Dublin Institute of Technology Graduate Research School - PhD Programmes
DIT at A Glance • One of the largest higher education institutions in Ireland with over 10% of student population • In the top 3% of world university rankings (Times Higher Education and QS Rankings) • Voted Institute of the Year (The Sunday Times, 2011) • Autonomous Institution with statutory awarding powers for career focussed and professional degrees from Bachelor to Doctorate Level • Four Colleges xx
Arts and Tourism
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Business
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Engineering and Built Environment
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Sciences and Health
• Use-inspired, globally relevant research accounting for 20% of the licenses and options in Ireland • Four Research Themes xx
Environment and Health
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Information and Media Technologies
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New Materials and Technologies
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Society, Culture and Enterprise
Introduction to PhD Programmes Structured PhD programmes are specified programmes of education and training that are research-based and include activities that support the acquisition of a range of relevant specialist and transferrable skills. At DIT we have four thematic Structured PhD programmes: •
New Materials & Technologies
•
Information & Media Technologies
•
Environment & Health
•
Society, Culture & Enterprise
New Materials and Technologies
Information and Media Technologies
Environment and Health
Society, Culture and Enterprise
As a graduate student on one of these programmes you will complete your specialised research project in interdisciplinary research environments and simultaneously develop a range of discipline specific and transferrable skills and competencies utilizable by industry and the professions. All graduate students complete transferrable skills modules during the 4 year programme including Communication Skills, Ethics & Social Understanding, Personal effectiveness, Team-working & leadership, Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Professional & Career Management. All graduate students also complete discipline specific modules which are tailored to their individual research projects.
How to Apply All interested applicants are invited to complete an Expression of Interest available at www.dit.ie/graduateresearchschool.
New Materials and Technologies Graduate Students on DIT’s Structured PhD Programme, New Materials and Technologies, address research questions across the boundaries of Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Engineering with a strong focus on technologies. Our students collaborate within DIT and with Ireland’s National PhD platforms such as the National Biophotonics & Imagining Platform and the Integrated NanoScience Platform for Ireland. DIT research in this area encompasses: •
Radiation Biology
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Environmental Toxicology
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Holography & Interferometry
•
Nanomaterials
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Nonotoxicology
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Smart Coatings
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Therapeutics & Drug Delivery
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Biospectroscopy
Information and Media Technologies Graduate Students on DIT’s Structured PhD Programme, Information and Media Technologies specialise in information and communications technology across •
Computing
•
Gaming Technology
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Digital Media
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Electrical Engineering
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Wireless Communication
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Electronic Engineering
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Telecommunications
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Software & Entertainment Applications
Our students collaborate nationally and internationally and also participate in Ireland’s National PhD platforms such as the Telecommunication Graduate Initiative. Technologies developed by DIT researchers and graduate students are licensed through Hothouse, our award-winning technology transfer office and include ChiPs, a mobile application for learners of Chinese and Tunepal, Shazam and Spotify which have been listed by the Sunday Times in the top 20 cultural apps for the iPhone.
Environment and Health Graduate Students on DIT’s Structured PhD Programme, Environment and Health develop evidence-based interventions addressing environmental health problems with a strong focus on real solutions to global challenges. The specific areas of research focus include: •
Lifestyle & Policy
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Water Quality
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Air Quality
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Radiation & Noise
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Bio-monitoring
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Energy
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Food Quality & Safety
The research programme is augmented by cross-cutting activities including Policy and Technology Development. Our students collaborate within DIT and with Ireland’s Health Service Executive and Dublin City Council, the University of Ulster and the Institute of Public Health in Ireland and also participate in Ireland’s National PhD platforms such as the Agri-Food Graduate Development Programme and the Graduate Education Programme for Energy.
Society, Culture and Enterprise Graduate Students on DIT’s Structured PhD Programme, Society, Culture and Enterprise, pursue research projects across the areas of business, social and public policy and creative arts and media. DIT research in this area encompasses •
Creative & Performing Arts
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Social Care
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Education Policy
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Justice & Human Rights
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Enterprise & Entrepreneurship
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Consumer Studies
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Business and Society
Our students collaborate nationally and internationally and also participate in Ireland’s National PhD platforms such as the Graduate School for Creative Arts & Media (GradCAM). GradCam is Ireland’s leading centre for doctoral research across design, visual and performing arts, media practice and historical and theoretical discourses.
Why DIT Dublin Institute of Technology is a modern technological university providing professional education to doctoral level. It blends the academic excellence of a traditional university with career-focussed learning, discovery and the application of knowledge. DIT actively encourages and supports the development of new business ventures and continuing professional development opportunities and our structured PhD programme delivers professional transferable skills as well as research training within a disciplinary framework. As a graduate student you will have access to leading experts, state of the art equipment and facilities and will be encouraged to publish and present your research findings at international fora. You will be part of the research community and a member of our Graduate Research School where you will interact with other staff and students to make your time in DIT a truly memorable one.
