Health technology postgraduate research opportunities

There are many opportunities available for postgraduate study at the University of Plymouth. Please visit the postgraduate research studentships page for further information on EPSRC-funded health-related projects and details on how to apply.

Below are examples of projects connected to existing research, but we welcome applications in similar topics. Interested candidates should contact the respective academics listed below.

• A study collaborating with Tate St Ives to develop 'emotional data audits' from wearables
  
• Supervisors: Professor Katharine Willis, Dr Alejandro Reyes-Veliz, Dr Vasilios Kelefouras
  

• Developing the utility of sociometric badges to understand stakeholder networking patterns with applications to innovations in digital healthcare
  Supervisors: Dr Marco Palomino, Sebastian Stevens, Dr Arunangsu Chatterjee 

• Brain-computer music interfacing to enable people with severe motor-impairments to play musical instruments
  Supervisors: Professor Eduardo Miranda, Dr Edward Braund, Dr David Jenkins 

• Quantum computing tools for health technology: a music case study
  Supervisors: Professor Eduardo Miranda, Dr Alexis Kirke

• An internet of things solution for ambient assisted living
  Supervisors: Dr Asiya Khan, Professor Katharine Willis, Professor Ray Jones 

• Developing a socio-technical development process and a platform to accelerate innovation and growth of applied (serious) games for health and care in resource-poor settings
  Supervisors: Dr Swen Gaudl, Dr Arunangsu Chatterjee

• Human group robot interface challenges
  Supervisors: Professor Ray Jones, Dr Swen Gaudl

For further information, please contact the supervisors listed.

Students with secured funding and interested in other topics in the general areas shown below are welcomed to contact the Centre for Health Technology facilitators, Professor Ray Jones or Dr Arunangsu Chatterjee to discuss further.

• Social robotics
• Remote, self and telehealth and care
• AI (specifically voice-based interfaces)
• Virtual reality and games for health
• Innovation ecosystems, networks development and monitoring.

Student-led Knowledge Exchange Challenge Fund for Digital Health

Aims of the Challenge Fund

We will fund up to 15 projects in which students work with community and patient groups to raise awareness of digital health possibilities, raising awareness of research expertise in the University, and getting input and ideas from the community for further research. 

Projects will focus on groups that are often digitally disadvantaged whether by economic deprivation, rurality, isolation, sensory impairment, ethnicity, or mental or physical health. 

We encourage inter-disciplinary projects engaging not only students from the Faculty of Health (nursing, medicine, dentistry, health professions, psychology), but also computing, engineering, architecture, design, robotics, digital arts and more. However, the project must be led by a Faculty of Health student. 

Students will be helped by the charity Well Connected to make contact with community groups in Devon and Cornwall. In addition, in Cornwall, the EPIC project has extensive links with patient and community groups and students can be put in contact via researchers Rebecca Baines or Toni Page. 

Refer to the web to find out more about the research in the Centre for Health Technology (CHT). The CHT academics who have oversight of this Challenge Fund are: Ray Jones, Katharine Willis, Alison Warren, Tanja Krizaj, Ian Holt, Fiona Fraser, Sally Hanks, Rebecca Reynolds, Sheena Asthana, Arunangsu Chatterjee. 

Students are encouraged to work with CHT researchers and to identify research ideas and projects from their discussions with the community and patient groups. Wherever possible one outcome of the student-led project would be subsequent collaborative application for research funding to other funding bodies. 

If appropriate students are able to borrow equipment from the CHT digital device library (via Lloyd Taylor).

Example projects

Example projects might be to run online events with a patient group (e.g. Hearing Loss Cornwall), a community group (e.g. Nudge), or practice related group (e.g. Patient Participation Group), to discuss some aspect of digital health (e.g. video consultations, online triage, robot companions, the radio-me project). 

Other projects might be face-to-face, e.g. to show people (in a library, community centre or café) how to access health apps (such as Andrade’s FITZ) on a mobile phone, or to demonstrate the use of Facebook TV portal to a memory café group.

How to apply 

Download and complete the form below and submit to ray.jones@plymouth.ac.uk by 5pm 19 February 2021. 

A committee will review all applications in week beginning February 22nd and make up to 15 awards of £500 (£250 for the student team and £250 for the community or patient group). 

All successful projects will need to submit a summary report at the end of their project (which must be before 9 July). The award of £500 will be paid on receipt of that summary.

Criteria for assessment of applications:

• The lead applicant must by a University of Plymouth student from the Faculty of Health. There may be up to four student applicants. Credit will be given to inter-disciplinary teams.
• The project must focus on digital health/health technology and identify a link researcher from the CHT.
• The project must aim to involve people or groups in Devon or Cornwall who are often excluded from collaborative research in digital health. The application must be supported by an email/letter of support from the group.
• The proposed activity must be feasible and likely to have a successful outcome.
• The project must be completed and reported by 14 July.

Download the application form