String logics for query languages

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Full Project Detail:
Recent literature has established close connections between existential string logics (based on word equations) on the one side, and query languages for graphs and texts on the other. For each of these models, standard questions are hard to answer: Evaluation is usually at least NP-hard, and static analysis problems are PSPACE-hard or undecidable.

This project aims to identify string logics for which these problems become tractable, and to apply these results to query languages and texts and graphs (in particular document spanners and variants of ECRPQs). Hence, the project combines fundamental research in the intersection of logic and combinatorics on words with its application to database theory.

Find out more:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/science/study/postgraduate-research/studentships/

Entry requirements:
Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2:1 Honours degree (or equivalent) in a related subject and should have a good background and understanding in mathematics, logic, algorithms, or formal language theory.

How to apply:
All applications should be made online at http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/apply/research/. Under programme name, select Computer Science

Please quote reference number: DF/CO/2018