Postgraduate Research Award PhD Scholarship
iCO2mmunity: Personal and community carbon footprint monitoring for university-wide engagement towards greener living
School of Computer Science and Information Technology, RMIT University
School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University
The Project
How to engage the building occupants and public with the issues of carbon emission reduction and energy use?
If the built environments can communicate to the occupants affectively about those issues, will this encourage behavioural change?
How does your personal carbon footprint measure up to your peers – daily, weekly, monthly?
The project aims to provide individual and community level engagement and public interventions towards greener behavioural changes using design and technological solutions. This is done by applying dual approaches of design-led research, informed by context-aware sensing and data analytics.
Crowdsourced and sensor data from mobile phones and social networks, if analysed and visualised, can indicate the level of green living awareness of individuals and communities. This project is designed to help RMIT staff and students to monitor and compare carbon footprints generated from their work, study, and travel activities. Data gathered from monitoring movements and activities of RMIT students and staff in, around, and outside the main buildings of the city campus will be correlated with personal carbon footprint andenergy consumption data.To engage the communities of staff and students in RMIT, this data will be analysed and visualized in an innovative way, through designing and developing adaptive and responsive environments.
The proliferation of mobile devices, sensors, and digital artefacts in our built environment has transformed spatial interactions in urban communities (Salim et al., 2010). This research project is situated in the nexus of ubiquitous computing and advanced architectural computing research areas, with a key research focus on applying context-aware computing, a significant enabling technology for the current era of pervasive computing, for developing interactive applications and persuasive technology.
The Research Team
This research project employs experts from design and computer science research in the School of Computer Science and IT and the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL), School of Architecture and Design, and Design Research Institute. With integrated approaches of computer science research and “research through design” (i.e. practice-based design research) (Downton, 2003) in the context of provisioning the RMIT virtual platform and interactive applications, the project will deliver practical technological outcomes that will be deployed and used by staff and students to increase self- and community- awareness of green living behaviours. This project is well-aligned with RMIT’s priority research areas of the Future of Cities.
The first PhD candidate, from design background, will be supervised by Dr. Flora Salim and A/Prof Jane Burry. The second PhD candidate, from computer science background, will be supervised by Dr. Flora Salim and Dr. Margaret Hamilton.
Dr. Flora Salim is anResearch Fellow at the School of Computer Science and Information Technology and the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL), RMIT University. Her expertise is primarily in the area of context-aware computing, data modelling and analysis, and intelligent systems. She received her PhD in Computer Science from Monash University in 2009. She has a rich experience in empirical computational modelling, simulation, and visualization for addressing key urban issues, such as energy consumption, public transport, and road safety. She also has an experience in designing visual representations and tangible interactive prototypes for supporting collaborative decision making processes in urban design and planning. She has published at least 40 peer-reviewed articles in significant international conferences, journals, and book chapters. She is a member of the team who won an ARC Linkage grant on integrating real-time information of public transport services and people movement in the city. She has secured other internal and external grants, including the IBM Smarter Planet Industry Skills Innovation Award 2010, the RMIT Ian Permezel Memorial Award 2010, Google Anita Borg Award, and Ian Potter Foundation Award. Dr. Flora Salim is also an ARC Postdoctoral Industry Fellow.
Dr. Margaret Hamilton is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Information Technology. Mobility is her main research area, and after investigating the implementation of tablet PC's in the multimedia and design program she and her team experimented with Solar Blue, abluetooth server, and undertook studies of mobile phone use on trains and trams. She is researching visualisations of public transport movements across the city of Melbourne. She has several research projects for interested students, ranging from PhD projects in software engineering, human computer interaction and education, to Honours, Masters and Summer Studentship research and projects. Past projects have involved mobile computing, bioinformatics, constructing websites and educational e-learning research.
A/Prof Jane Burry is Director of the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL), an associate professor in the School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University and an architect. Her research focus is mathematics in contemporary design. Jane is lead author of The New Mathematics of Architecture, Thames and Hudson, 2012. She is also engaged in research into model flexibility in early design, integration of analysis feedback in early design, design communication for distributed design collaboration, interactive physical and digital architecture. She has over fifty publications and has practiced, taught and researched across Australasia and Europe.
The PhD Project
The PhD Scholarshipsis available for a dynamic, independent individual with expertise in data analytics and visualisationsand an interest in building monitoring, sustainable design, and computer human interaction.The specific PhD project description and selection criteria are as follows.
PhD Project 1.Designing adaptive and responsive environments for greener behaviours
The PhD candidate will design multisensory probes to monitor energy use in relation to building occupancy, analyse the data andvisualise the information on various displays around RMIT campus as well as through custom-designed interactive and responsive art installations. The PhD candidate will come from design background and have good programming skills and experience in physical computing, environmental sensing, and data visualisations.
PhD Project 2: Context-aware activity and movement monitoring and analytics for greener campus
This project will investigate patterns of travel behaviours, movements, and activities across the campus that will be monitored through a mobile application that will be developed by the PhD candidate. Using sensors on the phone, location-aware applications can be created to monitor movements in and around RMIT campuses as well as commuting patterns to and from the campus. Data mining algorithms will be used to reveal hidden patterns in the wealth of data gathered from crowdsourced methods. Visual feedback will be provided to the individual users to encourage behavioural change. The visual analytics of the aggregated data will be provided to the property managers for building operational management and policy making. The PhD candidate will have a background in Computer Science or IT disciplines, and will have an experience in developing location-aware mobile application development, data analytics and visualisations.
Selection Criteria
The successful applicant should:
• Demonstrate excellent undergraduate academic performance in a field related to the proposed research.
• Have completed a Mastersdegreeor Honours degree (with a minor thesis or research component) with distinction.
• Have demonstrated research excellence in the field related to the proposed research through a relevant publication track-record resulting from their previous thesis work.
• Demonstrate the ability to organise and work independently as well as part of a team.
What does the scholarship provide?
• Tax-free stipend of $30,000 per annumover 3.5 years and an RTSplace for Australian citizens or permanent residents in a doctoral degree within the School of Computer Science and Information Technology /the School ofArchitecture and Design. A fee waiver may be available for outstanding international applicants.
• Applicants should discuss their eligibility with project leader DrFlora Salim from the School of CS & IT/ Design Research Institute before applying:
, phone +61 399254572