Qualification Type: | PhD |
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Location: | Newcastle upon Tyne |
Funding for: | UK Students, EU Students, International Students |
Funding amount: | £17,668 (2022/23 UKRI rate) |
Hours: | Full Time |
Placed On: | 13th February 2023 |
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Closes: | 15th April 2023 |
Reference: | ENG110 |
Award Summary
100% of home tuition fees paid and annual living expenses of £17,668 (2022/23 UKRI rate).
Overview
As an emerging concept, digital twins have been extensively explored to create up-to-date virtual counterparts of physical assets (e.g., roads, bridges, buildings), mirroring, analysing, optimising, and predicting asset performance. Real-time data is the key to achieving the convergence between physical and cyberspace. Leveraging backbone digital technologies, the value from data is unleashed following the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) Pyramid.
However, the adoption of digital twins in managing urban buildings and infrastructure faces major challenges. As socio-technical systems, the complexity and uncertainty of infrastructure systems stem from the interactions and interdependencies between a diverse range of social, technical, and contextual elements in and around the system. Live data alone, cannot completely explain and forecast the complex behaviour of such systems.
This project focuses on developing a cognitive digital twin framework based on semantic modelling and ontologies, which can effectively and efficiently exploit implicit knowledge from domain expertise and public knowledge bases. This project will empower the established infrastructure digital twin with cognition capabilities, meaning it can perform human-like intelligent activities such as attention, perception, comprehension, memory, reasoning, prediction, decision-making, and most interestingly evolution with accumulated data and knowledge. The development will be of use to wider areas, including decision-making for promoting infrastructure resilience and net zero.
Number Of Awards
One
Start Date
18th September 2023
Award Duration
3 Years
Application Closing Date
15th April 2023
Sponsor
Newcastle University
Supervisors
Dr Xiang Xie, Prof Mohamad Kassem, Prof Philp James
Eligibility Criteria
You must have, or expect to gain, a minimum 2:1 Honours degree or international equivalent in a relevant subject or subject relevant to the proposed PhD project (e.g., civil engineering, information engineering, computing, mathematics, etc.). Enthusiasm for research, the ability to think and work independently, excellent analytical skills and strong verbal and written communication skills are also essential requirements. A demonstratable interest in one of the following areas is desirable: Building Information Modelling (BIM), Geographic Information System (GIS), knowledge graph for knowledge management, coding and programming.
Home and international applicants (inc. EU) are welcome to apply and if successful will receive a full studentship. Applicants whose first language is not English require an IELTS score of 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in all sub-skills.
International applicants may require an ATAS (Academic Technology Approval Scheme) clearance certificate prior to obtaining their visa and to study on this programme.
How To Apply
You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal
Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’.
Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study:
You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Questions’ section:
Contact Details
Please contact Dr Xiang Xie xiang.xie@newcastle.ac.uk
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