EPSRC PhD Industrial CASE Studentship: investigating applications for network design

The Operational Research Group (http://or.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/) within the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), invites applications for a fully-funded PhD Studentship to undertake research in the area of Network Design Optimisation in collaboration with BT University Research. The studentship will start from 1st June 2018, or as soon as possible thereafter. The studentship will be based at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at QMUL and will be supervised by Prof Edmund Burke and Dr Jun Chen.

The studentship will investigate applications for network design, e.g. a town’s fibre network. The goal of the project is to explore software solutions to find optimal solutions to a graph problem described in a human readable declarative constraint language. It has two parts.

(1) Design a declarative language for representing constraints on a graph, and the costs of the graph.
(2) Implement a heuristic search engine which combines heuristic search techniques with constraint satisfaction methods to limit the search space. It is expected that the students will work in close collaboration with other researchers, both in QMUL and BT University Research.

Candidates should have a first class honours degree or equivalent (and preferably a Masters Degree) in Computer Science or a related field, and the ability to demonstrate mathematical and analytical skills. Strong programming skills and background in heuristics, metaheuristics, constraint handling and graph theory are also desirable. Successful applicants should have a clear commitment to research and should enjoy working at the intersection of theory and practice.

Informal enquiries can be made by email to Dr Jun Chen ([Email Address Removed])

To apply please follow the on-line process (see www.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/) by selecting “Computer Science” in the “A-Z list of research opportunities” and following the instructions on the right hand side of the web page.

Please note that instead of the 'Research Proposal' we request a 'Statement of Research Interests'. Your Statement of Research Interest should answer two questions: (i) Why are you interested in the proposed area? (ii) What is your experience in the proposed area? Your statement should be brief: no more than 500 words or one side of A4 paper. In addition we would also like you to send a sample of your written work. This might be a chapter of your final year dissertation, or a published conference or journal paper. More details can be found at: http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/phd/apply.php

The closing date for applications is 16 March 2018.
Interviews are expected to take place after 30 March 2018.

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