STEM Computing and Communications

Current PhD topics and studentships

PhD opportunities

We have funding for PhD study to start in October 2027. This covers fees and a stipend and is open to UK or International applicants, and will be awarded by competitive application. The official advertisement will appear shortly. 

The following is a list of topics our academics proposed for PhD projects. These projects are open to both full-time and part-time PhD study. Please contact the relevant academic for further information and advice. The application procedure can be found here. 

Artificial Intelligence and Interdisciplinary Modelling

• Automatic Generation of Dialogue Acts: Understanding Dialogue through Computational Modelling Contact: Dr Paul Piwek
• Dialogue Games, Argumentation and Meaning: Computational modelling of Brandom’s inferentialism Contact: Dr Paul Piwek
• From data to questions and stories: inclusive technologies for data exploration Contact: Dr Paul Piwek
• Explainable machine learning and natural language processing for automatic assessment Contact: Dr Alistair Willis
• Lightweight semantics for text similarity Contact: Dr Alistair Willis
• Semantics of ambiguity Contact: Dr Alistair Willis
• Framing Generative AI: Chatbot conceit or intelligent interaction? Contact:  Dr Paul Piwek, Dr Mark Hall
• Exploring Quantum Models for Contextual Classification and Decision Making over Online Information Spaces Contact: Prof. Dawei Song
• Incorporating Domain-specific Knowledge into Pre-trained Language Model based Controllable Text Generation Contact: Prof. Dawei Song
• Simulation Models for Theoretical Life Science Research Contact: Dr Adam Linson
• Adaptive Continuous Learning Contact: Dr Ian Kenny, Dr Dhouha Kbaier
• Exploring Machine Learning and Computational Techniques to Inform Rapid Adaptive Climate Change Contact: Dr Ian Kenny, Dr Dhouha Kbaier
• How Do you have an AI forget – responsibly? Contact: Dr Ian Kenny, Dr Dhouha Kbaier
• Engagement of humane AI in practice Contact: Dr. Soraya Kouadri Mostéfaoui
• AI-based biometric sentimental analysis protocols for ATM fraud detection Contact: Dr Zeeshan Siddiqui

Critical information studies

• Decolonial Computing Contact: Dr Mustafa Ali

Interaction design

• Interfacing with complex data: Interactive pattern exploration and discovery by domain experts Contact: Dr Adam Linson
• Interfaces for life logging mood and affect Contact: Dr Daniel Gooch
• Designing for pro-social interventions and responses to reduce online harms Contact: Dr Min Zhang
• Music and Human Centred Computing Contact: Dr Simon Holland
• Digital Health and Interaction Design Contact: Dr Simon Holland
• Animal-Computer Interaction Contact: Dr Clara Mancini
• Socialised Exploration and Sense-Making over Online Information Spaces Contact: Prof. Dawei Song
• Decision dashboards for clinicians to make sense of patient-collected data Contact: Dr Daniel Gooch
• Digital Civics Contact: Dr Daniel Gooch
• Adaptive Multi-Robot Coordination in Multi-Human Settings Contact: Dr Ayodeji Abioye
• Safe and Socially Aware UAV Navigation in Co-Located Human Spaces Contact: Dr Ayodeji Abioye
• Smart Rehab: AI-Powered Markerless Mobile Rehabilitation for Neuro-Musculoskeletal Recovery Contact: Dr. Manoharan Ramachandran, Dr Daniel Gooch

Next generation multimedia and networking

• Deepfake images detection for forensic purposes Contact: Dr Patrick Wong
• eXplainable Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing for Satellite Deepfake Images Detection Contact: Dr. Soraya Kouadri Mostéfaoui
• Future trends in wireless communications: Exploring new structures of turbo codes Contact: Dr Dhouha Kbaier
• A hardware module for Robust and Resilient UAVs Communications Contact: Dr Dhouha Kbaier
• Game-Theoretic Approaches to Environmental Risk Contact: Dr Dhouha Kbaier
• Participatory Machine Learning – Rethinking the Power Dynamics Contact: Dr. Soraya Kouadri Mostéfaoui
• Detection of Temporal Interference in Medical IoT Sensor Networks Contact: Dr Andy Reed

Software engineering and design

• Sustainable software engineering Contact: Dr Chris Douce
• Security by design: Trust, Reliability and Resilience for IoT devices in Healthcare Contact: Dr Chitra Balakrishna
• Cyber security behaviour assessment using serious games concepts, artificial intelligence and human behaviour analytics Contact: Dr Chitra Balakrishna
• Developer Know-How and Collective Practice in the Age of Generative AI Contact: Dr Tamara Lopez
• Depictions of Professional Identity in Software Engineering Contact: Dr Tamara Lopez
• Exploring the influence of AI on software engineering practice Contact: Dr Chris.Douce, Dr Irum Rauf
• Participatory Security: Self-protecting Communities On the fly Contact: Dr Amel Bennaceur
• The role of storytelling in software engineering practice Contact: Dr Chris.Douce, Dr Tamara Lopez
• Automating Online to Offline Services using Smart Contracts Contact: Dr Yijun Yu
• Live Forensics for Drones Contact: Dr Yijun Yu
• Business agility in an era of hybrid working Contact: Dr Advait Deshpande
• Mobilising artificial intelligence to identify patterns of criminal behaviour on digital devices Contact: Dr Ian Kennedy
• Security and Privacy in Quantum Cryptography Contact: Dr Zeeshan Siddiqui

Technology and education

• Reducing the Skill Barrier for Educator-Driven Development of Immersive Learning Environments Contact: Oli Howson
• A Learning Approach for Adaptive Multi-Modal Augmentative and Alternative Communication Contact: Prof Andrea Zisman
• Teaching programming at a distance Contact: Dr Christopher Douce