Qualification Type: | PhD |
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Location: | Cambridge |
Funding for: | UK Students, EU Students, International Students |
Funding amount: | Fully-funded (fees and maintenance) |
Hours: | Full Time |
Placed On: | 3rd January 2023 |
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Closes: | 15th March 2023 |
Reference: | NM34837 |
By 2035, UK's building stock is expected to deliver 78% reduction in total carbon emissions from 2019 levels. Implementation of effective retrofits that yield both embodied and operational energy savings is thus critical. Glazing systems constitute a key element of a building as they are essential for a visual, safe, and thermally comfortable indoor environment. At the same time, they are also responsible for significant heat gains/losses. Indeed, there have been wide-ranging advancements in highly efficient and responsive glazing systems that harness new materials and IoT. The energy saving potential of these advancements has been evidenced across new-build but is yet to be leveraged in building retrofits -- partly because design solutions must conform to additional constraints of an existing structure, but also because lack of their integration and harmonisation with the wider energy and environmental management of buildings.
The principal objective of this project is to optimize responsive glazing systems for retrofitting buildings. The optimization will consider glazing systems as a connected intelligent component of a wider and integrated retrofit strategy, and optimize for cost, operational energy savings, embodied carbon, and human comfort. A second objective is to investigate the concept of 'intelligence through glass' and 'transparent intelligence' with respect to enabling technologies (eg. electronic interaction and sensing capability in conjunction with Artificial Intelligence) in the context of energy retrofitting.
Project Tasks
Applicants must demonstrate advanced understanding of building physics and numerical modelling. Good programming skills and experience in using Machine learning will be deemed advantageous.
Informal inquiries may be directed to Prof. Ruchi Choudhary (rc488@cam.ac.uk)
The EPSRC ICASE studentships are fully-funded (fees and maintenance) for eligible UK students. EU and international students may be considered for a small number of awards at the UK rate. Full eligibility criteria can be found via the following link; https://www.ukri.org/what-we-offer/developing-people-and-skills/epsrc/studentships/industrial-case/
Applicants should have (or expect to obtain by the start date) at least a good 2.1 degree in an Engineering or related subject.
Applications should be submitted via the University of Cambridge Applicant Portal www.postgraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/directory/egegpdpeg, with Prof. Ruchi Choudhary identified as the potential supervisor.
The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.
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