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
Component-based Software Development.
Primary supervisor
Additional information
Contact admissions office
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
In Software Engineering, component-based development (CBD) aims at reducing production cost and time-to-market by reusing pre-existing components from a repository. CBD represents a paradigm shift in software development: from building monolithic, single-platform, purpose-built-from-scratch systems to constructing assemblies of ready-made components that are platform-independent and supplied by third-parties.
With software becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and applications becoming increasingly complex, e.g. driverless cars and the Internet of Things, scale and complexity have become unavoidable challenges, particularly for mission and safety-critical applications. CBD is well-placed to tackle these challenges through the use of compositional techniques which construct and validate systems in a hierarchical manner.
Much research has to be done before CBD can achieve its goals, and the CBD Group at Manchester offers many PhD projects covering all aspects of CBD, ranging from novel component models to new component-based approaches to existing problems. To highlight just some examples, project topics include: (i) CBD for specific domains, e.g. avionics, automotives, IoT; (ii) component-based product line engineering; (iii) reverse engineering legacy code into component-based software.
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.
- 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?