Department of Electronic Engineering

Location:      Egham
Closing Date:      Monday 06 May 2019

Department of Electronic Engineering, Royal Holloway, University of London

Applications are invited for two PhD studentships in two cutting-edge projects in Signal Processing for Deep Learning and Microwave Photonics for future Radar and Wireless Communication Systems, starting in September 2019.  Each studentship includes a stipend of approx. £17,009 plus fees (at home/EU rates) for three years. Overseas applicants are welcome to apply but would be required to have other sources to pay the difference between UK and overseas tuition fees. Applicants should ideally hold, or be predicted to achieve, an undergraduate degree or equivalent in Science/Engineering (minimum requirement: 2.1) and meet the College’s English Language requirements (for international students). An MSc in relevant disciplines is desirable but not essential.  

The Department resides in the purpose-designed brand-new Shilling Building situated on the beautiful Egham campus close to London. We complement our diverse research portfolio with its own unique areas of research to build world-class centres of expertise in new areas of activity.  Applications are open for the following areas:

Signal Processing for Deep Learning

Project Supervisor: Dr Clive Cheong Took

Audio, Biosignals and Machine Learning Group

This project will focus on constructing a novel signal processing framework for deep neural networks. Its aim is to develop a mathematical and conceptual framework within which deep learning algorithms can be formulated clearly and concisely for ease of their application, understanding, and generalisation. An application of these novel techniques will be the analysis of biomedical data such as EEG or fMRI. Deep learning of biomedical data is still a relatively unexplored area, and provides huge scope to make advances in this field such as biomedical pattern discovery, classification tasks for medical prognosis, and may even provide insights on the human brain model.

Contact: Dr Clive Cheong Took (clive.cheongtook@rhul.ac.uk)

Microwave Photonics for future Radar and Wireless Communication Systems 

Project Supervisor: Dr Shyqyri Haxha

Microwave Photonics and Sensors Group

This project will focus on Microwave Photonics developing theoretical and experimental techniques for Radio over Fiber (RF) transmission systems. The system under study will be focused on all-optical processing and controlling of RF signals for future Radar and Wireless communication systems with high conversion efficiency using novel configuration schemes over a wide range of frequencies with high SFDR, low noise and suppression of high-order harmonics. Novel techniques will be investigated to design and optimise transmission of radio signals over fibre optic modules with desired power consumption, and reduced complexity. 

In civilian aerospace systems there is increasing demand for higher information capacity links to both ground stations and space based satellite networks for a wide range of applications including: on-board “Wi-Fi”, passenger and crew telecommunication and data communication, airframe and engine health monitoring systems, air traffic control communication, GPS and continuous airplane status and location monitoring. Therefore, in this project, practical ways will be explored to design the optical and low power electronic approaches to deliver RoF techniques where novel configurations will be developed for civilian aerospace system applications.

Contact: Dr Shyqyri Haxha (Shyqyri.haxha@rhul.ac.uk)

How to Apply: Informal enquiries about the research projects and funds should be directed to the appropriate supervisor for each project. 

For further details on the application process please click here or contact: Sharon Clutterbuck on ElectronicEngineering@rhul.ac.uk. 

Formal submission must be completed via Royal Holloway Direct after discussions with the potential supervisor.

Closing date:  10am on Monday 6 May 2019