Studentships for PhD study in Informatics_at_Edinburgh

From: Don Sannella <dts_at_inf.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 18:46:06 -0000
Message-ID: <do4aph$ob$1$830fa79d_at_news.demon.co.uk>



Studentships for PhD study in
the School of Informatics at
the University of Edinburgh

FORTY research studentships are available for:

  • UK students
  • EU students
  • students worldwide

Many of these are full studentships, paying your tuition fees and a stipend of 12300 pounds to cover living expenses in your first year, rising in second and third years. The rest pay your fees and/or a contribution of 6150 pounds per year towards living expenses. Payment of fees for non-EU students is subject to successful competition for an Overseas Research Student award. PhD students are encouraged to make contributions to teaching, for example by leading tutorial groups, and for this you can expect to earn an additional 500-1000 pounds per year.

Informatics


Informatics is the study of information and computation, in both natural and engineered systems. It comprises a vast range of scientific and engineering endeavour and has enormous economic and social impact.

Edinburgh University's School of Informatics brings together the former Departments of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science and Computer Science, together with the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute. The School possesses a combination of breadth and strength unparallelled elsewhere in the UK and competitive world-wide; as an intellectual endeavour it is strikingly original.

The School is the only university grouping in the UK to have achieved the top 5*A rating in Computer Science in the UK government's 2001 Research Assessment Exercise round, and it is the UK's biggest research group in this area. We currently have around 250 students studying for PhD, and around 150 for MSc.

PhD study


PhD study is carried out within one of our six research Institutes:

   ANC: Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation

   CISA: Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
   ICCS: Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems
   ICSA: Institute for Computing Systems Architecture
   IPAB: Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour
   LFCS: Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science

ANC fosters the study of adaptive processes in both artificial and biological systems; two themes are the study of artificial learning systems and the analysis and modelling of brain processes. CISA undertakes basic and applied research and development in knowledge representation and reasoning. Through its applications institute AIAI, it works with others to deploy the technologies associated with this research. ICCS pursues basic research into the nature of communication among humans and between humans and machines, using text, speech and graphics, and the design of interactive dialogue systems, using computational and algorithmic approaches.

ICSA seeks development of a better understanding of systems components, both hardware and software, and their integration and interaction; this involves not only improving their raw performance and cost-effectiveness, but also making them more connectable and interoperable, more reliable, more usable and more applicable. The interests of IPAB are how to link computational perception, representation, transformation and generation processes to external worlds---whether real or virtual. The mission of LFCS is to achieve a foundational understanding of problems and issues arising in computation and communication through the development of appropriate and applicable formal models and mathematical theories.

Projects


A very wide range of research topics is available for PhD study. Here is an (incomplete!) list of project areas; see

   http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/phdprojects.html

for some information on each of these.

   ANC: Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation



   Bioinformatics
   Machine Learning
   Neuroinformatics

   CISA: Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications



   A Proof Management Tool
   Automating Diagrammatic Reasoning
   Improving Support for Mathematics in Mechanical Theorem Provers    Multi-Agent Coordination in Open Environments    Game-Theoretic Analysis of Multiagent Communication    The Role of Communication in Multiagent Reinforcement Learning    Controlling Open Multiagent Systems
   Argumentation-Based Ontology Conflict Resolution    Social Algorithms
   Political Coordination Mechanisms
   A Simple Agent Programming Language
   Rational Strategies in Trust and Reputation Mechanisms    Human/Robotic Task Achieving Team

   ICCS: Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems



   Concurrency in (Computational) Linguistics    Eyetracking Corpora as Experimental Data    Probabilistic Models of Human Parsing    Integrating Linguistic and Visual Processing    Dynamic Bayesian Networks for Speech Recognition    Probabilistic Approaches to Natural Language Generation    Automatic Generation of Image Descriptions    Robust Construction of Semantics
   Learning Semantic Representations of Languages which Lack Online Resources

   The Semantics and Pragmatics of Free Adjuncts and Absolutes    Statistical Machine Translation for Biomedical Domains    Microphone-Array Based Speech Recognition    Language Models for Multiparty Conversations    Hidden Speech Production Models
   Multimodal Information Access
   Head Motion Synthesis for Lifelike Conversational Agents    Multi-Unit Acoustic Models for Speech Recognition    Induction of Wide-Coverage Categorial Lexicon from Large Amounts of Unlabeled Text

   Use of Intonation in Spoken Language Generation for Human-Machine Dialogue

   Temporal Semantics
   Grammar-Driven Language Models
   Automated Musical Analysis
   The Statistical Semantic Web
   Extracting and Using Alternatives in Question Answering    Projecting Discourse Annotation from Parallel Corpora

   ICSA: Institute for Computing Systems Architecture



   Speculative Parallelisation for Multiprocessors    Cellular Multiprocessors
   Skeletal Parallel Programming
   Automatic Test Pattern Generation and Scan Insertion for Asynchronous Circuits

   Noise-Tolerant Asynchronous Circuits
   Data-Dependent Processing for Energy-Aware Systems    Combining Model Checking and Theorem Proving    Compilers that Learn to Optimise
   Searching the Embedded Program Optimisation Space    Automated Synthesis of Architectures and Compilers    Energy and Area Modelling for Architecture Synthesis    Microarchitecture Synthesis for Embedded Architectures    Low-Power Multi-Threaded Architectures    Reconfigurable Data-Parallel Structures for Embedded Computation

   IPAB: Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour



   Behaviour Composition in Video Sequence Analysis    Temporal 3D Model Recovery and Representation    Learning Latent Model Representations of Sensorimotor Contingencies    Insect Robotics

   LFCS: Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science



   Engineering Electronic Proof
   Independence-Friendly Temporal Logic
   Questions on Modal mu-Calculi
   Archiving of Scientific Data
   Integrity Constraints for XML and Beyond    Keys for XML
   Provenance in Databases
   Information Preserving Schema Mapping    Data Cleaning
   Vectorizing XML
   Randomized Algorithms for Transportation Polytopes    Complexity of Approximate Counting
   Algorithmic Verification of Recursive Probabilistic Systems    Schema-Directed XML Publishing
   A Security Model for XML
   XML Query Languages
   PEPA Nets: Modelling Mobile Systems
   Epidemiological Modelling with Stochastic Process Algebra    Performance Modelling with Process Algebras    Computational Models for Systems Biology    A Logic of Computational Effects
   Algebraic and Logical Foundations of Formal Software Development    Proof Carrying Code for the Grid
   Security for Mobile Devices
   Topological Models of Computation
   Constructive Set Theories and their Applications    Proof Theory for Programs and Processes    Type Systems for Computational Effects    Mathematical Models for Concurrent and Mobile Computation    Modalities for Name Generation: Logic, Proof and the Meaning of New    "Bad Smells" in Code
   Combinations and Abstractions of Formal Games    Decision Procedures for Higher-Order Grammars    Links: Web Programming, Faster, Better, Cheaper

Further information


Information about graduate study, the School of Informatics, the University as a whole and the city of Edinburgh is available from:

   http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/
   http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/
   http://www.ed.ac.uk

You can email queries to our Graduate Secretary at:

   phd-admissions_at_inf.ed.ac.uk

or to individual members of teaching staff. Application forms are available from:

   http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/applications/forms.html

Your application form should be returned by mid-March. Earlier applications have access to a wider range of sources of financial aid. Applications for an Overseas Research Student award must be completed by mid-February at the latest. Received on Sun Dec 18 2005 - 19:46:06 CET

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