MSc in Natural Computation

[John A Bullinaria]

	Studentships/Scholarships for MSc in Natural Computation
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          School of Computer Science (http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk)
                       The University of Birmingham
                              Birmingham, UK

Students are invited for an advanced 12 month MSc programme in Natural
Computation (i.e. computational systems that use ideas and inspirations
from natural biological, ecological and physical systems).  This will
comprise of six taught modules in Neural Computation, Evolutionary
Computation, Molecular and Quantum Computation, Nature Inspired
Optimisation, Nature Inspired Learning, and Nature Inspired Design (10
credits each); two mini research projects (30 credits each);  and one full
scale research project (60 credits).

The programme is supported by the EPSRC through its Master's Level
Training Packages and by a number of leading companies. Our industrial
advisory board includes representatives from British Telecom,
Unilever, QinetiQ, Rolls Royce, Severn Trent, Pro Enviro, and SPSS.

The School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham has a
strong research group in evolutionary and neural computation, with eight
members of academic staff (six faculty and two research fellows) currently
specialising in these fields:

Dr. John Bullinaria (Neural Networks, Evolutionary Computation, Cog.Sci.)
Dr. Ke Chen (Neural Networks, Pattern Recognition, Machine Perception)
Dr. Aniko Ekart (Genetic Programming, AI, Machine Learning)
Dr. Jun He (Evolutionary Computation)
Dr. Julian Miller (Evolutionary Computation, Machine Learning)
Dr. Jon Rowe (Evolutionary Computation, AI)
Dr. Thorsten Schnier (Evolutionary Computation, Engineering Design)
Prof. Xin Yao (Evolutionary Computation, NNs, Machine Learning)

Other staff members also working in these areas include Prof. Aaron Sloman
(evolvable architectures of mind, co-evolution, interacting niches) and
Dr. Jeremy Wyatt (evolutionary robotics, classifier systems).

The programme is open to candidates with a very good honours degree or
equivalent qualifications in Computer Science/Engineering or closely
related areas.

Several fully funded EPSRC studentships (covering fees and maintenance
costs) are available, and additional financial support from our industrial
partners may be available during the main project period.

Further details about this programme and funding opportunities are
available from our Web-site at:

       		   http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/natcomp

Please note that the closing date for applications is 15th July 2002.