including IBM and Toshiba) and it is likely that successful applicants would work closely with these partners, possibly including placements in their laboratories.
Successful applicants will looking to conduct cutting-edge research in electronics and computer science, inspired by current and future healthcare needs. Successful applicants will also be responsible and ethical individuals, aware that invasive, pervasive, healthcare technology could potentially be seen as disruptive and threatening.
SPHERE‘s highly multi-disciplinary team of more than 35 postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers is working together across traditional academic boundaries. By undertaking your PhD in this genuinely unique flagship project, you will have the opportunity to work not only in a laboratory environment but also to deploy your prototype technologies with members of the public living in SPHERE’s own instrumented house in Bristol.
Due to its size, SPHERE is very broad and can work with you to define the precise topic of your PhD, however typical areas for study are:
- Ultra low power communications and wireless sensor networks
- Video analytics, including the use of Kinect depth cameras
- Energy harvesting, including wireless power transfer
- Machine learning and data analytics
at the time of application you do not have to specify a topic, although you may do so if you wish.
SPHERE team members undertake training and away days together and are also involved in major public engagement activities – including a recent wearable electronics competition which was launched in the presence of the UK Science Minister and which has brought together 60 students and professionals through the autumn of 2014. We have a number of international collaborators, attendance at leading international conferences is encouraged and travel funds are available.
Applications are welcomed from UK/EU students with, or expecting to gain, a first or upper second class honours degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Biomedical Engineering or related discipline.
Fully-funded SPHERE studentships are available to UK nationals/EU nationals who have been resident in the UK for 3 years or more.
SPHERE is pleased to offer an enhanced stipend of £15,500 in year 1 and £16,500 in years 2 and 3, and also provides an allowance for international conference attendance.
Application Deadline
29th January 2015
How to Apply
Further Information
For further information please contact the Director of SPHERE, Professor Ian Craddock, at ian.craddock<στο>bristol.ac.uk
Either select Computer Science (PhD) or Electrical and Electronic Engineering (PhD) on the application form and then indicate in the 'Research details' that the application is for the SPHERE studentship advert.