Fully funded PhD Scholarship in Hardware Simulation at Scale

 

As the Internet ofThings (IoT) expands, the number of connected devices is expected to reach close to 30 billion by 2030. These devices range from simple sensors to complex embedded systems, each with unique characteristics and communication protocols. Simulating such a vast and diverse array of devices presents a significant challenge in terms of scalability, accuracy, and efficiency. This PhD project aims to develop a comprehensive framework for simulating many (1000s, 10,000s, 1,000,000s) heterogeneous IoT devices, at (hopefully) close to real-time speeds. The project will focus on designing a specialised languages for describing hardware and simulations, creating an efficient simulation environment, and exploring hardware acceleration techniques to achieve high performance and scalability.

Previous research in this area has primarily focused on simulating individual devices, smaller networks, or using simplified models that do not fully capture the intricacies of real-world IoT systems. This project seeks to address these limitations by developing a scalable simulation framework that can accurately model the behaviour of billions of heterogeneous devices, advancing the state-of-the-art in simulation languages, distributed computing, and hardware acceleration.

The project will be structured around three core research ideas:

  • Simulation Languages for Heterogeneous Embedded Devices: The first research objective is to explore the creation of a specialised language for describing the behaviour and interactions of heterogeneous IoT devices. This language will need to be expressive enough to capture the wide range of device architectures and communication protocols found in IoT systems. The language will also support modularity and extensibility, allowing users to easily incorporate new device types and behaviours into the simulation.
  • Development of a Scalable Simulation Environment: The second research objective is to create a simulation environment that can efficiently emulate IoT devices at scale, across multiple simulation servers. This environment will be designed to support distributed computing, allowing for parallel execution of simulated devices across a large number of servers. The project will explore various techniques for load balancing, synchronisation, and communication between servers to ensure that the simulation remains efficient and accurate as the scale increases.
  • Hardware Acceleration for Large-Scale Simulations: The third research objective is to investigate the use of hardware acceleration techniques, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), to improve the performance of large-scale IoT simulations. This aspect of the project will focus on identifying the components of the simulation that can be offloaded to specialised hardware, and developing algorithms and architectures that leverage this hardware to achieve significant performance gains.

Topics of Interest

  • Heterogeneous Systems Modelling: Techniques for accurately modelling the diverse architectures and communication protocols of IoT devices.
  • Distributed Simulation: Methods for efficiently distributing simulations across multiple servers, including load balancing, synchronisation, and inter-server communication.
  • Simulation Languages: Design and implementation of specialised languages for describing complex IoT devices and networks.
  • Hardware Acceleration: Exploration of FPGA, GPU, and other hardware acceleration technologies to enhance the performance of large-scale simulations.
  • Scalability and Performance Optimisation: Strategies for ensuring that the simulation framework can handle the increasing complexity and scale of IoT networks.
  • Validation and Verification: Techniques for validating and verifying the accuracy and reliability of large-scale IoT simulations.

The Scholarship

We have one fully-funded scholarship available, starting in September 2025, which will be awarded to competitively to the best applicant. The scholarship covers all tuition fees (irrespective of country of origin) and comes with a stipend valued at £19,705 per annum. More details can be found here: https://blogs.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/csblog/2024/10/24/phd-studentships-available-for-2025-entry/

International applications are welcome. We especially encourage female applicants and underrepresented minorities to apply. The School of Computer Science was awarded the Athena SWAN Silver award for its sustained progression in advancing equality and representation, and we welcome applications from those suitably qualified from all genders, all races, ethnicities and nationalities, LGBT+, all or no religion, all social class backgrounds, and all family structures to apply for our postgraduate research programmes.

To Apply

Informal enquiries can be directed to Tom Spink. Full instructions for formal applications can be found at https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/computer-science/prospective/pgr/how-to-apply/

The deadline for applications is 1 March 2025.

