Information for Prospective Students

Chris Williams' Information for Prospective Students

PhD Students

I expect to take on about one to two PhD students per year. In terms of research areas, I am currently particularly intersted in taking on PhD students to work on

Models for Understanding Time-Series/Condition Monitoring more details
Unsupervised learning for image analysis, e.g. for object recognition, or more low-level modelling of image structure more details

See my research interests page for some further details. I am also potentially interested in supervising good students who propose their own topics, as long as these generally fit under the area of probabilistic machine learning.

To work in my group the ideal preparation would be

Strong preparation in continuous mathematics: linear algebra, calculus, optimization in continuous spaces
Strong preparation in probability and statistics: basic probability theory, probabilistic graphical models (e.g. Bayesian networks)
Strong programming background and experience in C/C++ and/or JAVA and/or MATLAB etc

As a general policy, ANC encourages potential PhD students to first study for an MSc degree, as this allows them to gain the necessary background before embarking on research. If you do not have the background mentioned above a good way to obtain it is through the MSc programme in the School of Informatics, and in particular the Learning from Data specialism. Normally admission to this specialism will require a good degree in a numerate discipline.

Informal enquiries about PhDs may be made to me via email (see my contact information page). When doing this please provide

A CV (resume)
A list of courses taken and grades obtained
A 1-2 page statement of research interests

Please use .pdf or .txt formats, not .doc. Further information is available from the School of Informatics Postgraduate Prospectus, including information on how to make a formal application.

MSc Students

You can find information about the MSc programme in the School of Informatics, and in particular the Learning from Data specialism by following these links. Normally admission to the LfD specialism will require a good degree in a numerate discipline. The application procedure is described here.

Internships

The School of Informatics (SoI) does not generally have an internship program. In the past there was been a scheme for students of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), but this is not running currently.

Chris Williams

Last modified: 3 Nov 2011