EPSRC Studentship in the area of Signal Processing

Stipend £14,600 pa plus fees

Lancaster University

A fully funded EPSRC CASE PhD studentship is available in the area of stochastic filtering and control. This studentship is available for 3.5 years for UK and EU students who have or expect to obtain the equivalent of a first or upper second Honours degree, or an MSc in a relevant discipline. Eligible candidates must hold a UK passport or have been ordinarily resident in the UK throughout the 3 year period preceding the date of application for the studentship. Students with a relevant connection to an EU country other than the UK are eligible for fees only. However, an EU candidate may be eligible for a full award if a relevant connection with the UK has been established.

For further information regarding the eligibility criteria, please visit the EPSRC Website (www.epsrc.ac.uk).

The Project: Particle Methods in Estimation and Control

There is a substantial interest in developing autonomous systems, as part of remote surveillance of the environment. Such systems need to possess computational intelligence, be able to sense the environment, collect information and perform path planning. Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD position on algorithmic and theoretical aspects of target tracking systems. This PhD project will focus on the development of novel Monte Carlo methods (particle filtering) for estimation and control purposes. Between the problems that will be investigated are motion estimation of a single and multiple objects from a large amount of sensor data. The proposed research will investigate novel particle filtering methods to solve non-linear, non-Gaussian, estimation/control problems where current techniques are inadequate. Immediate applications relate to path planning control of Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs), but more generally the work is relevant to control of vehicles and robots in uncertain situations. UAVs are remotely controlled or self-piloted aircraft that carry different sensors and are equipped with communication facilities. The work will go beyond the usual realm of Particle Filtering techniques. There are three strands to the work: estimation in closed loop environments; the use of particles to solve optimal stochastic control problems related with path planning and the combination of particle filters with derivative-free methods.

The studentship will be supervised by Dr Mila Mihaylova (Lancaster University) and it is anticipated that the student will be based at Lancaster University, offering a highly collegiate and stimulating environment for research career development as well as undertaking a programme of original research.

Background of the student:

Knowledge of statistics, probability and optimisation would be a major advantage, while knowledge of statistical signal processing, Bayesian inference and control theory would be a bonus.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a vibrant team and conduct a high-level research. The studentship will provide fees plus a stipend in line with current research council studentships (currently £12,600 per annum) this will be enhanced by a further £2,000 per year. The studentship will commence 1st October 2008 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The closing date for applications is 30th November, 2008.

To apply, fill in a normal PhD application form, http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/admissions/postgrad/pgform1.htm) and indicate on the form that you wish to be considered for the studentship with Dr Mila Mihaylova. Please attach a written statement to the form that supports your case to be considered for a studentship. For further information regarding the application process, please contact Janet Wiggins (email: j.wiggins@lancaster.ac.uk or telephone 01524 510389).

Informal enquiries should be directed to mila.mihaylova@lancaster.ac.uk telephone 01524 510388.