This cutting-edge PhD project moves beyond simple analysis. It is designed around an explicit, two-part research journey to bridge the gap between technical metrics and human behaviour:
- Algorithmic Discovery & Empirical Validation: Deeply diagnosing the true societal, security, and environmental costs of hyper-sharing.
- Prototyping & Socio-Technical Interventions: Engineering and testing real-world digital remedies to protect users and the planet.
Candidates in this research will investigate the hidden, compounding costs of online media sharing across multiple critical domains:
- Security & Privacy: Identifying data leaks (such as location markers, biometrics, and background exposures) that fuel automated profiling and identity theft.
- Environmental Sustainability: Quantifying the invisible carbon footprint and data centre bloat caused by constant high-definition media transit.
- Socio-Psychological: Mapping the behavioural triggers, algorithmic feedback loops, and erosion of shared peer privacy native to Meta platforms.
- Political & Economic: Exploring how massive repositories of public media are weaponised for digital exploitation and synthetic media training data.
The project is highly interdisciplinary, at the intersection of Computer Science and Human Behavioural Factors, and will leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies, as well as empirical studies, to understand human behaviour in these areas and to develop digital solutions.
The successful applicant will join a supportive research community and have opportunities to collaborate with clinical partners, educators, and technology developers. You will gain skills in AI, Sustainability, Cyber Security and Human Computer Interaction.
Applicants should have an Honours Degree at 2.1 or above (or equivalent) in Computer Science or related disciplines. In addition, they should have excellent programming skills in Python, statistical tools & techniques and an interest in machine learning and AI.
Funding Notes
There is no funding for this project
