Socially intelligent management of built environments – Leverhulme Doctoral School in Nature Inspired Acoustics

This is a fully funded PhD opportunity within the Leverhulme Doctoral School in Nature Inspired Acoustics (The Leverhulme Doctoral School in Nature Inspired Acoustics (nia-leverhulme.org.uk)). The PhD focuses on study of hearing systems found in nature to help develop socially intelligent ways to manage resources in cities.

Management of Energy and Water Infrastructures in buildings and cities pose multiple conflicting and interconnected challenges. The use, communication and feedback of energy and water infrastructures has been extensively explored to accelerate behaviour change, manage demand, optimise and predict building(s) performance and support wider urban decarbonisation. However, the majority of technologies and systems developed to date have tended to overlook the complexity and uncertainty of infrastructure systems and citizens relationships, values and needs that underpin their use. Energy and water use hold meanings, associations and important visual and spatial perceptions related to a range of behavioural contextual, spatial and social issues. Rather than mainly communicating rational choices based on available information about costs and benefits of, management of water and energy —an essential tool for the decarbonisation of the built environment, fossil energy, and electricity—is characterised by a phenomenological process.

This project would develop a first of a kind intelligent multidimensional communication system for socially smart urban energy and water management drawing on visual-spatial intelligence related to energy and water use. The theme is highly multidisciplinary in approach – drawing expertise from both the architectural and visual research field (Oliveira) and hearing behaviours in insects (Windmill) to develop new knowledge on management of energy and water infrastructures. We will consider candidates from a range of disciplinary backgrounds including architecture, computational science, design, science and technology studies.