Applicant information
What happens after you apply to Bristol?
Computer Science
| Awards available | PhD |
|---|---|
| Duration of programme | Three years full-time; Six years part-time |
| Number of places | Not fixed |
Page contents
Programme overview
The Department of Computer Science is an international centre of excellence and is located in the Merchant Venturers Building in the centre of Bristol along with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, bringing together the research in computing, communications, electronics and photonics within the University.
The Bristol region has one of Europe's largest concentrations of high-technology industry. Computers, communications and microelectronics are well represented, alongside digital media, computer games and electronic commerce. The Computer Science Department has close relationships with many of these organisations via collaborative projects, staff secondments and visiting industrial staff.
Research groups
The Department of Computer Science has a large programme of research supported by industry, the European Union, and UK government research establishments and public corporations. The academic research programme is organised into the following groups:
The Microelectronics group is a collective of researchers who are all interested in the challenges of increasing the scale and the speed of computer systems. Some researchers are tackling the problem of designing microchips with millions of transistors on them, and then ensuring that they will work as expected. They are particularly interested in systems handling sound, graphics and images, in which data needs to be transferred and processed at greater and greater speeds in order to meet the demands of new applications and appliances; other researchers are working on issues in ultra-largescale networked IT systems, involving hundreds of thousands of computers (and users). This area is also home to the Bristol Algorithms Group, who look at various aspects of the theory and practice of algorithms: the goal of their research is both to provide scalable solutions to existing problems and to understand the limits of what is possible; the quantity of data available in digital form continues to increase at an exponential rate, so the need for faster and more accurate algorithms is now more important than ever before.
The Visual Information Laboratory undertakes innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary research resulting in world leading technology in the areas of computer vision, image and video communications, content analysis and distributed sensor systems. Current research includes: images and video search and retrieval; video tracking; visual SLAM; medical and bio-imaging; machine vision; 3D and multi-view processing; colour science; high dynamic-range imaging, vision and graphics.Our Cryptography and Information Security group conducts research into cryptography, the underlying hard problems on which it is based and the hardware and software needed to implement secure systems. The group has particular interest in techniques for proving security of cryptographic systems, the efficient implementation of such systems on small computing devices, and the verification of those implementations, including testing their security against physical attacks. We also have an interest in security auditing and computer forensics.
Members of the Intelligent Systems group explore general principles underlying learning and intelligence in artificial and natural systems. An important focus is on machine learning and data mining techniques for systems and software that improve with experience. Other work is on the interface between computer science and the biological sciences, exploiting connections which not only help to make computers more intelligent but also provide a deeper understanding of aspects of human intelligence. We are also working on computational methods for automating significant parts of the scientific method. Our research enables the development of sophisticated systems allowing us to manage and make full use of the vast amounts of digital data that are now available.
Our Interaction and Graphics group explores creative interdisciplinary research topics spanning human-computer interaction, visual and tactile perception, imaging, visualisation and computer-supported collaboration. We design and evaluate novel interfaces to computer systems, including hardware and software components. We are interested in new forms of practical application and device that you can wear or carry with you incorporating sensing mechanisms and imaging techniques. This work will enable us to take advantage of the continuing miniaturisation and increased portability of computing devices. In addition to our experimental work, we conduct a number of projects to investigate novel uses of intelligent devices in the real world.
The newly formed Robotics group leads the Faculty's theoretical and practical robotics research, some of which is based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at Frenchay. Researchers are involved in projects studying human-robot interaction, collective robotics, aerial robotics, neuro-inspired control, haptics, control systems, rehabilitation robotics, soft robotics and biomedical systems.
We are also involved in a number of research centres spanning across different parts of the University. For example, the pioneering Centre for IT and Law looks at the new legal challenges presented by the rapid changes in information technology. It is a cross-disciplinary venture between the Law and Computer Science Departments and is supported by a group of international business and legal experts.
Entry requirements
An upper second-class honours degree (or international equivalent) in Computer Science or related subject.
For information on international equivalent qualifications, please see our International Office website.
Admissions statement
Read the programme admissions statement for important information on entry requirements, the application process and supporting documents required.
Key research interests
Centre for IT and Law
Mr Andrew Charlesworth, Cryptography and information security.
Cryptography
Dr Elisabeth Oswald, Cryptography and information security.
Dr Dan Page, Cryptography and information security; languages and architectures.
Professor Nigel Smart, Algorithms; cryptography and information security.
Dr Martijn Stam, Cryptography (hash functions); provable security.
Dr Theo Tryfonas, Information security; systems security; forensics
Dr Bodgan Warinschi, Cryptography and information systems.
Intelligent Systems
Dr Rafal Bogacz, Computational neuroscience.
Dr Tilo Burghardt, Animal biometrics.
Dr Raphael Clifford, Algorithms.
Professor Peter Flach, Exabyte informatics; learning from structured data.
Dr Julian Gough, Bioinformatics.
Dr Steve Gregory, Complex network analysis.
Dr Conor Houghton, Mathematical and computational neuroscience.
Dr Tim Kovacs, Reinforcement learning; evolutionary computation.
Dr Oliver Ray, Scientific theory formation and revision.
Interaction and Graphics
Dr Kirsten Cater, Graphics; public computing.
Dr David Coyle, Human-computer interaction.
Mr Colin Dalton, Vision.
Professor Mike Fraser, Mobile and wearable computing; public computing; robotics.
Dr Sriram Subramanian, Public computing; human-computer interaction.
Microelectronics
Professor David Cliff, Large-scale complex IT systems; complex adaptive systems; financial markets; algorithmic trading; natural computing, especially evolutionary optimisation.
Dr Kerstin Eder, Design automation and verification.
Dr Simon Hollis, Computer architecture.
Dr Ian Hoyler, Languages and architectures.
Professor David May, System design and verification; languages and architectures; mobile and wearable computing; robotics.
Professor Dhiraj Pradhan, Design automation and verification.
Dr Chris Preist, Sustainable computing systems.
Mr Simon McIntosh Smith, New algorithms for novel architectures; many-core processor architectures; scaling applications to run on millions of cores; Microprocessor 2000.
Robotics
Dr Andrew Calway, Mobile and wearable computing; robotics; vision.
Dr Neill Campbell, Robotics; vision.
Professor Mike Fraser, Mobile and wearable computing; public computing; robotics.
Dr Walterio Mayol-Cuevas, Mobile and wearable computing; robotics; vision.
Professor Majid Mirmehdi, Robotics; vision.
Visual Information Laboratory
Dr Andrew Calway, Mobile and wearable computing; robotics; vision.
Dr Neill Campbell, Robotics, vision.
Professor Nishan Canagarajah, Image and video processing; image fusion.
Dr Walterio Mayol-Cuevas, Mobile and wearable computing; robotics; vision.
Professor Majid Mirmehdi, Robotics; vision.
Application deadline: Not fixed.
Get in touch
PhD in Computer Science
Graduate School of Engineering
Merchant Venturers Building
Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1UB
Phone: +44 (0) 117 331 5520
Email: enq-pgrcs@bristol.ac.uk
Web: http://www.bris.ac.uk/engineering/departments/computerscience
International students
English-language requirements: 6.5 overall with a minimum of 6.0 in the speaking and reading bands and a minimum of 6.5 in the writing and listening bands, in addition to the standard entry requirements.
Find information for international students on eligibility, funding options and studying at Bristol.
Fees and funding
2014/15 fees
Full-time: UK/EU £3,939;
overseas £17,000
Fees quoted are provisional, per annum and subject to annual increase.
Funding options
Further information on funding for prospective UK, EU and international postgraduate students is available from the Student Funding Office website.
Research Assessment Score
Unit of Assessment 23 applies. See Complete RAE listings for University of Bristol for further details.
Student views
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Accommodation
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Living in Bristol
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