Department for the Economy (DfE) funded PhD Studentship in Machine Learning of Big Data to Discover Mental Health Behaviour Patterns

Applications are invited for a DfE funded PhD studentship tenable in the Faculty of Computing & Engineering at the Jordanstown Campus. Please note that a faculty reorganisation is underway at Ulster and this studentship will be based within the new structure in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment.

Project Summary:

The work undertaken in this interdisciplinary PhD project between the Computer Science Research Institute and Psychology Research Institute will primarily involve data analysis and mining of call data from helpline charities, but will also explore other related open and geo-located data and apply novel machine learning approaches to discover spatio-temporal patterns and other patterns that can be used to inform policy for government and charities that, for example, offer helpline services and other interventions.

Project detail:

The research will formulate and seek to answer research questions around call and caller behaviour and examine if signifiers of ‘social wellbeing’ from social media as well as demographic data from open data sources help more in providing insights into call and caller behaviour. The work undertaken will firstly develop a data warehouse to collate and maintain and link, helpline data, as well as open and social media data. The data will then be provisioned for analysis using novel machine learning algorithms, specifically designed or extended to discover patterns of behaviour in helpline data and then reveal any interrelationships between this data and open and social data. All data will be processed to ensure that individuals cannot be identified. It will also be marked up semantically and data will be exposed for external use via a simple Application Programming Interface (API) and synthetic data streams. This will result in an open, experimental platform capable of discovering temporal, geospatial, and other patterns of mental health and emotional wellbeing, as well as visualising such patterns using appropriate interactive visualisation tools

Entrance Requirements:

Candidates should have ordinary UK residence to be eligible for both fees and maintenance. Non UK residents who hold ordinary EU residence may also apply but if successful will receive fees only. All applicants should hold a first or upper second class honours degree in Computer Science or a cognate area. Applications will be considered on a competitive basis with regard to the candidate’s qualifications, skills experience and interests. Successful candidates will enrol as of 1 October 2017, on a full-time programme of research studies leading to the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

The studentship will comprise fees together with an annual stipend of £14,553 and will be awarded for a period of up to three years subject to satisfactory progress.

If you wish to discuss your proposal or receive advice on this project please contact:

Prof Maurice Mulvenna, [Email Address Removed]
Dr Cherie Armour, [Email Address Removed]
Prof Siobhan O’Neill, [Email Address Removed]
Dr Raymond Bond, [Email Address Removed]

Procedure
For more information on applying go to ulster.ac.uk/research
Apply online ulster.ac.uk/applyonline

The closing date for receipt of completed applications is 18 August 2017

Interviews will be held in September 2017