05/12/2013
3 fully funded PhD studentships at UCL on Search Based Software Engineering
University College London is offering up to three fully funded student bursaries in Search Based Software Engineering to start September 2014. The funding provides fees and living support for a full four years, subject to standard EPSRC terms and rates, and will be awarded to the student who meets the UCL admissions criteria for the UCL Department of Computer Science PhD programme and who best suits the project, set out below.
Search Based Software Engineering (SBSE) concerns the application of computational search to solve demanding software engineering problems, typified by large search spaces and multiple competing and conflicting optimisation objectives. Often genetic algorithms, genetic programming, machine learning, and other optimisation techniques are employed to optimise software. There has been a rapid rise in interested, activity and research in SBSE in the past five years. Tutorials and surveys can be found in open access format in the web (search for "SBSE tutorial" or "SBSE survey").
The student will be supervised by Professor Mark Harman, one of the founders of the SBSE field of study and also the overall director of the DAASE programme grant. Prof Harman has given invited keynote talks at GECCO 2013, WCRE 2013, ASE 2012, ESEM 2012 and ETAPS 2010. His SBSE work is highly cited and has been used by Daimler, Ericsson, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Motorola.
The DAASE Project:
The Dynamic Automated Adaptive Software Engineering (DAASE) project is a large programme grant, funded by EPSRC and led by UCL. More details on the project are available at http://daase.cs.ucl.ac.uk/. This bursary is funded by the DAASE programme grant. The applicant to whom the award is made will be a full member of the DAASE project. In addition to the student's bursary, the project will also provide support for the student's travel to conferences and meetings to support their work on the project and their career development as a researcher.
What the Studentship Bursary Will Cover in Terms of Fees and Living Expenses:
The bursary covers fees and a tax free stipend to support living costs. The rates are those standard rates applicable for studentships and are calculated to be sufficient to support all costs of living and those required to undertake the work. The fees component paid is normally that for home/EU student fees only (currently £4,631). The stipend is a tax free lump sum of approx. £15,863 (figures for 2014 subject to confirmation). Therefore the total value of the bursary is at least £80,000 spread over four years. In addition research related expenses for equipment and conference travel will also be covered to support your work. For exceptional students who do not qualify for home fees there is also the opportunity to seek additional bursary support to cover the difference between home/EU and overseas fees.
The overall Research Environment:
Students will be situated in the CREST centre, which is part of the Software Systems, Engineering group (SSE) within the Department of Computer Science at UCL. The centre recently received a platform grant (£1.2m, 2009-2014) as well as the DAASE programme (£6.7m, 2012-2018) from the EPSRC and has other current funding from other funders such as the EU, AHRC and Royal Society as well as cash gifts from HP, Google and Motorola. CREST hosts a series of monthly workshops, the CREST Open Workshop Programme (the COWs). As of December 2013, there have been a total of 1,027 registrations from 208 different institutions spread over 40. As the CREST website shows, these workshops have hosted presentations from some of the world's leading scientists and software engineers from both industry and academia. Talks are video recorded and archived along with slides and other resources on the CREST website at http://crest.cs.ucl.ac.uk/.
The Application Procedure You Should Follow:
Applications should be submitted through University College London here: http://prism.ucl.ac.uk/pgadmissions/apply/new?program=RRDCOMSING01&project=14&advert=49.
If you have any queries about submitting an application, please email Melanie Johnson, [email protected].
Having applied through the UCL CS department system, please also notify Professor Harman and Lena Hierl, his personal assistant, of your application via email ([email protected] and [email protected]).
There is no need to take any further action. Your application will be considered by the department for admission to the PhD programme. The successful applicant(s) will have or be about to obtain university level qualification, which involves the study of at least one topic relevant to the project. Evidence of aptitude for research will be the primary criterion in deciding to whom the bursary will be awarded for those applicants who meet the eligibility requirements.
Your application must reach the department before Sunday 5th January 2014
DAASE (Dynamic Adaptive Automated Software Engineering) is a four site project between UCL, Birmingham, Stirling and York. The lead at each site is, respectively, Professors Harman, Yao, Burke and Clark, with Professor Harman as the overall project director. The project also has a growing list of in...
