Dr N Urquhart, Dr S Powers
No more applications being accepted
Self-Funded PhD Students Only
About the Project
Optimisation is the science of finding intelligent solutions to real-world problems ranging from logistics based scheduling and routing problems to the design of automotive components. Many optimisation problems involve satisfying the conflicting needs of stakeholders involved both directly and in-directly. For instance a school or university timetabling problem must attempt to find an optimal timetable that satisfies the needs of many staff and students. A soluton to a logistics problem must satisfy the desires of customers as well as meeting the cost objectives of operators and reducing the environmental impact on society. This project would investigate combining those Artificial Intelligence techniques currently used to optimise problems with Software Agents to represent the viewpoint of stakeholders. The agents will collectively contribute to solving the problem, each working from the standpoint of the stakeholder whom the represent. Crucially, different stakeholders may have conflicting interests, which the optimisation algorithm will need to be able to resolve. To address this, we will build upon work on Cooperative Distributed Problem Solving from multi-agent systems, and use game theory to extend this to situations where the agents may have conflicting goals.
Academic qualifications
A first degree (at least a 2.1) ideally in computing science with a good fundamental knowledge of software development and basic artificial intelligence techniques.
English language requirement
IELTS score must be at least 6.5 (with not less than 6.0 in each of the four components). Other, equivalent qualifications will be accepted. Full details of the University’s policy are available here https://www.napier.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/research-degrees/application-process
Essential attributes:
• Experience of fundamental computing science.
• Competent in software development
• Knowledge of basic Artificial Inteligence techniques.
• Good written and oral communication skills
• Strong motivation, with evidence of independent research skills relevant to the project
• Good time management
When applying for this position please quote Project ID SOC0013
Edinburgh Napier University is committed to promoting equality and diversity in our staff and student community https://www.napier.ac.uk/about-us/university-governance/equality-and-diversity-information
Funding Notes
This is an unfunded position
Continue with Facebook
