项目介绍

2021年7月29日

About the course

The DPhil offered by the CDT provides graduates with the opportunity to develop in-depth knowledge, understanding and expertise in autonomous intelligent systems. 

The programme provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art view of autonomous intelligent systems, combining theoretical foundations, systems research, academic training and industry-initiated projects and thus mixing both practical and theoretical aspects of intelligent machines and systems.

Course outline

The first year is oriented towards developing your knowledge base. You will need to take a number of courses during your first year. Your day will comprise lectures each morning with laboratory sessions each afternoon. You will undertake two eight- to ten-week mini-projects, precursors to your DPhil study, to hone your research skills and shape your main research area. You will meet your supervisor regularly to assess progress and discuss academic issues.

Years two to four see an increasing emphasis on individual research. A summary of projects is produced each year by supervisors, but you will be encouraged to develop projects based on your own research ideas within the four key research themes of robotics, vision and perception, machine intelligence and multi-agent systems, control and verification, and M2M (or the ‘Internet of Things’), and secure sensing and actuation. Training will continue in academic reading, writing and presentation skills, business and commerce (to include innovation and IP curatorship and entrepreneurship), career development and planning, and ethics and law, where the societal implications of autonomous systems will be considered.

Research seminars are used to discuss papers, for rehearsing conference talks and for building links between groups. An annual workshop gives the opportunity to present research to students, industrial partners and invited researchers from other universities. Industrial collaborators are invited to share their latest problems and market trends and to discuss opportunities for future collaboration.

You will spend one or two months over the second or third summer in an industrial lab to gain experience in industry-led projects and expanding your horizons by engaging in an AIMS topic that is not your main one. After the end of the internship, further interaction will be encouraged by inviting your industrial supervisors to join your group in Oxford for short periods.

You will also be encouraged to take demonstrations of your systems to companies, government departments, as well as schools. In the fourth year, the cohort help organise the annual workshop, inviting keynote speakers, participating in the program committee, reviewing papers submitted by second and third year students, and publicising the workshop to universities and industrial partners beyond those directly involved in the CDT.

Supervision

For this course, the allocation of graduate supervision is the responsibility of the Department of Engineering Science and/or Department of Computer Science and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a supervisor may be found outside the Department of Engineering Science and Department of Computer Science. 

Students will be expected to meet their supervisor on a regular basis, these meetings should take place at least once every two weeks, averaged across the year, to discuss their progress.

Assessment

You will be assessed continually throughout the first year during courses and projects and at its end the CDT supervisors will assess whether sufficient progress has been made to continue to the research phase. At the end of the second year, you will be required to write a report and give a presentation on your research, and to present a detailed and coherent plan for the research-intensive phase in the third and fourth years of your doctoral studies. Progress towards completion is again formally assessed some way into the final year of study.

For the DPhil you will be required to submit a substantial thesis which is read and examined by experts in the field, one from the department and one from elsewhere. Often the thesis will result in the publication of several journal and conference papers.

Graduate destinations

The development of a positive group dynamic within and between year groups in the CDT and the progressive increase of responsibility and external exposure, equips graduates from the AIMS CDT for leadership roles in industry both nationally and internationally. It is anticipated that others will continue to spend time in postdoctoral research, probably developing the work in their theses towards product.

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made in circumstances of a pandemic (including Covid-19), epidemic or local health emergency. In addition, in certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.

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