Advanced Metaheuristics and Hyperheuristics for Telecommunications Scheduling Problems - PhD Computer Science (Industrially Funded PhD Studentship)

An exciting opportunity to work with Computer Scientists at the University of Exeter and BT plc to develop new metaheuristic (e.g. evolutionary algorithms) and hyperheuristic optimisation techniques to problems in the telecoms industry.

Location: Department of Computer Science, Streatham Campus, University of Exeter.

Project Description:

This fully funded PhD studentship will explore the development of new metaheuristic methods (e.g. evolutionary algorithms, swarm intelligence) and hyper-heuristics for application to scheduling problems in the telecoms industry. Working with the largest telecoms company in the UK, BT plc, you will develop novel methods and algorithm formulations to provide optimised solutions for a range of scheduling problems faced by the telecoms industry.

Metaheuristics such as evolutionary algorithms, particle swarm optimisation and ant colony optimisation have been shown to generate excellent solutions on scheduling problems. More recently, selection hyper-heuristics have made use of machine learning techniques to improve this process further to ‘optimise the optimiser’ for specific problem domains and represent significantly new capability in optimisation. You will work with academics and engineers at BT plc to understand the decision variables, constraints, and objectives of their real-world optimisation problems and with the academic team, develop new metaheuristic and hyper-heuristic approaches to solve these.

You will be predominantly based in the Computer Science Department at the University of Exeter, but with regular opportunities to travel to BT’s Headquarters in Martlesham, Suffolk. The studentship also includes three paid placements at BT’s offices to benefit from close interaction with their staff and to disseminate the findings from your research.

Candidates should have a computer science or mathematics background, including excellent programming skills and an interest in metaheuristic and/or hyper-heuristic optimisation techniques. Experience in telecoms systems and/or real-world optimisation problems an advantage.

This studentship is fully funded and will cover fees, stipend (currently £15,009/year), travel and accommodation costs for visits to the industrial partner including 3 x 1 month placements and academic conference attendance. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to interview in week commencing 2nd December 2019.