Funded PhD applications to join the AI4ME research project are now available.
1. Current PhD Opportunities
Accordion
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AI4ME (BBC Prosperity Partnership) - PhD Studentships in Quality of Experience (QoE) in Object-Based Media (OBM)
Details
Start Date: January 2024, with the flexibility to start later if necessary
Deadline for applications: Open-ended: please apply as soon as possible
Interview Date: To be confirmed
Academic Requirements: First-class or 2.1 (Hons) degree, or Master's degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate subject
Description
A fully funded PhD studentship open to UK applicants, including fees and stipend, are available for candidates to join the BBC partnership 'AI4ME' in the School of Computing & Communications at Lancaster University.
AI4ME is an exciting five-year EPSRC & BBC-funded Prosperity Partnership that is addressing the key challenges involved in creating and delivering personalised content at scale. AI4ME brings together the BBC, Lancaster University and the University of Surrey to design entirely new types of media experiences that can adapt to individual preferences, accessibility requirements, devices, and location. This is a unique opportunity for students to join a major new research partnership and take advantage of this vibrant collaborative research environment.
AI4ME builds upon the rapid changes underway within the industry in how media experiences are produced and delivered, from television and films to video games. In television and broadcast media, the prevalence of Internet-based delivery supports the independent transport of different parts of a stream – including audio, video, and additional media experience components – to be composed together at the point of playback. This paradigm is enabling new forms of hyper-personalised and immersive storytelling and represents both opportunities and new challenges in the network delivery of these experiences.
Quality of Experience (QoE) is a key component of multimedia delivery. It measures the perceived quality of multimedia experiences, allowing for better decision making in the delivery chain. Object-Based Media allows for a new kind of multimedia experiences which offer greater levels of interaction and personalisation. This presents a unique opportunity to improve the QoE in the multimedia world while exploring areas such as: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Computer Networks and Cloud Gaming. We are looking for a PhD candidate interested in one of these areas as well as QoE.
Potential PhD themes include:
- Exploring the use of AI and ML to aid the estimation & management of QoE in OBM experiences. Can the recent advancements in AI and ML be used to improve our understanding of the perceived quality of object-based experiences?
- Investigating the QoE of new hyper-interactive experiences. How do we measure the importance and the perceived quality of user interaction in OBM experiences?
- Investigating the QoE of new hyper-personalised experiences. What role does personalisation play in terms of the perceived quality?
- Exploring the potential overlap between Perceptual Video Compression (PVC) and OBM QoE. Can a QoE model designed for OBM be utilised to improve video encoding in traditional multimedia delivery methods, aiming towards more sustainable video streaming?
This PhD position offers great flexibility and we welcome the opportunity to explore other ideas & themes around QoE & OBM.
About You
You will have a 1st or 2:1 (Hons) degree in Computer Science (or related field), or a Master's (or equivalent) in a relevant engineering or scientific discipline or equivalent specialist experience. We welcome applicants with a genuine interest in QoE or a related disciplin.
Funding
These PhD studentships are open to UK students and cover university tuition fees for 4 years and a tax-free maintenance grant (stipend) of £17668k per annum. The studentships also include funding to support travel costs to present research at national and international conferences.
Application Process and Next Steps
General enquiries are welcomed by Professor Nicholas Race by email (n.race@lancaster.ac.uk).
Otherwise, you may apply directly: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/how-to-apply-for-postgraduate-study/ mentioning the “AI4ME PhD studentship”.
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AI4ME (BBC Prosperity Partnership) - PhD Studentships in Computer Networking & Distributed Systems
Details
Start Date: January 2024, with the flexibility to start later if necessary
Deadline for applications: Open-ended: please apply as soon as possible
Interview Date: To be confirmed
Academic Requirements: First-class or 2.1 (Hons) degree, or Master's degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate subject
Description
A fully funded PhD studentship open to UK applicants, including fees and stipend, are available for candidates to join the BBC partnership 'AI4ME' in the School of Computing & Communications at Lancaster University.
AI4ME is an exciting five-year EPSRC & BBC-funded Prosperity Partnership that is addressing the key challenges involved in creating and delivering personalised content at scale. AI4ME brings together the BBC, Lancaster University and the University of Surrey to design entirely new types of media experiences that can adapt to individual preferences, accessibility requirements, devices, and location. This is a unique opportunity for students to join a major new research partnership and take advantage of this vibrant collaborative research environment.
AI4ME builds upon the rapid changes underway within the industry in how media experiences are produced and delivered, from television and films to video games. In television and broadcast media, the prevalence of Internet-based delivery supports the independent transport of different parts of a stream – including audio, video, and additional media experience components – to be composed together at the point of playback. This paradigm is enabling new forms of hyper-personalised and immersive storytelling and represents both opportunities and new challenges in the network delivery of these experiences.
We are looking for two PhD candidates to be part of our exciting journey in building the world’s first hyper-adaptive end-to-end delivery infrastructure to deliver personalised object-based media on an unprecedented scale. This will require research in computer networking and distributed systems.
The following represent possible areas that could form the basis of your PhD:
- Novel Self-Adaptive Distributed Systems Paradigms: new approaches to building distributed systems, in which self-adaptive behaviours are at the core of the system’s capability.
- Distributed Reinforcement Learning: developing new techniques which scale well for state-of-the-art real-world stream processing systems.
- Orchestration Methods, Models, and Languages: how orchestration models or languages can be used within a highly adaptive deployment infrastructure to provide services that meet specific delivery criteria.
About You
You will have a 1st or 2:1 (Hons) degree in Computer Science (or related field), or a Master's (or equivalent) in a relevant engineering or scientific discipline or equivalent specialist experience. You need to have a genuine interest, and ideally experience, in computer networking or distributed systems and should be able to demonstrate strong computer programming skills. Evidence of research skills, for example, through a significant Bachelor's / Master's project involving experimental research, appropriate use of the literature and a formal dissertation-style report will be considered a plus.
Funding
These PhD studentships are open to UK students and cover university tuition fees for 4 years and a tax-free maintenance grant (stipend) of £17668k per annum. The studentships also include funding to support travel costs to present research at national and international conferences.
Application Process and Next Steps
General enquiries are welcomed by Professor Nicholas Race by email (n.race@lancaster.ac.uk).
Otherwise, you may apply directly: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/how-to-apply-for-postgraduate-study/ mentioning the “AI4ME PhD studentship”.
2. Create your application
You will need to put in an application to the University's online application system. Please follow the University's guidance regarding the required documentation.
Please make sure to include a CV (mandatory, maximum of two pages) including your previous degrees and graduation grades, as well as any relevant skills. Where it applies, also include awards of excellence, publications, and links to code releases, such as through GitHub.
Please follow all of the requirements. Not adhering to these requirements may at best delay the processing of your application, and at worst might result in immediate rejection. The preferred format for all supporting documents is PDF.
2.1. Your Research Proposal
Please note that even if you are applying for a funded PhD position, you will need to develop a proposal.
At the top of the first page of the Research Proposal, please include the following information:
Mandatory
- A clear indication of the SCC research group(s) you want to work with.
- A list of two or three works that are similar to your proposal. This list is in addition to any other references you may wish to include.
Optional
- The names of the SCC academic(s) you want to work with. Please also indicate if you would like us to consider your application if your preferred supervision team is not possible.
2.2. Your Personal Statement
A personal statement is mandatory and should be a maximum of one page. The document should explain your motivation to work on your chosen project and a little about your background.
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