Logic List Mailing Archive

50 PhD student positions in computer science, Edinburgh

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

FIFTY 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 12600 pounds to cover living expenses in your first year,
rising in second and third years.  The rest pay your fees and/or a
contribution 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 130 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
   Argumentation-Based Ontology Conflict Resolution
   Social Algorithms
   Political Coordination Mechanisms
   A Simple Agent Programming Language
   Intelligent Agents in Service-Oriented Architectures
   Human/Robotic Task Achieving Team 

   ICCS: Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems
   -----------------------------------------------------------
   Concurrency in (Computational) Linguistics
   Lexicalized Reasoning
   Building Models of the Past
   Statistical Methods in Dialogue System Design and Adaptation
   Machine Learning for Complex Structures
   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
   Probabilistic Models of Text-to-text Generation
   Robust Construction of Semantics
   Projecting Logical Forms in Parallel Corpora
   Deep and Robust Semantic Interpretation
   A Grammar of Situated Language
   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
   Noise-Tolerant Asynchronous Circuits
   Data-Dependent Processing for Energy-Aware Systems
   Top-down Testability for Self-Timed Circuits
   Micro-architectural Solutions for Fault-Tolerance
   Delay Fault Testing of Self-Timed Circuits
   Dynamic Spectrum Access in Heterogeneous Wireless Network Environments
   Cross-layer and Coding Techniques for Reliable and Efficient Wireless Networking
   Low-cost, Robust Networking and Applications for Developing Regions
   Auto-Parallelisation
   Compilers that Learn to Optimise
   Processor Design
   Reconfigurable Caches
   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
   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
   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
   Data Cleaning
   Schema Matching, Mapping and Embedding
   Partial Evaluation and Distributed Query Processing
   PEPA Nets: Modelling Mobile Systems
   Performance Modelling with Process Algebras
   Computational Models for Systems Biology
   Combining Model Checking and Theorem Proving
   Data Exchange
   Databases and Verification
   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@inf.ed.ac.uk

and queries about the research topics above to individual members of
teaching staff.  Application forms are available from:

   http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/appform.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.  Chinese applicants who are interested
in funding from the China Scholarship Council should apply by 19th
January at the latest.