Artificial Intelligence & Data Science for Sustainable Futures

Our interaction with the natural environment plays a crucial role in all aspects of society: our health, wealth, safety and future development. The increasing availability of large and complex data sets from diverse sources (e.g. environmental monitoring; satellite remote sensing; climate modelling; electronic medical records; social media; and contributions from citizen science) presents an exceptional opportunity to transform our understanding of both the effects of environmental change and our planet-transforming power.
This PhD will develop methods for integrating of data from multiple inter-related sources using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide evidence for informed decision-making and increase our understanding of environmental challenges. The ability to fully exploit the power of data offers the possibility of a step-change in our ability to respond to some of the most pressing issues facing society; including climate change, health oceans and clean air.
Achieving this goal will require the ability to:

source and integrate data from multiple sources;
develop and apply modelling and computational frameworks that take account of both the data source and the application in question;
meet the operational needs of end-users, including accessible computational facilities, suitable time-lags between data retrieval and processing, and the production of user-defined outputs that integrate with existing business processes.
The result would be the information and tools that are required for decision making across a variety of sectors, including energy, water, transport, agricultural and government policy. It will also support efforts to address some of the most important challenges faced by society today, including mitigation and adaptation to climate change, air quality, reduction and reparation of environmental and ecosystem degradation, and preparedness and response to natural hazards.
However, there are challenges associated with discovering and...