Innovation@DIT – where Science meets Industry Research at DIT addresses key issues of national and global strategic importance. Across the Institute our researchers and graduate students are working hard to develop innovative solutions to next generation problems and translating their research into the development of new products, processes and policies. DIT has recorded some major successes over the last decade, including a significant rise in the number and level of competitive awards nationally and internationally, strong achievements in citation recognition for the excellence of our research and in commercialisation activity which is more than comparable to the world’s best.
Internships We strongly encourage PhD student mobility between DIT and enterprise but also between DIT and other Higher Education Institutions through internships and work-placements. These internships add value to the final thesis and can involve participation in a doctoral course or academic research at a recognized national or international university or scientific institution or enterprise.
Education in Ireland Ireland’s worldwide reputation for high quality education is built on the solid foundation of commitment to
Supportive learning environment - Dedicated international offices work closely with academic,
excellence. Ireland is a beautiful island, combining contemporary modern cities with an unspoilt countryside,
administrative and specialist staff to fully support students throughout their time in Ireland. Through these
cityscapes steeped in history and a rich natural habitat. Renowned for friendliness, our safe English-speaking
support structures, students receive direct access to information, facilities, services and staff.
country offers the warmest of welcomes to students from all over the world. Innovative and creative culture - Ireland is a land rich in cultural heritage with a history of world-leading A friendly, safe country - And it is not just us saying it! Ireland was voted by Lonely Planet as the world’s friendliest
innovation. From the flamboyance of Oscar Wilde to mould-breaking James Joyce, from the pioneering
country in 2008 and 2010 and was ranked 12th in the 2009 Global Peace Index. Our hospitable nature coupled
quantum physics of John Bell to Nobel Laureate Ernest Walton, Ireland’s unique innovative and creative culture
with an unrivalled sense of fun ensures living in Ireland is an unforgettable experience. The island’s varied
is an integral part of the Irish experience.
environment is ideal for many outdoor pursuits such as climbing, water sports and all kinds of ball and team sports. It’s easy to explore Europe from an Irish base with low-cost, frequent flights making trips affordable.
Distinguished graduates - Ireland’s graduates are innovators in their fields, leaders in their communities and ambassadors for excellence all around the world. Qualifications earned and connections made in Ireland
English-speaking country - Ireland is an English-speaking country with close cultural, economic and educational
deliver a passport to success.
links to the rest of the English-speaking world, especially the UK — our next door neighbour — and the USA. With 36% of the population under the age of 25, Ireland is one of the most exciting places in the English-speaking
Leading global companies in Ireland - Companies who require a skilled, educated and highly capable
world to be a student.
workforce to drive their success choose to locate in Ireland. Ireland has welcomed Google, Facebook, Pfizer, Apple, Intel to name just a few — all of whom chose Ireland as their European base.
Internationally recognised qualifications and extensive choice - Irish higher education institutions and qualifications are recognised world-wide for excellence, delivering world-class innovative learning in many disciplines. Students can choose from an extensive range of courses to meet their needs in highly respected business schools, centres of scientific and technology excellence as well as renowned language, humanities and arts faculties.
DIT Research Centres Antenna & High Frequency Research Centre
Centre for Elastomer Research
The Antenna & High Frequency Research Centre
The Centre for Elastomer Research has the unique
specialises in the analysis, design and measurement
capability of producing reliable viscoelastic data
of antennas and associated devices for wireless
for characterising the multi-axial physical properties
communications and medical applications. With decades
of
of applied research experience it has built an international
Hyperelastic and Viscoelastic Material Behaviour
elastomers.
Current
research
interests
are:
reputation for innovative futuristic concepts and solutions
including Elastomer Fatigue, Stress Softening and
to contemporary industrial challenges.
Stress Relaxation; Biomedical Applications; Advanced
w: www.ahfr.dit.ie
Foams; Swelling Phenomenon.
w: www.dit.ie/cer Applied Intelligence Research Centre The Applied Intelligence Research Centre researches the
Consumption & Leisure Studies Group
application of computational intelligence technologies
As many DIT researchers are engaging in consumer-
to real world problems. The core competencies of the
related research, evolving media-based technologies
AIRC include machine learning, language technologies,
and sport and recreation-based research, we recognise
intelligent agents and data analytics.
a number of shared interests around the shaping of
w: www.comp.dit.ie/aigroup
contemporary consumer Ireland. The Consumption
Business Society & Sustainability Research Centre
researching in the areas of consumption, consumer
The Centre is committed to critical and creative analysis and
society, media studies, and sport and leisure studies.
reflection on the impacts of business on the wider society
w: www.dit.ie/cls
and Leisure Studies group brings together academics
and the impact of the wider society on business. Central to these impacts is the theme of sustainability understood not only in its ecological sense but also in the sense of the ability of business to maintain ethical and political legitimacy through creating value in the long-term.