Fully-funded PhD scholarship in parallel programming and dependent-types

The school of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews has a fully-funded scholarship available working in the Programming Languages Research Group with Dr Christopher Brown. Applications must be received by 1 March 2025.

Background

Algorithmic skeletons provide a convenient and high-level approach to writing efficient parallel software by leveraging common patterns of parallel behaviours. A skeleton library presents the programmer with a library of high-level parallel interfaces, abstracting away the low-level complexities of manually handling concurrency primitives, e.g. locking, synchronisation and thread creation. Skeletons give an excellent compromise between ease of programming and the ability to generate highly efficient parallel software. A wide range of skeletons have been developed for several different languages, including Fastflow, TBB, PPL and OpenMP. However, despite the proliferation of skeleton libraries, there is little support for an increasingly popular class of programming languages equipped with dependent types.

 

Dependently-typed programming languages address the problem of program safety by ensuring that code conforms to its specification. This is achieved by permitting types to depend on values, thereby allowing programmers to express logical properties, and proof, as intrinsic parts of their programs. This conformance is checked at compile-time. This interest in dependent-types has resulted in a number of functional languages such as pi-forall, Agda, Idris and Coq. However, despite these developments in types, these dependently-typed languages still lack a parallel implementation, making development of safe parallel programs impossible.

 

This project will explore approaches to designing and implementing a dependently-typed parallel programming language. These approaches will consider the technical challenges, but also balancing those with the high-level usability that skeletons bring and the performance expectations of a performant system. As part of this exploration, use-cases will also need to be developed, and the scientific evaluation of the performance of the system will need to be carried out.

Topics of Interest

This project is largely exploratory in nature, and may take several different approaches and directions, including (but not limited to):

  • Extending an existing dependently-typed language, such as Idris, with new concurrency primitives.
  • Designing and implementing an efficient parallel runtime system as a backend to the language.
  • Building on top of these primitives to provide dependently-typed concurrency behaviours, such as synchronisation points, channel behaviours, etc.
  • To design and implement a set of dependently-typed algorithmic skeletons such as farms and pipelines.
  • To explore and identify new skeletons that arise from writing dependently-typed programs.
  • To use dependent-types to encode safety and soundness properties and reason about these properties in a formal way.

The Scholarship

We have one fully-funded scholarship available, starting in September 2025, which will be awarded to competitively to the best applicant. The scholarship covers all tuition fees (irrespective of country of origin) and comes with a stipend valued at £19,705 per annum. More details can be found here: https://blogs.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/csblog/2024/10/24/phd-studentships-available-for-2025-entry/

International applications are welcome. We especially encourage female applicants and underrepresented minorities to apply. The School of Computer Science was awarded the Athena SWAN Silver award for its sustained progression in advancing equality and representation, and we welcome applications from those suitably qualified from all genders, all races, ethnicities and nationalities, LGBT+, all or no religion, all social class backgrounds, and all family structures to apply for our postgraduate research programmes.

To Apply

Informal enquiries can be directed to Chris. Full instructions for formal applications can be found at https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/computer-science/prospective/pgr/how-to-apply/

The deadline for applications is 1 March 2025.

 

PhD studentships available for 2025 entry

The School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews is offering a number of PhD scholarships for 3.5 years of study in our doctoral research programme. UK, EU and International students are all eligible for fully-funded scholarships consisting of tuition and a stipend. These awards are part-funded through the University of St Andrews’ ‘handsel’ scheme for tuition waivers.

The School of Computer Science is a centre of excellence for computer science teaching and research, with staff and students from Scotland and all parts of the world. It is a member of the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA).

Value of Award

  • Tuition scholarships cover PhD fees irrespective of country of origin.
  • Stipends are valued at £19,795 per annum (or the standard UKRI stipend, if it is higher).

Eligibility Criteria

We are looking for highly motivated research students willing to be part of a diverse and supportive research community. Applicants must hold a good Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, or a related area appropriate for their proposed topic of study.

International applications are welcome. We especially encourage female applicants and underrepresented minorities to apply. The School of Computer Science was awarded the Athena SWAN Silver award for its sustained progression in advancing equality and representation, and we welcome applications from those suitably qualified from all genders, all races, ethnicities and nationalities, LGBT+, all or no religion, all social class backgrounds, and all family structures to apply for our postgraduate research programmes.

Application Deadline

All applications received before 1st February 2025 will be considered for these scholarships.

How to Apply

Any PhD application received by the deadline will be automatically considered for these scholarships. There is no need for a separate application.

The School’s main research themes are Artificial Intelligence, Health Informatics, Human-Computer Interaction, Programming Languages, and Systems. You can find further details at https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/computer-science/research/themes/. In addition, we have cross-cutting research groups in Complex and Adaptive Systems, Computer Vision, Constraints, Data Science, MedTech, Research Software, and Responsible Computing. Applicants with interests in any of these areas are encouraged to develop a relevant research proposal and apply.

The best way to obtain a place and a scholarship is to make a robust PhD application. You are strongly encouraged to read the application guidance written on our webpages. Note that this guidance asks you to approach supervisors before formal submission to discuss your project ideas with them. Historically, applications with no named supervisor have been much less likely to result in an offer. We provide a list of existing faculty, areas of research and some potential project ideas. All supervisors listed on this page may be contacted directly to discuss possible projects. You can define your own project or discuss a project currently on offer.

Full application instructions can be found at https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/computer-science/prospective/pgr/how-to-apply/. Enquiries and questions may be directed to pg-admin-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk.

AI Seminar Friday 18th October – Leonardo Bezerra

The School is hosting an AI seminar on Friday 18th October at 11.30am in JCB1.33A!

Our speaker is Leonardo Bezerra from the University of Stirling.

FAIRTECH by design: assessing and addressing the social impacts of artificial intelligence systems

In a decade, social media and big data have transformed society and enabled groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) technologies like deep learning and generative AI. Applications like ChatGPT have impacted the world and outpaced regulatory agencies, who were rushed from a data-centred to an AI-centred concern. Recent developments from both the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) originated in the executive branch, and the most advanced Western binding legislation is the European Union (EU) AI Act, expected to be implemented over the next three years. In the meantime, the United Nations (UN) have proposed an AI advisory body similar to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and countries from the Global South like Brazil are following Western proposals. In turn, AI companies have been proactive in the regulation debate, aiming at a scenario of improved accountability and reduced liability. In this talk, we will briefly overview efforts and challenges regarding AI regulation and how major AI players are addressing it. The goal of the talk is to stir future project collaborations from a multidisciplinary perspective, to promote a culture where the development and adoption of AI systems is fair, accountable, inclusive, responsible, transparent, ethical, carbon-efficient, and human-centred (FAIRTECH) by design.

Speaker bio: Leonardo Bezerra joined the University of Stirling as a Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Data Science in 2023, after having been a Lecturer in Brazil for the past 7 years. He received his Ph.D. degree from Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) in 2016, having defended a thesis on the automated design of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. His research experience spans from applied data science projects with public and private institutions to supervising theses on automated and deep machine learning. Recently, his research has concentrated on the social impact of AI applications, integrating the Participatory Harm Auditing Workbenches and Methodologies project funded by Responsible AI UK.

2024-2025 CS-EDI Poster Competition

The school EDI committee would like to run an EDI-themed poster competition during the academic year 2024-2025. The goal is to enhance EDI awareness and foster conversations around EDI topics. Posters aim to voice what really matters to you, and a means to celebrate the value of our diverse background and experiences. The selected posters will be displayed on the school walls and screens.

We welcome entries from all students in Computer Science. Participants can be teams or individuals. Prizes will be awarded to the winning teams. If you want to register interest to the competition or you have any questions, please contact edi-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk. More details can be found https://tinyurl.com/yx63a6sa. The deadline for expressing interest is 11 Oct 2024. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Constraint Programming research group at the CP2024 conference

The 30th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP2024) was held in Girona, Catalonia during the first week of September. The CP conference series are the main event for researchers in constraint programming to get together, share latest developments and for networking. 

Our School contributed to the conference in large numbers this year. 

  • Ian Gent was the invited speaker on the conference’s first day, with his talk entitled “Solving Patience and Solitaire Games with Good Old Fashioned AI” (abstract) (video recording).  
  • Christopher Stone was invited to the discussion panel ‘Have Chatbots Reached the Holy Grail?’ at the same workshop and presented the paper: Ian Miguel, András Z. Salamon, Christopher Stone, Automating Reformulation of Essence Specifications via Graph Rewriting (paper) 
  • Özgür Akgün was the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion chair of the conference and presented the DEI initiatives to all the attendees (video recording).
  • We presented several papers at ModRef 2024, the 23rd workshop on Constraint Modelling and Reformulation: 
  • Csobán Balogh, Ruth Hoffmann and Joan Espasa, Towards Understanding Differences Between Modelling Pipelines: a Modelers Perspective (paper) (slides) 
  • Joan Espasa Arxer, Ian Gent, Ian Miguel, Peter Nightingale, András Z. Salamon and Mateu Villaret, Cross-Paradigm Modelling: A Case Study of Puzznic (paper) 
  • Carla Davesa Sureda, Joan Espasa Arxer, Ian Miguel and Mateu Villaret Auselle, Towards High-Level Modelling in Automated Planning (paper)
  • Nguyen Dang, Ian Gent, Peter Nightingale, Felix Ulrich-Oltean and Jack Waller, Constraint Models for Relaxed Klondike Variants (paper) (slides)
    • Jack Waller (who is an undergraduate student at St Andrews!) presented this work.
  • Alessio Pellegrino, Özgür Akgün, Nguyen Dang, Zeynep Kiziltan and Ian Miguel, Automatic Feature Learning for Essence: a Case Study on Car Sequencing (paper) (slides) 
    • Alessio Pellegrino (who is a visiting student from University of Bologna) presented this work.
  • Orhan Yigit Yazicilar, Özgür Akgün and Ian Miguel, Automated Nogood-Filtered Fine-Grained Streamlining: A Case Study on Covering Arrays (paper) 
  • Our PhD students Orhan Yigit Yazicilar, Erdem Kus, Carla Devesa Sureda, and Joseph Loughney attended the doctoral program. As part of the doctoral program they presented their work by giving a talk and presenting a poster. In addition, they were assigned a mentor during the conference. 
  • Visiting research student (from University of Bologna) Alessio Pellegrino gave his first talk at the ModRef 2024 workshop. 
  • PhD student Erdem Kus presented the following paper in the technical track of the main conference: 
  • Erdem Kuş, Özgür Akgün, Nguyen Dang, and Ian Miguel, Frugal Algorithm Selection (slides) (video recording)

Finally, here is a group photo of the St Andrews group, standing at the front steps of the beautiful conference venue in Girona. 

Week 1 Social Events

The following social events are being held in the School this week in the Jack Cole coffee area:-

  • Monday 16 September – 17:00 – 18:00 – MSc and MSci welcome reception (TODAY)
  • Wednesday 18 September – 16:00 – 17:00 – Honours (Junior & Senior) welcome reception
  • Friday 20 September – 17:00 – 18:00 – Sub-honours (students on first and second years of CS programmes) social event

Drinks 🍷 and snacks 🍰 available at all events, so please come along and join us!

STACS Welcome BBQ 🍔

If you are a new Undergraduate or Postgraduate Taught student to the School of Computer Science, you are invited to the STACS Welcome BBQ outside the Jack Cole Coffee Area on Friday 13th September 5.30pm-7.30pm.

The usual BBQ favourites will be available from the grill and refreshments will be provided. We look forward to seeing you there!