Postgraduate Research Award PhD Scholarship
iCO2mmunity: Personal and community carbon footprint monitoring for universitywide 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 and energy 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 an Research 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, a bluetooth 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 Scholarships is available for a dynamic, independent individual with
expertise in data analytics and visualisations and 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 and visualise 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 Masters degree or 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 annum over 3.5 years and an RTS place for
Australian citizens or permanent residents in a doctoral degree within the School of
Computer Science and Information Technology /the School of Architecture and
Design. A fee waiver may be available for outstanding international applicants.
• Applicants should discuss their eligibility with project leader Dr Flora Salim from
the School of CS & IT / Design Research Institute before applying:
flora.salim@rmit.edu.au, phone +61 3 9925 4572
http://florasalim.com