Computer Science

Description

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The University of Essex is one of the UK's leading academic institutions, ranked ninth nationally for research excellence following the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

Our research activity and supervision for PhD Computer Science is concentrated in the following principal research areas: artificial intelligence, biologically inspired architectures, educational technology, e-learning, natural and evolutionary computation, natural language engineering, software agents and software engineering. Our cross-disciplinary projects draw on the expertise of our electronic engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, physicists and psychologists.

Studying within our School provides both the recent graduate and the practising engineer with an opportunity to gain new skills or enhance existing ones. Our graduates have progressed to a variety of senior positions in industry and academia. Some of the companies and organisations where our former graduates are now employed include: Alcatel Submarine, BT Group, QinetiQ, Dolby Laboratories, Fujitsu, Royal Air Forces, and within our University and Imperial College, London.
We also offer an MPhil and a Masters by dissertation in this subject.

brain-computer interfaces; constraint satisfaction and optimisation, plus computational finance; dependable systems; robotics; intelligent inhabited environments; machine learning and intelligent agents; natural and evolutionary computation; natural language engineering and web applications.

Contents

Your research degree gives you the chance to investigate your chosen topic in real depth and reach a profound understanding. In communicating that understanding, through a thesis or other means, you have a rare opportunity to generate knowledge. You develop new high-level skills, enhance your professional development and build new networks. A PhD can open doors to many careers. Your supervisor
Studying for your PhD involves person-to-person interaction with your supervisor, who will guide you in developing your chosen research topic, refine your research skills, and advise you in capitalising on the technical knowledge you already have from your taught degree. Supervisors often keep in touch with their PhD graduates throughout their careers, and may work on scientific collaborations with them after they finish their doctorate.
Our PhD graduates generally go on to pursue careers as academics or as researchers in industry. How you will study
The aim of undertaking your PhD within our School is to become trained as am independent researcher who can critically assess other research work, and have a comprehensive knowledge of their subject area.
Our PhD programme is usually three to four years duration and all our students are initially registered as MPhil/PhD students, then transferred to the PhD in the first half of their second year of study if they have made satisfactory progress. In your second and third years, you work towards your PhD. Finalising your PhD
Within our School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, your PhD thesis is generally completed within three to four years and has a length of around 80,000 words.
Your PhD is awarded after your successful defence of your thesis in an oral examination, in which you are interviewed about your research by two examiners, at least one of whom is from outside Essex.

Requirements

For research study within our School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, we normally require a good honours or Masters degree, or equivalent, in a relevant discipline. A well developed research proposal is also essential.
However, if you do not have a Masters degree, we also offer a four-year integrated PhD, where your first year is spent doing a Masters before embarking on your research. This preparatory year ensures you develop your knowledge before embarking on your independent research.
If English is not your first language, then we will require you to have IELTS 6.0 or equivalent.

English Language Requirements

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since April 2014 the ETS tests (including TOEFL and TOEIC) are no longer accepted for Tier 4 visa applications to the United Kingdom. The university might still accept these tests to admit you to the university, but if you require a Tier 4 visa to enter the UK and begin your degree programme, these tests will not be sufficient to obtain your Visa.

The IELTS test is most widely accepted by universities and is also accepted for Tier 4 visas to the UK- learn more.

Funding

For up-to-date information on funding opportunities at Essex, please visit: