[agents] 2 PhD studentships on Trust and Reasoning under Uncertainty (University of Aberdeen)

[Norman, Prof Timothy J. F.]

PhD 1
Reasoning about obfuscated data in sensor networks
Dr Nir Oren & Prof Tim Norman

A PhD studentship is available to develop novel methods for reasoning about the trustworthiness and information content of obfuscated data. Agents may be wary of providing others with high fidelity data at all times for various possible reasons. Therefore, before providing others with this data, they may obfuscate it in order to reduce its accuracy. In such a situation, two questions need to be answered: (i) as an information provider, what type of obfuscation is required in order to ensure that an information consumer (gathering data from multiple sources) cannot discover information that you are trying to prevent them from discovering? and (ii) as an information consumer, how can you work out the quality of an information provider given that you are receiving obfuscated data? As a PhD student working at the University of Aberdeen as part of the International Technology Alliance (ITA), you will be investigating these questions.

The project partners include UCLA and IBM in both the US (T J Watson Research Center) and UK (Hursley).

PhD 2
Uncertainty Ontology Reasoning for Decision Support
Dr Jeff Z. Pan and Prof Tim Norman

A PhD studentship is available to develop novel methods for ontology uncertainty reasoning for decision support. Our key research problem is to leverage huge volume of uncertain ontological annotated data for decision support without overwhelming human decision makers. In such a situation, two questions need to be answered: (i) how to reason with huge volume of uncertain (in particular probablisitic) ontologies? and (ii) how different forms of uncertainty interact and how to aggregate different forms of uncertainty associated with a hypothesis? As a PhD student working at the University of Aberdeen as part of the International Technology Alliance (ITA), you will be investigating these questions.

The project partners include CMU and IBM US (T J Watson Research Center).


General Information for both Studentships

Application Deadline: 25 April 2012

You should have at least an upper second-class honours degree (ideally a first class degree), or a combination of qualifications and/or experience equivalent to that level, with a strong mathematical background. Additionally, the successful candidate should have: (i) excellent programming skills; (ii) excellent communication and technical writing skills because you will be expected to work with other technologists and collaborate with external partners on a regular basis, as well as present your work in scientific conferences; and (iii) a willingness to travel.

Tuition fees will be paid at UK/EU rates, for 2011/2012 this is £3,600 (pro-rata). A maintenance grant will also be paid at standard EPSRC rates, which for 2011/2012 is £13,590 (pro-rata). The studentship is funded by the International Technology Alliance project (www.usukita.org). The studentship is funded at this level for 3yrs. International applicants can be accepted provided they can confirm that they can meet the difference between UK/EU and International Tuition fees from their own resources. For the academic year 2011/2012 this will be £9,600 (pro-rata).

Formal applications can be completed online: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply. You should apply for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Computing Science, to ensure that your application is passed to the correct College for processing. Please note, you should apply at least 4 days before the deadline to allow us to contact you for further information, if required. All applications received up to, and including the closing date, will be processed. It should be noted that you will be required to provide a research proposal along with your application and supporting documentation.

Regards,

Tim.

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Professor Timothy J. Norman
Computing Science & RCUK dot.rural Research Hub
University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK. AB24 3UE
www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~tnorman & www.dotrural.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1224 272284



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