PhD opportunities in data-centric programming at LFCS, University of Edinburgh

And now for a word from our sponsors...

I would like to recruit 1-2 PhD students, working on any of the following topics (with further details given at the associated links). 

• Language-based provenance security: Provenance-based security and audit; applications to slicing, failure analysis for system configuration languages; information-flow and provenance-tracking for multi-tier programs; designing new [functional/declarative] languages or dynamic information flow analyses for secure, high-reliability datacenter programming
• Data-centric programming and provenance: Types and language design for integrating multiple data-centric programming models; language-integrated query; extending bidirectional programming for synchronizing data across data models;  language-based techniques for data curation and preservation, provenance tracking, or archiving; query and update techniques for longitudinal or provenance-aware queries.

One position is funded by a Microsoft Research PhD studentship, joint with Paul Anderson and Dimitrios Vytiniotis (MSR-Cambridge).  The funding includes a laptop for the student and there may be additional opportunities for collaboration or internships (at the discretion of MSR).  A second funded position may be available.

Applicants should have a good honors degree or equivalent in computer science, or a related discipline, and ideally familiarity with foundations of programming languages, security, or databases and interests in applications of these foundations to real systems.

Other PhD studentships are also available, including on topics related to types and programming languages.  Please contact me (jcheney@inf.ed.ac.uk) or others in LFCS to discuss alternative project ideas.

Application instructions

The first-round application deadline is December 13, 2013.  Applications received after this deadline may be considered subject to available funding. Applicants from outside the UK/EU must apply by December 13, 2013 in order be considered for full funding.  Please get in touch early in case of questions about the application process, project ideas or study in the UK or Edinburgh. 

To apply, please follow the instructions at:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/informatics/postgraduate/apply/

and apply to the LFCS PhD program (or just jump directly to http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees?id=493&cw_xml=details.php).

About the University of Edinburgh and LFCS

The University of Edinburgh School of Informatics brings together world-class research groups in theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive science. The School led the UK 2008 RAE rankings in volume of internationally recognised or internationally excellent research.

The Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science was established by Burstall, Milner and Plotkin in 1986, and is recognized worldwide for groundbreaking research on topics in programming languages, semantics, type theory, proof theory, algorithms and complexity, databases, security, and systems biology.  Programming Languages and Foundations is one of the largest research activities in LFCS, including 15 academic staff, 9 postdoctoral researchers and 6 current PhD students. We participate in a thriving PL research community across Scotland, with Scottish Programming Languages Seminars hosted every 3-4 months by PL groups at Glasgow, Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt, St. Andrews, Dundee and Edinburgh.

For more information about Edinburgh and studying here, see these pages:

• Explore Edinburgh
• Overview for prospective postgraduates
• Programming Languages and Foundations at LFCS