Research projects
Find a postgraduate research project in your area of interest by exploring the research projects that we offer in the Department of Computer Science.
We have a broad range of research projects for which we are seeking doctoral students. Browse the list of projects on this page or follow the links below to find information on doctoral training opportunities, or applying for a postgraduate research programme.
Alternatively, if you would like to propose your own project then please include a research project proposal and the name of a possible supervisor with your application.
Available projects
Automatic Emotion Detection, Analysis and Recognition
Primary supervisor
Additional information
Contact admissions office
Other projects with the same supervisor
- Biologically-Plausible Continual Learning
- Zero-Shot Learning and Applications
- Ensemble Strategies for Semi-Supervised, Unsupervised and Transfer Learning
- Multi-task Learning and Applications
- Explainable and Interpretable Machine Learning
- Machine Learning and Cognitive Modelling Applied to Video Games
- Automatic Activity Analysis, Detection and Recognition
- Music Generation and Information Processing via Deep Learning
- Deep Learning for Temporal Information Processing
- Contextualised Multimedia Information Retrieval via Representation Learning
Funding
- Competition Funded Project (Students Worldwide)
This research project is one of a number of projects at this institution. It is in competition for funding with one or more of these projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be awarded the funding. Applications for this project are welcome from suitably qualified candidates worldwide. Funding may only be available to a limited set of nationalities and you should read the full department and project details for further information.
Project description
Affective computing is a branch of Artificial Intelligence that relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotion and other affective phenomena. Research in affective computing is of interdisciplinary nature, which combines computer science with many other fields, e.g., psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, sociology, medicine, psychophysiology, ethics, and philosophy, in order to enable advances in basic understanding of affect and its role in biological agents, and across a broad range of human experience. From a human-machine interaction perspective, the most important topic in affective computing is automatic emotion detection, analysis and recognition from human behaviours including facial expression, speech and body gestures.
In general, this project is going to investigate critical problems underlying emotional representation learning, emotional pattern discovery, emotional pattern modelling and recognition. This is a flexible project; i.e., it could be either a fundamental research oriented project that learns a ???universal??? emotion representation that is insensitive to different factors or a practical project that applies state-of-the-art machine learning and signal processing techniques to the emotion detection and recognition in a real scenario. In addition, this project mainly focuses on mono-modal emotion but can also be extended to the development of multimodal affective computing techniques, i.e., fusion of different emotional information for decision making. For demonstration, a prototype normally needs to be established based on the proposed approaches for a real application, e.g., computerized tutoring in an e-learning environment. While the relevant fundamental research is expected to be conducted, the project is suitable for one who has a clear targeted application area in mind.
In order to take this project, it is essential to have good machine learning, speech/image signal processing and Psychological background knowledge on emotion theories (if working on fundamental research) as well as excellent programming skills (if working on applications). If you are interested in this project, please first visit my research student page: http://staff.cs.manchester.ac.uk/~kechen/ for the required materials and information prior to contacting me.
Person specification
For information
- Candidates must hold a minimum of an upper Second Class UK Honours degree or international equivalent in a relevant science or engineering discipline.
- Candidates must meet the School's minimum English Language requirement.
- Candidates will be expected to comply with the University's policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion.
Essential
Applicants will be required to evidence the following skills and qualifications.
- This project requires mathematical engagement and ability substantially greater than for a typical Computer Science PhD. Give evidence for appropriate competence, as relevant to the project description.
- You must be capable of performing at a very high level.
- You must have a self-driven interest in uncovering and solving unknown problems and be able to work hard and creatively without constant supervision.
Desirable
Applicants will be required to evidence the following skills and qualifications.
- You will have good time management.
- You will possess determination (which is often more important than qualifications) although you'll need a good amount of both.
General
Applicants will be required to address the following.
- Comment on your transcript/predicted degree marks, outlining both strong and weak points.
- Discuss your final year Undergraduate project work - and if appropriate your MSc project work.
- How well does your previous study prepare you for undertaking Postgraduate Research?
- Why do you believe you are suitable for doing Postgraduate Research?