PhD Studentship in Aggregate Models for Media Asset Propagation and Consumption
Ulster Supervisors: Prof Gerard Parr, Prof Bryan Scotney, Dr Philip Morrow
BT Advisor: Dr. Steve Appleby
Expected start date: February 2009
Overview:
The following PhD project has been created under the auspices of the
India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC) of Excellence in Next Generation
Networks Systems and Services
(www.iu-atc.com).
During the lifetime of the project there will be opportunities to spend
a period of time as part of a related internship at BT Adastral Park in Martlesham,
UK and/or to visit one or more partner research institutes in India.
The successful candidate should therefore be willing to travel and spend some
time overseas as part of the research project. An Internship will be
supported by BT whilst any visits to India will be supported by our associated
UKIERI-DST project for the IU-ATC Virtual Graduate Research School.
Arrangements for the internship / visits will be made by the supervisory
team of the PhD project.
Project Specification:
There are various paradigms for digital media production, distribution
and consumption - from a few Hollywood studios to many consumers over a DVD
delivery network, to YouTube grazing. In order to be able to test proposed
network-based delivery architectures, the objective of this project is to
develop statistical models of aggregate consumer media asset consumption.
The intention is to find a quantifiable way to express the various influences
on a consumer's choice of content. Some influences may come from within a
consumer's social group, such as recommendation by a peer. Others will be
external to that group, such as a publicity campaign that would follow the
release of a major film. Other influences may be intermediate to these two
extremes, such as critical reviews.
Each different kind of influence has associated with it a different communications topology, and a different dynamic, driven by the consumer access technology and infrastructure. In the case of a major publicity campaign, communications propagate simultaneously to a large population (possibly globally) over a fixed period of time. One the other hand, when opinions about a particular asset propagate by 'word of mouth', the spatial and temporal aspects of opinion formation will be quite different. Internet applications, such as social networking sites, are not only changing the mechanisms by which people communicate, but are also influencing the logical and physical topologies and the QoE/QoS dynamics. A model of the kind described here will allow us to get a quantifiable view on how such attributes might affect media consumption dynamics.
The interest in the propagation of opinion, and the corresponding consumption decisions are far more general than just media. It is anticipated that there is already a considerable body of work on opinion propagation and on aggregate models of choice. Two areas which would seem to be an interesting route would be to combine Percolation Theory with Discrete Choice Theory. Percolation Theory would model the propagation of opinion through a given communications topology, and therefore provide a means to estimate utility, and Discrete Choice theory would provide means to model the conversion of utility to consumption decisions subject to economic constraints.
Eligibility:
Applicants should hold ordinary UK residence to be eligible for both fees
and maintenance. Non UK residents who hold ordinary EU residence may also
apply but if successful will receive fees only. All applicants should
hold a first or upper second class honours degree in Computer Science,
Electrical Engineering or a cognate area. It is desirable that candidates
will have an MSc in a related subject and have a good understanding of
statistical modelling and networking (some knowledge of economics would
be desirable).
Successful candidates will enrol on a full-time programme of research studies leading to the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The studentship will comprise fees and an annual stipend of £19,600 (stipends are normally tax exempt). It will be awarded for a period of up to three years subject to satisfactory progress and is tenable in the School of Computing and Information Engineering at the Coleraine Campus, Northern Ireland, UK.
The closing date for receipt of completed applications is 5th January 2009.
For further information please contact Professor Gerard Parr, Chair in Telecommunications Engineering, University of Ulster - gp.parr@ulster.ac.uk.
Application materials are available from:
Research Office,
University of Ulster,
Cromore Road,
Coleraine,
BT52 1SA,
Tel: 028 7032 4729,
e-mail; hj.campbell@ulster.ac.uk,
Web:
http://research.ulster.ac.uk/info/prospective/apply.html
