Fully-funded EPSRC PhD Studentship / Scholarship

>
> Fully-funded EPSRC PhD Studentship / Scholarship
> at the University of Birmingham, UK
> ================================================
>
> Title: Study of fitness landscapes arising from software
> engineering problems.
>
> Background
> ----------
>
> As modern software systems grow larger and more complex, there is an
> increasing need to support the software engineer with better
> techniques. Recent research in the field of search based software
> engineering (SBSE) has demonstrated that a wide range of problems in
> software engineering that traditionally have been solved manually, can
> be reformulated as optimisation problems. Such a reformulation opens
> up the possibility of applying meta-heuristic search algorithms to
> automatically find good solutions to the original software engineering
> problem. This approach has been taken on SE problems from different
> stages in the software development cycle, including planning, design,
> testing and maintenance.
>
> The existing methodology in SBSE is predominately experimental. Such
> results often give inconclusive answers to fundamental questions in SBSE,
> e.g., which algorithm should be applied to a particular problem, and how
> to construct algorithms that are more suited to a particular problem?
> We need more in-depth studies into the characteristics of SE problems and
> appropriate algorithms to solve them.
>
> The Candidate
> -------------
>
> In this project, the successful applicant will study and characterise
> fitness landscapes arising from SE problems, e.g., through statistical and
> visualisation techniques. In doing so, the applicant
> will draw upon and extend advanced landscape characterisation
> methodology from diverse fields, including evolutionary computation,
> biology, chemistry and physics. This research will
> complement ongoing theoretical research in the group on the
> runtime analysis of evolutionary algorithms on SE problems.
>
> The successful applicant must have at least a 2.1 or above degree in
computer
> science or a closely related field. We do consider outstanding applicants
from
> mathematics, physics and engineering as long as they have sufficient
computer
> science background. A good knowledge of optimisation is required,
especially
> a good understanding and practical experience with modern meta-heuristics,
> including evolutionary algorithms, estimation of distribution algorithms,
> simulated annealing and others. The successful applicant must have
excellent
> programming skills and knowledge of software engineering. S/he must be an
> excellent team player who can work independently and communicate well with
> others.
>
> The Studentship / Scholarship
> -----------------------------
>
> Duration: Up to three years (subject to satisfactory progress).
> Payments: Living expenses: minimum GBP12,500 per year tax-free;
> plus tuition fee fully paid.
> Eligibility: Open to European Union/United Kingdom applicants only.
> Deadline: Until the post is filled.
>
> How to Apply
> ------------
>
> For more information on the PhD programme at Birmingham:
> http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/admissions/postgraduate-research/
>
> For technical enquiries only: Prof. Xin Yao (x.yao@cs.bham.ac.uk)
>
Received on Thu Mar 22 07:50:32 2007