The Scholarship

International prize studentships for PhD research 2010
Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance

The Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (http://www.sicsa.ac.uk) is a collaboration of leading Scottish Universities whose aim is to work together to consolidate and extend Scotland’s position as an international research leader in computer science and informatics. As part of this, the Scottish Graduate Academy in Informatics and Computer Science offers up to 20 international prize studentships per year to outstanding candidates who wish to study for a PhD in Scotland.

These studentships are open to excellent students from any country. There are no residency or citizenship requirements. We will consider applicants in any area of computer science and informatics but may give preference to students who are working in SICSA theme areas (http://www.sicsa.ac.uk/themes)

In their short history, computers have evolved from mainframes, through minicomputers, to networked desktops, and then via the web and wireless networks, to mobiles and ubiquitous computing, where information systems are always on, always there.

These latest transitions raise special challenges for tomorrow’s systems: we need new ways of securing, interfacing, modelling and engineering them. These challenges are reflected in SICSA’s research themes:

• Next Generation Internet As the Internet evolves towards ubiquity, research targets include security and trust, programmability, manageability, and mobility.
  • Theme leader: Saleem Bhatti, St Andrews – email format: prefix “saleem” to the St Andrews address: @cs.st-andrews.ac.uk
  • To join the theme mailing list please click here
• Multimodal Interaction Personal ubiquitous interfaces require research enabling multiple, rich communication channels between people and vast bodies of information.
  • Theme leader: Stephen Brewster, Glasgow – email format: prefix “stephen” to the Glasgow address: @dcs.gla.ac.uk
  • To join the theme mailing list please click here
• Modelling and Abstraction Processing ever-larger volumes of data raises new challenges in the development and use of predictive models of complex systems of interacting elements.
  • Theme leader: Jane Hillston, Edinburgh – email format: firstname.surname@ed.ac.uk
  • To join the theme mailing list please click here

• Complex Systems Engineering New systems of systems must be engineered to meet the needs of industry and society, operating robustly within an often hostile external environment.
  • Theme leader: Greg Michaelson, Heriot Watt – email format: initial.surname@hw.ac.uk
  • To join the theme mailing list please click here

SICSA prize studentships are worth around £18, 000 per year for 3 years. They include support for living expenses of at least £12, 940, research expenses and a contribution towards postgraduate fees at the UK standard Home/EU rate (currently £3400). Students who are not UK/EU residents must pay the higher overseas student fee of around £11,500 per year. However, if you are awarded a SICSA studentship, you may apply to the admitting university for additional support to cover the difference in fees. The award of a SICSA studentship does not guarantee such support.

Students must have or must expect to be awarded a 1st class honours degree, an MSc with Distinction or equivalent GPA scores. Your degree must be in a discipline that is relevant to your proposed field of research.

For more details of how to apply for a SICSA prize studentship, see the SICSA web pages (http://www.sicsa.ac.uk/graduate-academy/prizestudentships/applying-for-a-sicsa-prize-studentship).

Applicants for international prize studentships MUST complete an application for postgraduate admission to their preferred university as well as a SICSA studentship application. If you donʼt complete both a university application and an online SICSA application then your studentship application will not be considered.

Applications must be received by 30th April 2010. We will tell you as soon as possible after this date if you have been awarded a studentship. Our aim is to make all offers by early Mid June 2010.

Web Link

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AAW617/international-prize-studentships-for-phd-research-2010