Studying with Fluidity
Doctoral students are an important part of Fluidity. As a Doctoral student, you will work with your
peers as a junior researcher and, where possible, will be co-located with
them. Many of our topics of research interrelate and benefit from high levels
of interaction between active researchers. We reinforce this interaction
through regular Fluidity workshops and your research skills will
improve through a vibrant taught research programme run by the School.
Additional facilities and training are also provided by the
Brunel
Graduate School.
If you are interested in pursuing your PhD studies with us, broad
topics of study are shown below along with details of who to contact for
an initial conversation. Please be aware that you will be expected to
demonstrate an understanding of the topic area as part of that
conversation. Our current opportunities are for self-funding PhD
students or those who already have a scholarship of some form - we have
no funded positions available at this time.
Research Opportunities
Current research opportunities that are business and case-study
oriented include:
- Sense-making and adaptation in business
practice. This theme explores (a) organisational change in light of
adaptive principles and mechanisms and (b) issues in the coupling of
technology to other aspects of an information system. Contact Dr.
Mark Lycett.
- Service science. This theme
explores the (a) theory of service design, implementation and
innovation in light of adaptive principles and mechanisms and (b)
practice in early adopters of the approach.
Research opportunities that are more technology and
implementation-based include:
- Enactive cognition and information
technology. This theme explores (a) the limits of the
enactive approach to cognition in the context of systems that are
limited in their embodiment and, more radically, (b) machine
consciousness. Contact Dr. Mark Lycett.
- Adaptive mechanisms via agent and
service-based technology. This topic links sense-making with
viability, exploring how technologies that embrace modularity and
coordination can be used to better couple people, action and
information technology (etc.)
in context. Contact Dr. Sergio de Cesare or Dr. David Bell.
- Intelligent infrastructure.
Linking with enactive cognition, this topic explores how (a)
ubiquitous and smart devices may be harnessed to improve
sense-making and (b) technologies such as Grid may be used to
distribute sense-making. Contact Dr. David Bell.
- Ontology-based development. This
topic explores ontology development and learning as a means of
understanding and representing the sense a system has of its domain
of use. Contact Dr. Sergio de Cesare.
Of course, if you are passionate about a topic that is not listed
above but that fits within the remit of the group, please do not
hesitate to contact us.
