Name(s) of Supervisor(s): Professor Stephen Payne, Computer Science & Dr Linda Newnes Mechanical Engineering (University of Bath)

Engineering design projects create an enormous digital footprint of communications and of incremental designs. Can this footprint be processed and visualized to enable project management as well as the design work itself?

A broad range of possible research contributions can help answer this question, across a range of disciplines in Engineering, Computer Science and Cognitive Science.

Depending on background discipline and interest, the student could study:

1.  Work practices in design projects, for example, to characterize the knowledge that underlies critical decisions.

2. Automatic computational techniques for the extraction of communication-features from digital footprints, such as affect of communications and how these might reflect changing relations among project partners and sub-projects.

3. New interactive techniques for visualiszing  complex data to facilitate decision making by individuals or by collaborating teams.

The PhD studentship will focus on a topic within this broad scope, according to the skills and interests of the successful candidate. The student will join an interdisciplinary team working on an EPSRC Programme Grant and will benefit from close collegiality as well as training and travel opportunities.

Funding Notes: The successful candidate will receive funding for 3 years. This will cover their full Home/EU tuition fees, a training support grant of £1,000/annum, and a standard tax-free maintenance payment of £14,057 (15/16 rate).

The successful applicant will have a First or Upper Second class degree in Computer Science or Engineering, or in Psychology, with a particular interest in understanding the role of computers in complex human information work.

He/She will be expected to start as soon as possible and before 30th June 2015.

Subject Areas:

Psychology & Psychiatry

Data Analysis

Mechanical Engineering 

Software Engineering

Information Science

Computer Science & IT

Enquiries to Prof Stephen Payne: S.J.Payne<στο>bath.ac.uk