Postgraduate research study
We offer an enhanced PhD training programme to address the world’s demand for individuals with scientific expertise in AI and machine perception, as well as professional and cross-disciplinary skills required to develop and deploy future AI intelligent sensing technologies for modern life.
We acknowledge, understand and embrace diversity.
PhD at CVSSP
Postgraduate research at CVSSP
There is no better time to join us!
Our vision is to engage PhD, post-doctoral and industry researchers in AI and machine perception across the UK in high-quality training and networking with industry to ensure that the UK leads the future development of this field.
Our training programme enables PhD students to gain the research skills needed to obtain an internationally-recognised PhD including:
- Multi-disciplinary knowledge of the fundamental science and practical application of multi-sensory machine perception
- Experience of applying their research in industry and the public sector to real-world challenges and data; understanding of responsible research and innovation
- Transferable skills such as entrepreneurship and communication, including engineering competence skills suitable for professional registration (EurIng, CEng)
- An open science approach to research, through open publication of research papers, data and software
- Entrepreneurial and innovation-oriented attitude through exposure to SME and spin-off companies in our network.
CVSSP is a destination of choice for postgraduate talent and it is part of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering which is ranked 6th in the UK for electrical and electronic engineering in the Guardian University Guide 2021.
What we offer
- Cohort-based research training with training weeks on transferable skills, science schools on research topics and facilitated sandpits for agile cross-disciplinary team solution to industry challenges.
- Individual research training to develop in- depth research experience and specific skills tailored for the individual and their personal career development plan
- Opportunities for engagement with non-academic industry and user partners throughout the research programme incl. project design, training in industrial practice and industrial secondments. The learning objective is to ensure that all PhD researchers gain a cross-disciplinary understanding of both the fundamental science and real-world application of multi-sensory machine perception.
We have a thriving community of over 90 postgraduate research students conducting research across a broad range of areas. Our research cohorts are internationally diverse with students from all over the world, studying on a full or part-time basis. You can view our research or contact the relevant academic with an informal enquiry.
Postgraduate research courses start in October, January, April and July and run for 48 months full time. Offers may be conditional of applicants achieving the minimum requirements for IELTS and having satisfactory academic qualifications. Contact CVSSP Admin if you have a general enquiry.
PhD studentship opportunities at CVSSP
Centre for Doctoral Training in Audio-Visual Machine Perception (CDT-AVMP)
Our Centre for Doctoral Training offers an enhanced doctoral training programme to address industry demand for individuals with cross-disciplinary scientific expertise in AI and machine perception, working in teams with integrated professional skills in software, project management, innovation and understanding of ethics and regulation of AI and data science research.
Current PhD studentships
We have six fully-funded PhD studentships in collaboration with industry partners including fees and stipend available for outstanding candidates.
We are looking for committed and enthusiastic applicants who want to be part of a rich and stimulating research environment where you will be able to contribute to advancing the state-of-the-art through publications and by participating in leading international forums. Secondments with industry and international groups are encouraged during the programme to broaden your experience and to ensure our research is kept relevant to real-world problems.
Funding is available for up to six PhD studentship opportunities in the following research areas:
- Audio-visual AI
- Computer vision
- Machine learning
- Data science for media
- Computational photography, 3D and 4D video
- Spatial audio and machine audition
- Robot vision and autonomous systems
- Biometrics and surveillance
- Medical imaging analysis and healthcare technology
- Multimedia communication systems
- Digital doubles and free-viewpoint video
- Vision and audio for TV, film, games, virtual and augmented reality.
For further information please contact Nan Bennett.
Application deadline
Ongoing.
Project PhD studentships
The Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) seeks applications from high-quality students for a fully funded studentship, on Active Machine Perception. Active machine perception is essential to develop intelligent systems capable of safely interacting with humans and their surroundings. The aim of this PhD is to significantly advance machine perception to enable machines to function autonomously in our day-to-day environment. The student will be based at CVSSP in the UK with the opportunity to collaborate with Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore during the project.
The project will explore human-like scene understanding on dynamic scenes from single-view/multiple-view videos exploiting recent advances in Artificial intelligence (AI). This research will solve an open challenging problem and enable machines to function autonomously in real-world social scenes, creating an impact in various fields such as autonomous driving and robotics.
The PhD will be jointly supervised by Dr Armin Mustafa and Prof. Adrian Hilton based at the Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP). There will be collaboration opportunities with A*STAR, Singapore. We acknowledge, understand and embrace diversity.
Application deadline
12 May 2021
We seek applications from enthusiastic, self-motivated students for up to three funded PhD studentships within the newly awarded DECaDE: Centre for the Decentralized Digital Economy, led by the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) at the University of Surrey and in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, the Digital Catapult, and over 30 industry and public sector partners.
The student will be based at CVSSP in the UK with opportunity for internship and travel to DECaDE centre partners during the course of the PhD. Funded doctoral research projects will investigate the potential for decentralized platforms to transform the Digital Economy, particularly looking at Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies application in distributed systems and data. Research topics include federated machine learning (FML), computer vision and visual analytics, machine learning over distributed sensor networks, AI for distributed media, and the intersection AI and cyber security. We acknowledge, understand and embrace diversity.
