Using Machine Learning to reverse engineer the insect eye

The Position:

A PhD position working with supervisor, Dr Michael Mangan, is available in the Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, UK.

Insects are a stunning proof of principle that visual navigation in complex environments is possible, yet their low resolution visual system is vastly different from cameras used in current mobile robots. The successful candidate will be tasked with using machine learning/information theoretic methods to investigate what information the insect eye is optimised to extract. We hypothesize that this will lead to significant understanding of biological systems and also inspire new approaches to robot sensing.

The selected candidate will benefit strongly from working in close collaboration with world leading researchers within relevant research institutes at the University of Sheffield: Sheffield Robotics, Sheffield Machine Learning Group, and the Department of Biomedical Sciences.

Candidate Requirements:

Applicants must have a good Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Mathematics or Physics. You must also have excellent mathematical skills with experience in related areas such as optics, machine learning, computer vision, and graphics software, all of which are considered beneficial.

You should be available to start work on the project in October 2018.

Financial Details:

The scholarship includes Home/EU tuition fees for 3 years and an annual maintenance stipend of £14,777.

This is a full scholarship for UK/EU applicants. For other applicants, the same amount of scholarship is available but applicants would need to find additional financial support to cover the difference between the home tuition fee and the international tuition fee.

How to Apply:

Applicants should apply using the University of Sheffield online application system:
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/apply/applying

Applicants should list Dr Michael Mangan as the potential supervisor.

Applications should be received by the closing date: 1st June 2018

Informal enquiries should be directed to: Dr Michael Mangan ([Email Address Removed])

The Department of Computer Science, within the Faculty of Engineering, was established in 1982 and has since attained an international reputation for its research and teaching. In REF2014, the Department was ranked 5th out of 89 computer science departments in the UK, indicating that the large majority of our research is nationally or internationally leading. Further information about the Department can be found at http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/dcs.