Scholarships for PhD study in the School of Informatics

Around fifty research scholarships are available for:

UK students
EU students
students worldwide

Many of these are full scholarships, paying your tuition fees and an annual stipend of £13590 to cover living expenses (2010/2011 figure, rising with inflation). 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 the Scottish Overseas Research Students Award Scheme. 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 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 possesses a combination of breadth and strength of research, teaching and innovation that is unparallelled elsewhere in the UK and competitive world-wide; as an intellectual endeavour it is strikingly original. It is the biggest and best research group in its area in the UK: according to the results of the UK government's 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, it is 44% larger and has 69% more world-leading (4* rated) staff than its nearest rival. We currently have around 270 students studying for PhD, and around 200 for MSc.

PhD study

Each PhD student is hosted within one of our seven research Institutes:

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. 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.

ILCC 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. ILSI draws together work at the informatics/life sciences interface including neuroinformatics, biological modelling, sensori-motor control and bio-mimetic robotics. 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.

The Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience Doctoral Training Centre, hosted by ANC, is a MSC+PhD programme for interdisciplinary research which trains students with strong computational and analytical skills to conduct original research in neuroinformatics.

Projects

Below is a list of some current topics of research in the School of Informatics; follow the links for some information on each of them. This is not a complete list, and you are very welcome to propose a topic that is not on this list. Please consult our research directory and individual staff members' web pages to learn more about their research interests.

Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation

Bioinformatics
Cognitive Modelling
Ecoinformatics
Local vs Global Prediction in Stochastic Models for Systems Biology
Machine Learning
Neuroinformatics

Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications

Combinatorial Optimisation
Improving Support for Mathematics in Mechanical Theorem Provers
Intelligent Collaborative Spaces
Intelligent Systems for the Management of Computing Infrastructures
Game-Theoretic Analysis of Multiagent Communication
Multi-Agent Coordination in Open Environments
Ontology Evolution
The Productive Use of Failure in Formal Methods
Vague Communication in Multiagent Coordination

Institute for Computing Systems Architecture

Auto-Parallelisation
Cellular Multiprocessors
Combining Model Checking and Theorem Proving
Compilers that Learn to Optimise
Cross-Layer and Coding Techniques for Reliable and Efficient Wireless Networking
Data Integration and Data Mining
Data-Dependent Processing for Energy-Aware Systems
Delay Fault Testing of Self-Timed Circuits
Dynamic Spectrum Access in Heterogeneous Wireless Network Environments
Energy and Area Modelling for Architecture Synthesis
Energy and Thermal-Aware Cache Optimisation
Grid Computing
Low-Cost, Robust Networking and Applications for Developing Regions
Low-Power Multi-Threaded Architectures
Memory-Hierarchy and On-Chip Network Co-Design
Micro-Architectural Solutions for Fault-Tolerance
Next Generation Authentication
Noise-Tolerant Asynchronous Circuits
Processor Design
Reconfigurable Caches
Searching the Embedded Program Optimisation Space
Skeletal Parallel Programming
Speculative Parallelisation for Multiprocessors
Top-Down Testability for Self-Timed Circuits

Institute for Language, Cognition and Computation

A Dynamic Semantic Theory of Dialogue
An Integrated Model of Human Syntactic and Semantic Processing
Automated Musical Analysis
Automatic Text Illustration
Bayesian Models of Reading
Building Models of the Past
Concurrency in (Computational) Linguistics
Dynamic Bayesian Networks for Speech Recognition
Grammar-Driven Language Models
Head Motion Synthesis for Lifelike Conversational Agents
Hidden Markov Model-Based Speech Synthesis
Hidden Speech Production Models
Improving Multilingual Text Recognition for NLP
Incremental Processing and Memory Effects in Bayesian Models of Word Segmentation
Induction of Wide-Coverage Categorial Lexicon from Large Amounts of Unlabeled Text
Interpreting Hand Gestures in Face to Face Conversation
Investigating, Modeling and Automating the Post-editing of Machine Translation Output
Language Models for Multiparty Conversations
Large-Scale Discriminative Machine Translation
Lexicalized Reasoning
Microphone-Array Based Speech Recognition
Modelling Syntactic Priming Across Languages
Modelling Intelligent Interaction in Dialogue
Models of Semantic Representation Based on Contextual and Visual Information
Multi-Unit Acoustic Models for Speech Recognition
Multimodal Information Access
Projecting Logical Forms in Parallel Corpora
Prototype-Driven Learning of Discourse Relations
Robust Construction of Semantics
Sentence Processing and Linguistic Intuitions
Statistical Machine Translation for Biomedical Domains
Statistical Methods in Dialogue System Design and Adaptation
Temporal Semantics
Text Forecasting
The Statistical Semantic Web
Unsupervised Language Learning using Multiple Cues
Use of Intonation in Spoken Language Generation for Human-Machine Dialogue

