(part of ‘Developing a safer and smarter transport system through advances in automation and intelligent mobility mini-CDT’)

The Project:

The vision of future transport is increasingly based on the concept of Intelligent Mobility (IM) where the connected capabilities of partially and fully autonomous vehicles, road infrastructure and traffic management systems place people and goods at the heart of the transport system. Together, road accidents and congestion cost the UK £50 billion a year. New intelligent technologies could deliver a step change in safety and mobility but they bring many research challenges. This mini-CDT will focus on five strategically selected areas of research in particular:

(1)    Systems of systems architecture

(2)    Safe and smart mobility

(3)    Connected vehicle technologies

(4)    Smart highways

(5)    Human factors

Aim/objectives:

Vehicles in the future will incorporate increasing levels of automation of the driving task and enhanced interface methodologies, and respond to changing demand characteristics of the environment, the connected life of the driver, and non-driving related activities. Key research challenges that these changes pose include: managing variable levels of driver-vehicle control, by defining handover points and taking into consideration the skill level, awareness and state of the driver; how the interior of an autonomous vehicle will change user interaction with it; the information content differences to be expected between autonomous and manually driven vehicles.

The Position

This PhD will be based within the School of Civil and Building Engineering in collaboration with the Loughborough Design School. The studentship is for three years and is intended to start in October 2015. The studentship provides a stipend of £13,863 per annum plus tuition fees at the UK/EU rate (currently £3,996 p.a.) for up to three years. International (non-EU) students may apply but will need to find the difference in fees between those for a ‘UK/EU’ and ‘international’ student themselves. Non-UK applicants must meet the minimum English language requirements, details available here:http://www.lboro.ac.uk/international/englang/index.htm

The studentship is open to graduates from disciplines including Civil Engineering, Systems Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Computer Science and Statistics, who are interested in autonomous transport systems, data fusion and statistical modelling. The minimum entry qualification is a 2.1 Honours degree or equivalent. Please add this outline proposal to your application.

For an informal discussion, please contact Prof Quddus at m.aquddus<στο>lboro.ac.uk  or Dr Aaron Anvuur at A.M.Anvuur<στο>lboro.ac.uk

For enquiries about the application process, please email pgr.civil<στο>lboro.ac.uk

To apply, please complete the online application using the following link:https://luis.lboro.ac.uk/web_apx/f?p=100:1

The closing date for applications is 31 March 2015

Interviews will take place week commencing 20 April 2015

Please quote the following reference when applying: GS15CBE2/M2