Project details
We are seeking talented and enthusiastic candidates to join the EU-funded PRESERVE project, under the direction of the Principal Investigator, Prof Hamid Bouchachia, working towards the development of machine learning, data mining, and AI methods with the application in Computer Vision (video and image processing), Speech Recognition (audio) and Natural Language Processing (text). The position will be suitable for any profile in computer science, engineering, mathematics, statistics or from other science disciplines with knowledge in machine learning and AI (specifically foundation models, deep learning architectures, federated learning, data/model fusion) and essential knowledge about ML frameworks and pipelines as well as computer systems.
The successful candidate will need to be knowledgeable in one of the listed areas and will investigate and develop scalable and privacy-guaranteed novelty detection, clustering and classification. The focus is mostly on foundation models that involve multiple modalities of data (text, video, audio, image), where transferability and robustness of such foundation models are key questions. Other elements of foundation models such as transparency and reasoning are also of relevance too. However, the exact boundary of the research work for this position will be limited to one of the listed aspects based on the background of the candidate in a way for them to contribute to the delivery of the project by conducting relevant research that leads to publishable outputs and exploitable results.
There are two studentships available for this project and the details of the individual projects will be developed with the successful candidate in order to maximise development of their existing strengths and research interests.
View the full project description (pdf 136kb)
The closing date for this application is 15 August 2024.
Supervisors
Hamid (Abdelhamid) Bouchachia is Professor of Data Science and Intelligent Systems, leading the Machine Intelligence Research Group, Department of Computing and Informatics, Faculty of Science and Technology, UK. He is holder of an Engineering degree, Master, Ph.D and a habilitation degree. He was also a Post Doc at the University of Alberta, Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Edmonton, Canada.
His research encompasses various topics of Artificial intelligence and Data Science and their applications (Ubiquitous health and medical science, smart environments and industrial monitoring; smart energy; smart agriculture, assistive technologies and pattern recognition, in particular, scalable machine learning and distributed artificial intelligence, scalable online, active, semi-supervised learning for data streams, scalable pattern recognition including deep learning and hierarchical (graphical) models, reasoning and decision making and big data technologies and high-performance computing for machine learning. He has published more than 140 papers in international journals and conferences and edited a dozen of volumes and special issues as guest editor. He organised a number of international events (conferences, workshops as well as special sessions). He founded the International Conference on Adaptive and Intelligent Systems (ICAIS). He serves as program committee member for numerous international conferences and Associate Editor of Evolving Systems and acts as member of Evolving Intelligent Systems (EIS) Technical Committee (TC) of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, the IEEE Task-Force for Adaptive and Evolving Fuzzy Systems and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. He supervised 7 postdoctoral researchers and 12 PhD students to completion.
Funding
A fully-funded Studentship includes a maintenance grant of £18,622 per year to contribute towards living expenses during the course of your research, as well as a fee waiver for 36 months. (depending on studentship).
Associated costs, such as for fieldwork and conference attendance, will also be met under the Studentship.
Academic support
The Research Development Programme, developed by the Doctoral College in line with the Researcher Development Framework (Vitae).An added benefit is the opportunity to meet researchers from other academic schools at BU through the activities of the Doctoral College and benefit from their experiences, skills, and perspectives.
Full entry requirements
The BU PhD and MRes Studentships are open to UK, EU and International students.
Candidates for a PhD Studentship should demonstrate outstanding qualities and be motivated to complete a PhD in 4 years and must demonstrate:
- Outstanding academic potential as measured normally by either a 1st class honours degree (or equivalent Grade Point Average (GPA) or a Master’s degree with distinction or equivalent
- An IELTS (Academic) score of 6.5 minimum (with a minimum 6.0 in each component, or equivalent) for candidates for whom English is not their first language and this must be evidenced at point of application.
In addition to satisfying minimum entry criteria, BU will look closely at the qualities, skills and background of each candidate and what they can bring to their chosen research project in order to ensure successful completion.
Applicants will be asked to submit an online application form and a proposal (approximately 1500 words) outlining their understanding of the project for which they are applying, the approach they would envisage taking and what qualities they will bring to the research community.
Please note:
- current BU Doctoral students are not eligible to apply for a Studentship
- current MRes/MPhil students can apply, subject to satisfactory completion of their Research Degree prior to being able to take up the award
- PhD Studentships cannot be used to support BU staff to complete doctoral programmes.
International entry requirements
If English is not your first language, you will need to provide evidence that you can understand English to a satisfactory level. English language requirements for this course are normally:
IELTS (Academic) score of 6.5 (with a minimum 6.0 in each component) or equivalent.
View further information about our English language requirements.
A number of pre-sessional English and preparatory programmes are offered through our partner institution, Bournemouth University International College, and will get you ready for study at BU at the appropriate level.
You can also find further details of the international qualifications we accept, and what level of study they apply to, on our postgraduate entry requirements page.
How to apply
Click the green ‘Apply now’ button at the top of the page and complete the online application form. You can find further guidance about applying for a postgraduate research degree in our Postgraduate Research section.
The closing date for applications 15 August 2024.
Careers
A research degree can open new career opportunities in commercial research and development, consultancy, or could lead you to starting your own business. You may alternatively consider a career in academia. You may wish to undertake research to contribute to your knowledge of a specialist subject, or develop your employability by enhancing your skills in project management and analysis.
