Research Opportunities

A limited number of studentships are available for suitable applicants. It is usual for there to be more applicants than studentships, and applicants requiring funding are encouraged to apply early.

Research Areas

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• Agents and Agent-based Systems

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  Agents are semi-autonomous, reactive software components that can be combined to create complex interacting systems of great power and functionality. Work on a software architecture to integrate agents and applications is almost complete, leading to the next phase of research. This will be to build and test interactive systems based on agents, as well as developing and refining the architecture.

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• Intelligent Agents

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  Neural networks, AI techniques, machine learning, evolutionary programming (genetic algorithms, genetic programming) all offer basic learning and adaptive capabilities. The project aim is to package up these techniques inside agents, giving them the ability to adapt and improve basic skills through experiential learning, hence developing more refined and powerful skillsets in response to user-driven needs. The work will involve implementing and evaluating different techniques as well as building up a library of adaptable, intelligent agents.

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• Information Visualisation

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  Complex software systems are extraordinarily difficult to understand and to manipulate. This work extends earlier work on visual programming systems to support visualisation of program structures using self organising systems and virtual reality techniques.
  Object visualisation is enabled by building a virtual world through which the user can navigate to explore and manipulate the object space. The view of the objects adapts so that they may be seen as distinct objects, agglomerations (eg. a cluster of objects may appear as a translucent mass with the individual objects barely visible) or as iconic representations.

  The organisation of the objects in space is controlled by forces between the objects (determined by the relationships between these objects). The emergent structure that appears can be startling and can give considerable insight into the system's organisation.

  The student will be expected to expand upon these existing ideas and may involve the development of a more complete programming environment. Other aspects of the behaviour of systems will also be included, for instance, the incorporation of animation to show the dynamic behaviour of systems.

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• Data Mining

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  Data mining (also known as Knowledge Discovery in Databases - KDD) has been defined as "The nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful information from data". It uses machine learning, statistical and visualization techniques to discovery and present knowledge in a form which is easily comprehensible to humans.

  The work currently in progress utilises genetic algorithm-based refinement of rules, coupled with a visualisation system, where a symbiotic relationship utilising the computational power of machine learning and evolutionary approaches is enhanced by the cognitive abilities of users to recognise patterns of interest in a visual presentation of information. Research is needed to extend, develop and refine some of these early ideas.

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• Other Areas

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  There are other areas of research that are of interest to the AIG (detailed on home pages); these include Evolutionary and Emergent Computation, HCI, CSCW, Neural networks, Information networks and Intelligent Tutoring Systems. People wishing to pursue research in any of these areas at Birmingham are encouraged to discuss the matter informally first.

Research Environment

Active participation in conferences, both within the UK and worldwide, is encouraged. Research work is coupled with a successful monitoring and education programme to ensure the continued personal development of researchers. Opportunities to teach, undertake consultancy and liase with government, industry and commerce are also available.

For additional research-related information:
Russell Beale or Bob Hendley
Advanced Interaction Group
Tel: +44 - (0) 121 - 414 3729

For application forms and other postgraduate study information:
Dr. Peter Hancox
Research Students Admissions Tutor
email: P.J.Hancox@bham.ac.uk 
Tel: +44 - (0) 121 - 414 - 4782


School of Computer Science 
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT UK.
Fax: +44 - (0) 121 - 414 - 4281