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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
PhD Project Template
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Use one form per project
Please complete & submit to international@nuigalway.ie as soon as possible, and by 27/11/2012
In your email, begin the subject line with [SWB] (be sure to use square brackets) to ensure that
your email is filed correctly. Emails will be automatically filed
PI name & contact details:
School:
Jamie Goggins; Jamie.Goggins@nuiglaway.ie;
+35391492609
College of Engineering & Informatics
Has project been agreed with head (or
nominee) of proposed registration school?
Research Centre / group affiliation:
Research group / centre website:
PI website / link to CV:
Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy
Research
Built Environment & Smart Cities;
http://www.ryaninstitute.ie/
http://www.nuigalway.ie/civileng/Staff/jamiegoggins.html
Brief summary of PI research / research group / centre activity (2 or 3 lines max):
If you are already involved in relevant scholarly activities relating to Brazil, please mention them here.
The Built Environment & Smart Cities is a multi-disciplinary research activity of the Ryan Institute
that relates to the design, construction and management of buildings and infrastructure that
broadly encompasses technology, economics and sociology.
Title & brief description of PhD project (suitable for publication on web):
Environmental lifecycle assessment of buildings
The objective of this research is to derive an environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) tool for
buildings that include both operational and embodied energy, as well as greenhouse gas emissions
(in the form of equivalent carbon dioxide, henceforth referred to as embodied carbon). This
environmental LCA tool will be utilised for case study buildings to highlight the significant life cycle
contribution of embodied energy and carbon. Data will be obtained from demonstrator buildings
during both their construction and operational phases to inform parameters of the LCA tool. CFD
analysis for the operational phase will be validated using data measured from sensors located in the
demonstrator buildings. It has been shown that the embodied energy contribution of the whole
energy usage for a building over a 60 year lifespan can typically be greater than 20% for residential
buildings. More importantly as operational efficiency of dwellings increases, embodied
contributions consequently rise with the embodied energy contribution of the whole energy usage
found to be up to 45%. The embodied carbon contributions can be even higher due to
decarbonisation of the electricity supply market, as countries move towards renewable sources of
energy. The research outlined can assist in this by deriving benchmark values which could
potentially be used in future building regulations to move towards homes with lower embodied
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
energy and carbon materials.
Unique selling points of PhD project in NUI Galway:
In 2011, all Engineering units in the National University of Ireland, Galway relocated to a new stateof-the-art 140,000 sq.ft building costing almost €45m; As all Engineering disciplines are housed in
the one building and engineering disciplines share many of the laboratories, collaboration between
different engineering disciplines is rich, leading to multi-disciplinary research projects. Furthermore,
as an affiliated researcher of the Ryan Institute's (http://www.ryaninstitute.ie/ ), I am committed to
knowledge sharing and collaboration across the sciences, engineering, social sciences and medicine.
The Structured PhD offered in Engineering at NUI Galway is a 4-year programme which offers added
value to the core component of doctoral training. Students on this programme are offered
disciplinary or dissertation specific modules, as well as generic and transferable skills designed to
meet the needs of an employment market that is wider than academia.
The programme is flexible and student centred, as candidates choose their own pathways in
consultation with their Supervisor and Graduate Research Committee.
Name & contact details for project queries, if different from PI named above:
Please indicate the graduates of which disciplines that should apply:
Graduates from Engineering and Sciences are encouraged to apply, especially those from the
following disciplines:
Civil Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Industrial Engineering
Applied Physics
Material Science
Environmental Science
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Please indicate the specific programme priority area under which the proposed PhD project fits- choose only
one (tick box):
Engineering and other technological areas
X
Pure and Natural Sciences (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry)/Physical Sciences (Mathematics,
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geosciences)
Health and Biomedical Sciences / Clinical, Pré-clinical and Health Sciences
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Computing
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
Sustainable Agricultural Production
Oil, Gas and Coal
Renewable Energy
Minerals, Minerals Technology
Biotechnology
Nanotechnology and New Materials
Technologies for Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Disasters
Bioprospecting and Biodiversity
Marine Sciences
Creative Industry
New technologies in constructive engineering
Please indicate which of the following applies to this project (referring to Science Without Borders
arrangements):
Suitable only as a Full PhD (Y/N): _ _N___
Available to candidates seeking a Sandwich PhD arrangement (Y/N): ___Y__
Suitable for either/Don’t know: _____