PhD Scholarship on 'Modelling transport and energy choices using big data sources'  for Home UK/EU Students at ITS Leeds


We are looking for a highly motivated student to conduct PhD research on using emerging big data sources for choice modelling including, but not limited to, GPS traces, mobile phone records, bank and loyalty card transactions and geo-coded social-media data. Please see details below.


Topic: Large-scale modelling of transport and energy choices using emerging big data sources



Supervisors:  Dr Charisma Choudhury &  Prof Stephane Hess



Host school: Choice Modelling Centre (www.cmc.leeds.ac.uk<http://www.cmc.leeds.ac.uk/> ) at Institute for Transport Studies (www.its.leeds.ac.uk<http://www.its.leeds.ac.uk/> ), University of Leeds


Project Summary :

Choice modelling is a key analytical tool used to understand consumer decisions and valuations and forecast choices across a range of topic areas, including transport, environmental and health economics, and regional science. The outputs of the choice models form a key component in guidance underpinning government and industry decisions on changes to policy, infrastructure developments or the introduction of new services or products.

Choice modellers typically rely on survey data, either paper or web-based which are expensive to collect and often have reporting errors and other issues.  On the other hand, over the last decade, passively collected data sources, which are typically very large and commonly termed as ‘Big Data’, have emerged as a very promising source of long, medium and short-term choices which serves as the motivation for this PhD topic.

The research will potentially build upon our recent research on developing methodologies to enhance mode choice models with large-scale GPS data (Calastri et al. 2017) and on successfully using mobile phone data in modelling trip generation (Bwambale et al. 2017) and route choice behaviour (Bwambale et al. 2018). Particular focus will be on combining these with traditional data sources to further enhance this research direction which is not only academically novel and challenging but also capable of producing results that have real-world benefits. Further, the project will investigate the potential to apply these types of big data in jointly modelling activity durations and patterns beyond transport which can play a crucial role in developing next-generation energy consumption models.



Funding and duration: Funding is available for a duration of up to 3.5 years



Open to: UK/EU students (award to EU students will be fees only unless residency requirements are met)



Eligibility: The minimum requirement is a UK Upper Second Class Honours or equivalent in a Quantitative Discipline.  Desired skills include strong numerical aptitude, some experience in computer programming and interest in choice and behaviour modelling using Big Data



Full details: https://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=92298



Application Deadline: February 28, 2018



Enquiries, including on how to apply, may be made to Dr Charisma Choudhury, email [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.


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Charisma F. Choudhury, PhD, FHEA


Deputy-Director, Choice Modelling Centre
Leader of the Choice Modelling Group, Institute for Transport Studies
University of Leeds
https://www.its.leeds.ac.uk/people/c.choudhury