A Natural Computation Approach to Real-time Big Data Challenges in the Internet of Things

To celebrate the University’s research successes, the University of Hull is offering a full-time UK/EU PhD Scholarship or International Fees Bursary for candidates applying for the following project.

Closing date: - 13th March 2017

Studentships will start on 25th September 2017

The University of Hull invites applications for four fully-funded PhD scholarships in the area of Natural Computation and Big Data. Particular areas of interest are evolutionary algorithms, deep learning, natural language processing and the Internet of Things.

Recent years have seen significant breakthroughs in many artificial intelligence tasks including image classification, natural language processing, autonomous driving, and many more. The key technologies behind these advances are in most cases based on nature-inspired algorithms, such as deep learning or evolutionary methods, in combination with high performance computing. As computational models become more advanced, we are in a position to address more challenging tasks and investigate problems at a larger scale.

We are looking to recruit a team of four PhD students that look at complementary areas of research in natural computation and Big Data. The successful candidates will commence their studies within the School of Engineering and Computer Science and the newly founded Digital Centre at the University of Hull. Students will be based in a shared lab space to create an inspiring and collaborative work environment. Our research will make use of the University’s new High-Performance Computing facility Viper, which is equipped with state of the art equipment for parallel processing, high-memory computation and GPUs, and is ranked amongst the top 7 in the North of England.

Candidates should have excellent programming skills and a degree in Computer Science or a related discipline. Experience in machine learning is essential. Further knowledge and expertise of one or more of the following areas is highly desirable: evolutionary algorithms, deep learning, natural language processing, embedded systems and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Project Description
This PhD project will investigate, design and implement novel natural computation-based algorithms such as: multi-objective optimisers; gene regulatory networks; and deep learning, to process big data from an Internet of Things (IoT) network of smart nodes. The Internet of Things connects physical devices containing some form of embedded electronics, a variety of sensors/actuators, and communications hardware to allow the devices to exchange data. Due to the size and complexity of IoT networks, devices that rapidly gather data from diverse surrounding environments generate very big volumes of streamed data. This cannot be stored due to limited capacity and requires real-time processing and analysis to act effectively and efficiently in a variety of applications, such as: wind farm monitoring and early fault detection, operational efficiency improvement, traffic logistics, smart homes/cities and autonomous vehicles/drone swarm navigation. Algorithms and software will be developed for intelligent, efficient processing and analysis of streamed data from the network in real-time, harnessing the distributed parallel processing power of the nodes, in order to identify trends in the data, highlighting abnormal/unusual behaviour, and instructing smart nodes of the network to adapt or act accordingly.The IoT network could be implemented as either a simulation model, which can utilise the high performance computing resources available at the University, and/or using a wirelessly connected network of embedded devices and sensors.

To apply for these Scholarships please click on the Apply button below.

Full-time UK/EU PhD Scholarships will include fees at the ‘home/EU’ student rate and maintenance (£14,121 in 2016/17) for three years, depending on satisfactory progress.

Full-time International Fee PhD Studentships will include full fees at the International student rate for three years, dependent on satisfactory progress.

PhD students at the University of Hull follow modules for research and transferable skills development and gain a Masters level Certificate, or Diploma, in Research Training, in addition to their research degree.

Successful applicants will be informed of the award as soon as possible and by 8th May 2017 at the latest.