Dominic Seager

Dominic Seager

Profile

I completed my BSc (Hons) and MSc at the University of East Anglia where I studied Computer Science and Cyber Security respectively. My undergraduate dissertation (How does the Position of a Fitness Tracker Effect the Accuracy of Exercise Tracking Using a Time Series Classification?) used Machine Learning to investigate fitness trackers and the best locations for use when classifying activity. Machine Learning is an area I have a particular interest in especially the ways it can model and answer real world questions that can help other people. For my MSc Dissertation (Understanding Trust in Chatbots) I investigated Chatbots and which factors effect and impact user trust to encourage further adoption of this novel technology. My PhD project continues the trend of investigating real world problems with Machine Learning as well as expand my knowledge base into the frontiers of environmental science and geophysics.

Dominic Seager

PhD title: "Distributed Sensing as a new tool for monitoring coastal erosion"

Description:

Coastal erosion effects a large amount of the UK with 28% of the English and Welsh coastline experiencing erosion rates of at least 10 cm/year. Communities in these areas must live with the risk of erosion, making it vital to understand the process of erosion and how it may affect those living by the coast. Distributed Sensing is able to continuously measure all points along an optical fibre, able to detect high-frequency events associated with earthquakes on rock falls as well as slower deformation and temperature. The project will be using Distributed Sensing (DS) tools such as the iDAS, XT-DTS and iDSS to monitor an eroding stretch of coastline along the North Norfolk coast to investigate the following questions:

  • Can DS be used to characterise erosion events on the coast?
  • How does recession rate vary over time and space?
  • Which areas display increase subsurface cracking and/or slumping?
  • Can we forecast catastrophic cliff collapse?