Fully funded PhD studentship on data-driven techniques for low-carbon, healthy homes

About the project

Project title: Data-driven techniques for low-carbon, healthy homes
Project supervisors: Dr Phil Symonds, Dr Giorgos Petrou, Dr Zaid Chalabi
Project ID: 2228bd1165 (You will need this ID for your application)

The UK must urgently retrofit its building stock to reach net-zero targets by 2050. The move to low energy homes is more urgent than ever as the population faces energy and cost-of-living crises. Each year in England and Wales, there are on average nearly 800 excess deaths associated with heat and over 60,500 associated with cold. UK housing must become more efficient and better adapted to provide thermally comfortable conditions in both summer and winter. 

The primary aim of the project will be to improve our understanding of the relationship between UK housing characteristics (particularly their low-carbon credentials), indoor temperatures, and health outcomes (related to heat and cold exposure). Data driven and causal inference techniques will be used to derive relationships between outdoor and indoor temperatures for UK homes by location, dwelling characteristics, and occupancy type. A Bayesian calibration framework will be used to further validate an established UK housing stock model (UK-HSM) using a large nationally representative dataset of indoor temperatures. The health impacts of heat and cold exposure under various retrofit, adaptation and climate change scenarios will be assessed.

This doctoral research will be supervised by Dr Phil Symonds who has extensive expertise in building stock modelling and the analysis of large datasets through cutting edge statistical and machine learning techniques. Subsidiary supervisors will include Dr Giorgos Petrou and Dr Zaid Chalabi who have expertise in Bayesian calibration and mathematical methods, respectively.

About the Supervisory Team

Dr Phil Symonds is a Lecturer at UCL IEDE, with extensive experience in the development of health impact models related to the impacts of home energy efficiency. Phil has worked on a variety of research projects related to the health impacts of decarbonising the built environment including the EPSRC funded Complex Built Environment Systems (CBES) Platform Grant and more recently on the Wellcome Trust funded Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health (CUSSH) project. He was also recently PI on the UCL Health of the Public funded houSing feaTures and Risk of Injury in chilDrEn (STRIDE) project. 

Dr Giorgos Petrou is a Research Fellow in Building Physics and Urban Modelling at UCL IEDE with research experience in indoor overheating and heat exposure analysis, and the use Bayesian calibration of archetype-based models. He is currently the PI for the pilot study on the application of Causal Inference Methods in Complex Built Environment Research (CIMBER). 

Dr Zaid Chalabi is Honorary Associate Professor in Mathematical Modelling at UCL, IEDE with expertise in mathematical methods spanning deterministic, stochastic and fuzzy methods, as well as numerous areas of applied mathematics. He has applied his modelling skill in many diverse disciplinary areas including the indoor environment.

Key information

Funder: UCL ESPRC DTP studentship
Value: Fees, Stipend (at least £20,668 per year), Research Training Support Grant
Duration: Up to 4 years (thesis to be submitted within funded period)
Eligible Fee Status: Home, International (EPSRC caps the total number of funded International fee status students across UCL for this award at 30%)
Study Mode: Full or Part time (at least 50% FTE) [Note: Part time is not available to International students]
Primary Selection Criteria: Academic merit
Project ID: 2228bd1165 (You will need this ID for your application)
Application Deadline: 12:00 on 26 January 2023

How to apply

This PhD Studentship topic is one of 19 proposed by The Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources to a competition for approximately 60 studentships that will be awarded across UCL as part of the UCL EPSRC DTP. Prospective students are welcome to apply for up to 5 potential studentships - see the full list of projects from our department and the UCL project database for a comprehensive list across the university. The 60 successful proposals will be chosen following applicant interviews.

Before applying, all applicants must read the full eligibility criteria and application guidance on the UCL EPSRC DTP website. There is a 3-part application process, with a deadline of the 26 January 2023 to complete the third part of the application.