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PhD/MPhil Research Degrees
Introduction.
The Department of Computing at Imperial College is an internationally leading research institution which offers an exciting research environment for prospective postgraduate students. It has consistently been awarded the highest research rating (5*) in the UK Research Assessment Exercises, including the most recent one held in 2001, and was rated as "Excellent" in the most recent national assessment of teaching quality. The Times Higher Education Supplement recently rated Imperial as the best in Europe and fourth best in the world for technology (see extract ).
Financial Support
The funding details are different for UK, European and Overseas students.
UK Students and Students Eligible for EPSRC Funding
Each year the Department has a number of EPSRC funded DTA studentships which are awarded to suitably qualified research students. These pay for the College fees and provide a bursary for the student's living expenses:
Fees: £3,168 per year Bursary: £13,200 per year
European Students
The current situation is that the Department has some scholarships to fund the fees for suitably qualified European students. The student or supervisor has to find the funding for the bursary. It is not likely that this situation will change in the foreseeable future.
Fees: £3,168 per year Bursary: £13,200 per year (for EU students that fulfill "residency" requirements)
Overseas Students
Scholarships.
Please see Scholarships and Awards for other funding opportunities, in particular the Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Awards. Through its Industrial Liaison Unit, the Department is able to offer enhanced PhD scholarships to selected students. These are supported through generous donations from industrial sponsors. They are allocated early in the first year of study and are tenable for up to 3 years and renewed on an annual basis. The criteria for award and financial value differ between scholarships and are publicised at the start of the selection process.
Please note that the Department does not provide funding for either tuition fees or maintenance. There are sometimes Scholarships available through the Department, College, or individual supervisors. Opportunities for Fellowships, Teaching Assistantship (TA) and Research Assistantship (RA) posts are not that frequent and you would need to refer to www.doc.ic.ac.uk/about/situationsvacant/ on a regular basis to see what positions are available.
How to Apply
Applications are welcome for 2008/ 09 session (entry 2008)
We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates. Competition is very strong for places, and applicants are required to have a good MSc degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Mathematics or some IT-related discipline. Candidates who have a BSc degree only will not be considered. Additionally, applicants need to demonstrate strong research potential. Where appropriate, we may encourage applicants to register first for the MSc in Advanced Computing and then, upon successful completion of this, to apply for registration for a research degree. The MSc course includes special research-oriented provisions for students intending to take this route.
To increase your chances of acceptance and to facilitate the processing of your application, please:
- indicate in your application the general research areas and topics that interest you, and potential supervisors for your research in the Department.
The Assistant Registrar (Admissions), Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ.
Contacting the Department
Before contacting the Department, we strongly advise you to read the following:
- The regulations for students: www3.imperial.ac.uk/pgprospectus/infozone/regulationsforstudents
To contact our PhD Admissions Team, please email [email protected] .
Applicants with Disabilities
- Publications
PhD Opportunities
This page covers some frequently asked questions about applying for PhD students within the SAIL research group.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Are you taking PhD Students in 2025?
A: Yes, we plan to accept one PhD student beginning in October 2025, although this depends on funding.
Q: What topics are you working on?
A: The group works on topics on Safe Artificial Intelligence. The overarching aims of our efforts is to develop methods and tools to make AI more reliable and safer for society to use. To this end we work both on machine learning systems and logic-based systems. Topics of ongoing research include (but are not limited to): verification of neural networks and neural systems, including perception systems, verification of swarm systems including parameterised model checking, safe reinforcement learning, robust training for neural classifiers. For example, see some recent papers below on these topics (more papers are available on our publications page ):
A. De Palma, R. Bunel, K. Dvijotham, M. P. Kumar, R. Stanforth, A. Lomuscio. Expressive Losses for Verified Robustness via Convex Combinations . Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR24). Vienna, Austria.
B. Batten, Y. Zheng, A. De Palma, P. Kouvaros, A. Lomuscio. Verification of Geometric Robustness of Neural Networks via Piecewise Linear Approximation and Lipschitz Optimisation . Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI24). Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
H. Hanspaal, A. Lomuscio. Efficient Verification of Neural Networks against LVM-based Specifications . Proceedings of the 36th IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR23). Montreal, Canada. Computer Vision Foundation / IEEE.
Q: What are the funding opportunities for a PhD?
Admission to PhD studies and funding are separate processes . We normally discuss funding only after a successful application for PhD studies.
Funding is competitive and it is avaliable both to selected UK and overseas students. For overseas applicants, please refer to the Imperial webpage on postgraduate study for information about tuition fees and living costs in the UK. A full list of scholarships and studentships is available here .
Admission to PhD studies and funding for PhD are treated separately.
Find a PhD provides generic information on PhD funding.
Q: How can I apply?
A: To pursue a PhD with SAIL, you can apply directly to the Department of Computing of Imperial here stating an interest in the topics we pursue.
Q: What is the selection process?
A: Applicants are expected to have a First Class or Distinction Masters level degree, or equivalent, in a relevant, math-intensive discipline, such as computer science, mathematics, or physics. In your application you will also need to demonstrate that you have met the College’s English-language requirement, and to submit a CV and research statement. Advice about submitting an application can be found here .
Your application can only be considered after you have formally applied and after the eligibility criteria has been checked by the relevant office.
If your application is selected for assessment by SAIL, we normally follow the following steps with all applicants:
A technical assessment based on a number of papers relevant to the PhD application. Applicants will receive papers relevant to the topic identified and asked to answer a number of technical questions on them.
Technical presentations on 2 or 3 papers related to the applicant’s research interests.
An interview on your research interests and plans.
Q: Can you help me with my research statement for the PhD application?
A: The PhD proposal is part of the application and we cannot help you with its drafting. An informative research proposal typically consists of a problem statement, followed by a literature review, an evaluation of its limitations, and a sketch of a direction of work. Note that a PhD proposal is not a binding document; it is often the case that students, in consultation with their advisor, alter the direction of their work after they begin their studies.
Q: I would like to research on X as part of your group. Do you see that as being relevant to your research agenda?
We are generally interested in Safe AI in the broadest sense. To this end we have expertise and actively work both in logic-based methods and on techniques targetting ML systems. Our present research efforts are listed above. We are open to other topics, related to the topics above. If you are still unsure, we would recommend you first submit your full application and if it is routed to us we can discuss this further.
Q: How often do PhD students meet their supervisor?
A: Initially students meet weekly for 30mins to 60mins to discuss a direction of work. When this is established, shorter weekly meetings are alternated with longer technical meetings as required. The group meets twice a week to discuss research work, novel papers, etc.
Q: That’s great - should I email you before I apply?
A: If you have any specific questions not covered here, please feel free to get in touch with Alessio Lomuscio . Otherwise, we recommend you submit a full PhD application for full consideration.
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