PhD Studentship - Revitalizing Conservation in the Home

Project Description

We invite PhD applications for a studentship based at the UCL Knowledge Lab and the Mobile Computing and Birkbeck University of London. The studentship represents an exciting collaboration between the two groups, to advance their joint research interests in environmental sustainability.

The studentship is focused on the development of a novel design paradigm for home heating technologies. In recent years, such technologies have become a lived reality for many households and are seen as a critical intervention in the pathway to Net Zero. The project is positioned within research in the social sciences showing how household occupants use a range of situated and creative ways to conserve energy evidencing the embodied knowledge and skills people apply to their everyday living. Motivated by the climate impacts young people face and thus the importance of involving them in future visions of energy, the focus will be on families with teenagers, a domain which has received less attention in the literature.

In its aim to contribute a new understanding on how to design future technology for energy conservation, contextualised to home heating, the project will pursue three research objectives:

• Understand how families perform energy conservation in everyday life, the range of situated practices they use, and the negotiations that may arise intergenerationally
• Devise and evaluate toolkits comprising physical materials and digital sensors that allow families from a range of backgrounds to participate in the co-design of new physical energy conservation technologies for the home
• Develop functional prototypes of energy conservation technologies toward generating novel design principles for future technology and serving as proof-of-concepts

In a design-oriented research programme involving 12-15 families with teenagers (aged 13-17) the methodology will include ethnography-inspired qualitative research in the home and participatory design with families.

Candidate specification

• A post-graduate degree in HCI, or a relevant discipline
• Experience with physical computing and interaction design of tangible/material artefacts
• Experience conducting qualitative user research
• Preparedness to work during out-of-office hours to conduct field work
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills

Desirables include:

• Knowledge of Sustainable HCI and/or social science research in home heating practices
• Experience working with diverse populations and maintaining research engagement

For a full job description and details on how to apply for this studentship please visit UCL’s online recruitment portal by clicking the 'Apply' button, above.

What we offer

The UKRI annual stipend rate for the studentship is £21,237 and Home fees are paid.