Informatics Life-Sciences Institute

How Liquid is Biological Signalling?
Insect Robotics
Local vs Global Prediction in Stochastic Models for Systems Biology
Rewired - A Computational Approach to the Design of Synthetic protein
Rule-Based Models of Biological Signalling
Systems Biology
Verses - In Numero Investigation of Very Early Response Systems

Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour

Behaviour Composition in Video Sequence Analysis
Fragmentary Behaviour Recognition in Video Sequence Analysis
High Speed 3D Video Data Analysis
Insect Robotics
Mathematical Models of how Surfaces Deform over Time

Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science

"Bad Smells" in Code
A Logic of Computational Effects
A Security Model for XML
Algebraic and Logical Foundations of Formal Software Development
Algorithmic Verification of Recursive Probabilistic Systems
Algorithms for the SAT problem
Archiving of Scientific Data
Certified Complexity Preserving Compiler
Combinations and Abstractions of Formal Games
Combining Model Checking and Theorem Proving
Complexity of Approximate Counting
Concurrency in (Computational) Linguistics
Constructive Set Theories and their Applications
Continuous-State Process Calculi: Methods and Tools
Data Cleaning
Data Exchange
Databases and Verification
Decision Procedures for Higher-Order Grammars
Decision Procedures for Infinite State Systems
Deterministic Approximation of Counting Problems
Formal Verification Methods for Quantum Systems
How Liquid is Biological Signalling?
Hybrid System modelling with HYPE
Improving Support for Mathematics in Mechanical Theorem Provers
Incomplete XML and Relational Data (and Applications in Data Integration and Exchange)
Independence-Friendly Temporal Logic
Information Preserving Schema Mapping
Integrity Constraints for XML and Beyond
Keys for XML
Links: Web Programming, Faster, Better, Cheaper
Local vs global prediction in stochastic models for systems biology
Mathematical Models for Concurrent and Mobile Computation
Modalities for Name Generation: Logic, Proof and the Meaning of New
Next Generation Authentication
Partial Evaluation and Distributed Query Processing
Performance Modelling with Process Algebras
Proof Carrying Code for the Grid
Proof Theory for Programs and Processes
Provenance in Databases
Questions on Modal mu-Calculi
Randomized Algorithms for Transportation Polytopes
Rewired: A Computational Approach to the Design of Synthetic Protein
Rule-Based Models of Biological Signalling
Schema Matching, Mapping and Embedding
Schema-Directed XML Publishing
Security for Mobile Devices
Spectral Methods in Graph Algorithms
Topics in Pseudorandomness and Circuit Lower Bounds
Topological Models of Computation
Type Systems for Computational Effects
Vectorizing XML
Verification of Priced Infinite-state Real-time Systems
Verses - In Numero Investigation of Very Early Response Systems
XML Query Languages

Further information

You can email queries about admissions our Graduate Secretary, while queries about the research topics above can be sent to individual members of teaching staff.

Our admissions process is organised into two rounds that are aligned with the main funding decision points. Apply to the first round (deadline 15th January) in order to be considered for all sources of financial aid; this is particularly important for overseas (non-EU) applicants. There is still considerable funding available in the second round (deadline 31st March), and this is when the majority of decisions for UK applicants will be made.