We are offering a self-funded PhD position with our Department of Computer Science at Brunel University London, focusing on integrating AI into human augmentation.
This research project aims to explore the intersections between technology and humans, advancing the design and development of human-centred AI applications that act as collaborative partners. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
If you have any questions about the project or would like to arrange an informal discussion, please reach out to Dr Fotios Spyridonis at fotios.spyridonis@brunel.ac.uk.
Research area
This research project focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), human-computer interaction, and human augmentation. You'll explore how AI can support and amplify human capabilities, providing personalised, intuitive support in diverse real-world domains such as healthcare, education, social support, and creative industries. You'll have the opportunity to develop cutting-edge solutions that improve decision-making, skill enhancement, and physical assistance, ultimately driving advancements in human-centred AI.
Project description
With the rapid advancements in AI, human augmentation has moved from science fiction to real-world applications, providing solutions that empower individuals in their daily lives, workplaces, and critical decision-making contexts.
As AI systems evolve from tools to collaborative partners, there is now a need for solutions that support and amplify human capabilities rather than replace them by acting as cognitive, emotional, and physical partners - helping users make better decisions, improve skills, and even overcome physical disabilities.
But the rapid growth of AI raises critical questions about reliability, safety, and trustworthiness. Making sure AI systems are responsive to diverse user needs is essential for achieving meaningful human-centred augmentation while respecting human autonomy and maintaining trust.
This research aims to explore these intersections, advancing the design and development of human-centred AI applications that act as collaborative partners, providing personalised, intuitive support in real-world diverse domains.
You will play a key role in advancing research on how AI can be used to enhance human capabilities. This project provides a platform for you to develop your skills and make impactful contributions to the field of computer science.
Key focus areas
As a PhD candidate, your potential focus areas include:
- AI models for human augmentation: Develop new AI models or frameworks to support cognitive, emotional, and physical augmentation
- Personalised AI support: Create AI systems that provide personalised, intuitive support in various domains
- AI-assisted decision-making: Enhance decision-making processes through AI collaboration
- Skill enhancement: Use AI to improve user skills and learning outcomes
- Trust and safety: Ensure AI systems are reliable, safe, and trustworthy
Research approach
This project employs a multidisciplinary approach, combining advanced AI techniques with human-computer interaction principles to enhance human augmentation. You will:
- Explore AI solutions for human augmentation: Leverage AI to support and amplify human capabilities
- Collaborate across disciplines: Work with experts in AI, human-computer interaction, and various application domains to develop comprehensive solutions
Who we're looking for
Are you a motivated and passionate individual with an interest in AI for human augmentation? We're looking for someone like you to join our research team.
Your interest in exploring and advancing this field will be essential, as will your innovative thinking to develop creative solutions to complex problems. Your strong interpersonal skills will enable you to collaborate effectively with a diverse team of researchers.
While previous experience in conducting research, especially in AI applications or human-computer interaction, is highly valued, it is not a strict requirement.
If you are interested in applying for the above PhD topic please follow the steps below:
Yongmin Li - Please visit
my personal website where you may find more details of my work.
Prof. Yongmin Li received his PhD from
Queen Mary, University of London, MEng and BEng from
Tsinghua University, China. Before joining Brunel University, he worked as a research scientist in the
British Telecom Laboratories. He is a Senior Member of the
IEEE, and Senior Fellow of
the Higher Education Academy. He was ranked in the world's top 2% scientists by
the Standardized Citation Indicators (Elsevier) every year since 2020.
His research interest covers the areas of data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, image processing, computer vision, video analysis, medical imaging, bio-imaging, biomedical engineering, healthcare technologies, automatic control and nonlinear filtering.
Together with his colleagues, their work has won the following awards:
- 1st Place, RETOUCH Challenge (Online), MICCAI 2023 (with Ndipenoch, Miron and Wang).
- 2nd Place, FeTA Challenge, MICCAI 2022 (with McConnell, Ndipenoch and Miron).
- Most Influential Paper over the Decade Award, MVA, 2019 (with Ruta, Porikli, et al).
- Best Paper Award, Bioimaging, 2018 (with Dodo, Eltayef and Liu).
- VC Prize, Brunel University, 2015 (with Kaba and Liu).
- Best Paper Award, HIS, 2012 (with Salazar-Gonzalez and Kaba).
- Best Poster Prize, BMVC, 2007 (with Ruta and Liu).
- Best Scientific Paper Award, BMVC, 2001 (with Gong and Liddell).
- Best Paper Prize, RATFG, 2001 (with Gong and Liddell).
For Chinese students only: Twenty (20)
China Scholarship Council (CSC) scholarships are available for PhD studies at Brunel University of London. Brunel University of London will provide full tuition fees (up to 48 months) for each successful candidate. The CSC will provide each scholarship recipient with a stipend for living costs (including medical insurance), one international round trip economy class airfare between China and the UK, and reimbursement for one-off visa application fees.
Follow this link to apply.
Expected start date: September 2025. Deadline : 3 January 2025 at 12am.
Prospective PhD Students: We invite talented and hard-working students to join us for their PhD study. From time to time, we may have studentships available, which include an annual bursary (about £18,000 this year) plus payment of tuition fees for three years. Currently we have several projects on-going, for example, Deep Learning for Medical Imaging, Natural Language Processing for Business Intelligence, Natural Language Processing for Tax Assessment, and Image/Video Content Generation for Personalised Remarketing. But any other topics within the area of artificial intelligence and data science would also be welcome. Contact me for details if interested.
Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence 2024/25: Built on our strong international research profile (consistently ranked in the top 200 in the world over the past decade by various ranking systems, and particularly strong in publication performance, e.g. 7th in UK by the "NTU Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities" (Subject: Computer Science, 2023), we offer the MSc Artificial Intelligence course with great flexibility (1 year full-time, 2 year part-time or 3 year staged study). If you are interested, apply
here.
15 Scholarships available for applicants from under-represented groups, £10,000 of each.
Research & Development Collaboration: Developing downstream applications of large AI models is a focused area of my group in the upcoming years. Contact me if you have a collaboration project. We can assist in securing funding from sources like UKRI, EU, or Innovate UK, potentially cutting your costs in the project significantly (e.g. by 1/3 or more), plus the university's input.