Application deadline
Ongoing.
The Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) at The University of Surrey, Alliance Medical Limited, The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust and the metrology for Medical Physics Group (MEMPHYS) at The National Physical Laboratory are pleased to offer a PhD opportunity in the use of PET/CT for Iung cancer radiotherapy treatment planning. The studentship is part of a unique partnership with between our four organisations.
The project will support the development and optimisation of PET/CT in lung cancer radiotherapy treatment planning using current PET imaging facilities at the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust site and the forthcoming installation of a digital PET system, delivering major improvements in imaging capability. This project will build on on-going activity in AI-led oesophageal cancer staging with the aim to integrate AI into the clinical pathway to optimise treatment delivery and improve outcome. The purpose of the studentship is to bring new AI methods to bear on understanding medical images for cancer treatment with the potential to predict treatment outcomes using these new methods. We acknowledge, understand and embrace diversity.
Application deadline
1st July 2021.
The Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) at The University of Surrey are pleased to offer a PhD opportunity in the field of medical imaging. The studentship is part of a unique partnership with: the metrology for Medical Physics Group (MEMPHYS) at The National Physical Laboratory; The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust and, Alliance Medical Limited – Europe’s largest independent provider of medical imaging.
The project will be part of our work to standardise medical imaging and its analysis, to develop AI methods for medical imaging analysis and interpretation and to build a unique methodology for big data studies in healthcare.
For enquiries contact Prof Phil Evans indicating your areas of interest and including your CV with qualification details (copies of transcripts and certificates). Shortlisted applicants will be contacted directly to arrange a suitable time for an interview. We acknowledge, understand and embrace diversity.
Application deadline
Ongoing.
This is an exciting multidisciplinary convergence-science project involving development of a novel non-invasive imaging approach for cell tracking in vivo and will require the use of physics, engineering and mathematical skills for quantitative photoacoustic imaging and computational modelling, as well as biological techniques applied in gene transduction.
This multidisciplinary project aims to develop photoacoustic imaging techniques for the optimisation of CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell cancer therapy. This is an emerging treatment technique, approved for cancer patients in 2018 and expected to enable major advancements in personalised medicine. It involves removal of the patient’s T cells from the blood, their genetic modification, and re-infusion of the cells back into the patient. More than 800 CAR-T cell therapies are being investigated in clinical trials. Preclinical assessment of the efficacy, pharmacokinetic profile and toxicity profile of CAR-T cells is of critical importance in the development of such therapies, prior to clinical trials.
For informal enquiries please contact Dr Lucia Florescu. We acknowledge, understand and embrace diversity.
Application deadline
12 May 2021.
This is an exciting multidisciplinary convergence-science project involving development of a novel non-invasive imaging approach for cell tracking in vivo and will require the use of biological techniques applied in gene transduction as well as inventive applications of photoacoustic imaging.
This multidisciplinary project aims to develop photoacoustic imaging techniques for the optimisation of CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell cancer therapy. This is an emerging treatment technique, approved for cancer patients in 2018 and expected to enable major advancements in personalised medicine. It involves removal of the patient’s T cells from the blood, their genetic modification, and re-infusion of the cells back into the patient. More than 800 CAR-T cell therapies are being investigated in clinical trials. Preclinical assessment of the efficacy, pharmacokinetic profile and toxicity profile of CAR-T cells is of critical importance in the development of such therapies, prior to clinical trials.
For informal enquiries please contact Dr Lucia Florescu. We acknowledge, understand and embrace diversity.
Application deadline
12 May 2021.
This project is under the supervision of Professor Richard Bowden who runs the cognitive vision lab within CVSSP. He has a track record of work into various areas of computer vision which include visual tracking and the location, tracking, and understanding of humans. You will be joining a thriving research group with ongoing projects into perception for autonomous vehicles, sign language recognition/production and robotics and AI.
Depending upon the skillset of the applicant, this studentship will research and develop new deep learning approaches to either visual tracking which can be applied to video object tracking, human tracking or the application of such technology to the recognition and production of human sign and gesture.
For enquiries contact Prof Richard Bowden indicating your areas of interest and including your CV with qualification details (copies of transcripts and certificates). Shortlisted applicants will be contacted directly to arrange a suitable time for an interview. We acknowledge, understand and embrace diversity.
Application deadline
Ongoing.
Our research
Our research has pioneered new technologies for the benefit of society and the economy, with applications spanning healthcare, security, entertainment, robotics, autonomous vehicles, communication and audio-visual data analysis.
CVSSP research facilities
We have unique facilities to support audio-visual machine perception research, including: a multiple camera audio-visual recording studio with 16 Ultra HD cameras, video rate capture and processing, a 64 channel sound sphere, and robot vision platforms including a new autonomous car testbed.
PhD study at University of Surrey
Find out more about PhD study at the University of Surrey from the people at the heart of our doctoral research community – our incredible students and academics.
PhD programme details
Please contact Nan Bennett once you have applied for a PhD position or successfully submitted a PhD online application form.