w: www.dit.ie/bss
Communications Network Research Institute
Centre for Social & Educational Research
Dublin Energy Lab
Food & Health Research Centre
The centre specialises in developing innovative
The Centre for Social and Educational Research is a
The Dublin Energy Lab is a leading energy related
Research in the Food and Health Research Centre
technologies to support the delivery of real-time service
dynamic and innovative research centre which seeks
research and development laboratory which conducts
is interdisciplinary and applied and is both industry
such as VoIP and video streaming on wireless networks,
to improve the quality of life of children, family and
research across a range of disciplines with key efforts
and policy relevant. The cross-disciplinary team of
specifically IEEE 802.11 or Wi-Fi networks. Researchers
society. It aims to impact on social and educational
organised into themes of electrical power; energy
researchers focuses on six thematic areas of functional
are investigating resource aware routing techniques,
policies and practices through the provision of accurate
policy; solar energy; zero emissions buildings; energy
foods and nutraceuticals, post-harvest and non-thermal
measurements of the characteristics of 802.11 wireless
research data. The centre has a well-established track
demand analysis and forecasting; life cycle assessment.
technologies, food product development and culinary
links, interference mitigation, multi-radio hardware
record of research in five classified research themes:
w: www.dit.ie/dublinenergylab/
innovation, food safety and diagnostic tools, small
platforms, rate selection, output power optimization,
Juvenile Crime and Youth Justice; Media Literacies;
and fragmentation threshold tuning.
Early Childhood Education; Higher Education Policy;
The Digital Media Centre
w: www.cnri.dit.ie
Social Care.
The Digital Media Centre is a multidisciplinary group
w: www.cser.ie
which focuses on research and commercial projects
Graduate School of Creative Arts & Media
in the field of Information and Communication
GradCAM is a collaborative initiative of national and
Centre for Research in Engineering Surface
molecule biotechnology, human health and nutrition.
w: www.dit.ie/fhrc/
Technology
Centre for Transcultural Research & Media Practice
Technologies for the following areas: culture &
all-island significance which builds on the expertise of
The Centre for Research in Engineering Surface
The Centre for Transcultural Research and Media
heritage; language learning; multimedia interaction;
Dublin Institute of Technology, the National College
Technology is the only dedicated surface coatings
Practice
spatially aware computing; digital heritage and
of Art & Design, University of Ulster, and Institute of Art,
laboratory in Ireland. The major research activities
postgraduate and research environment, dedicated
machine learning.
Design and Technology, DĂşn Laoghaire. GradCam
of the group are in the areas of nanotechnology,
to scholarly and public understandings of migration
w: www.dmc.dit.ie/
delivers PhD training and research in a broad spectrum
ceramics for functional applications semiconductors,
and globalization, media and civil society activism,
photocatalysis, self-cleaning probes and anti-bacterial
post-conflict/border zones and transcultural identity
Electrical Power Research Centre
practice across the arts, creative media content and
functional coatings.
formations in Ireland and beyond. The Centre
The Electrical Power Research Centre provides a world
service development, and the technical, critical,
w: www.crestdit.com
promotes the use of ethnographic and documentary
class energy interface facility to sustain and advance
theoretical and historical underpinnings of these
modes of practice in social research, utilising new and
leading research in power quality conditioning and in
disciplines/practices.
established media technologies.
integration of wind and solar energy to the network.
w: www.gradcam.ie/
w: www.ctmp.ie
w: http://eleceng.dit.ie/eprg
offers
a
distinctive,
interdisciplinary
of creative practice including design practice,
Industrial Engineering Optics Centre
Photonics Research Centre
The Industrial Engineering Optics Centre specialises
The Photonics Research Centre undertakes research
in holographic and interferometric techniques and
in a number of areas of photonics with a particular
has developed novel technologies with applications
emphasis on optical sensing. Its primary research areas
in
are: Fiber Optic Sensors and its Applications; Fiber Optic
product
authentication,
sensing,
vibration
measurement and optical device fabrication.
Systems for Sensing Applications; Smart Fiber Structures;
w: www.ieo.dit.ie
Liquid crystal filters for sensing applications; Modelling of Optical Waveguides; Photonic Integrated Circuits.
Inorganic Pharma & Biomimetic Research Centre
w: www.aoc.dit.ie/
Researchers at the Inorganic Pharma and Biomimetic Research novel
Centre
materials
for
synthetise
and
applications
as
characterise diverse
as
Radiation & Environmental Science Centre The centre specialises in radiation biology and
pharmaceuticals, drug delivery, molecular recognition,
environmental
toxicology.
Non-targeted
(non-
biomimetic chemistry and supramolecular chemistry.
DNA) effects such as bystander effects, genomic
w: www.dit.ie/ipbrc/
instability and adaptive responses are the main focus. Translational research and the use of vibrational
Nanolab
spectroscopy as a diagnostic tool for cancer and
The Nanolab research centre has unparalleled expertise
for the identification of biochemical markers are also
in state of the art nano material characterisation and
investigated.
the analysis of the interaction of Nanomaterials with
w: www.dit.ie/resc/
biological systems. Its researchers explore standards and methods for the characterisation of nanomaterials including the toxicity and biocompatibility of a variety of nanomaterials such as carbonaceous, polymeric, metallic and composite nano material systems.
w: www.dit.ie/nanolab/
Graduate Research School Dublin Institute of Technology 143-149 Rathmines Road Dublin 6 Ireland Tel. +353 1 4023374 F. +353 1 4023393 W. www.dit.ie/graduateresearchschool