SFI Centre for Research Training in Digitally Enhanced Reality (d-real)

Applications are open for the d-real doctoral programme in Digitally-Enhanced Reality.

Programme

All students will be members of a cohort of 26-28, working across a number of disciplines in the area of digital media. The cohort will be brought together for training activities throughout the four years across all five institutions. Training will focus on disciplinary skills, master classes and transferable skills. Graduates will develop the skills necessary to work in industry or in academia.

Students will be hired on specific projects, as detailed on our website. Each student will have a supervisor in their ‘home’ institution and a secondary supervisor from among the 133+ supervisors in the d-real programme. This supervisory system encourages collaboration across the institutions, giving the student the opportunity to draw on expert knowledge across the programme.

Funding

Each student who is admitted to this programme will receive a full scholarship to undertake a four-year structured PhD programme. This scholarship comprises full payment of four-year university fees and a tax-free stipend of €19,000 per annum for four years. In addition, a generous budget for conference travel, equipment, training, placement maintenance and publication costs is provided.

Digitally-Enhanced Reality

Whether via multimodal devices such as smart phones, embedded displays and IoT, or virtual assistants and VR/AR experiences, media technology is revolutionising the way we interact, collaborate and behave. d-real PhD students will develop skills for next generation human-centric media technology, including:

• machine intelligence-based sensing and understanding of digital content and information;
• its transformation and personalisation;
• its multimodal interaction and delivery via speech, text, video, image and VR/AR; and
• its impactful application in multiple industry and societal settings.

Application process

Applicants should visit the d-real website here and complete an application form. Applicants will be asked to fill out details of their education records and to select their top three PhD topic preferences from a list of topics.

Requirements

The minimum requirements for entry into the programme are:

• 2.1 grade (or equivalent) in an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in computer science, maths, engineering or similar technical discipline. Other qualifications in disciplines related to the listed PhD topics will also be considered.
• Strong programming ability.
• Non-native English speakers require at least IELTS 6.5 (with at least 6 in all components) or equivalent.