Funded PhD Studentship: DTC CS 12 - Understanding Inconsistency: the foundations of understanding unsolvability for propositional logic

Swansea University is a UK top 30 institution for research excellence (Research Excellence Framework 2014), and has been named Welsh University of the Year 2017 by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.

Swansea Science DTC is a community committed to undertaking world-class research that has a positive impact globally and we have a fully-funded PhD scholarship for 2017/2018 entry.

The Department of Computer Science provides state-of-the-art facilities including fully networked laboratories running Windows and Linux and a project laboratory containing specialised equipment. Laboratories support a wide range of software including programming languages Java, C# and the .NET framework, C, C++, Haskell and Prolog.

There are also integrated programme development environments such as Visual Studio and Netbeans; the widely used Microsoft Office Package; web access tools and many special purpose software tools including graphical rendering and image manipulation tools and more.

In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014, 80% of the research submitted by the Computer Science Department was judged to be world-leading or internationally excellent. High profile researchers include Professor Harold Thimbleby whose book ‘Press On’ won the American Publishers’ Association best book award in computer science. The department has the 12th highest percentage of world-leading researchers in any computer science department in the UK. The department also has strong links with multinational companies including IBM, Nokia, SanDisk, Philips, Affinity Software and Sourcebits.

Description:

Via SAT solving, that is deciding propositional satisfiability, very hard problems can be solved, but if the problem turns out to be unsolvable (inconsistent), then we typically don’t know where this inconsistency comes from, how to locate it. This project is about the theoretical, and possibly also practical foundations of understanding such unsolvability for propositional logic. A certain background in discrete mathematics and logic, and a certain capability for pioneering research would be good to find in the applicant.