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
Design and Implementation of an FPGA-Accelerated Data Analytics Database
Primary supervisor
Contact admissions office
Other projects with the same supervisor
- Design and Exploration of a Memristor-enabled FPGA Architecture
- Programmable Mixed-Signal Fabric for Machine Learning Applications
- A Multi-Tenancy FPGA Cloud Infrastructure and Runtime System
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
All major cloud service providers are now offering instances with FPGA support (Amazon F1, Microsoft Azure, Baidu, Alibaba and others). One traditional cloud application is running databases and the goal of this project is building a database system for data analytics tasks that can be executed FPGAs hardware accelerated. The project shall use private memory to store data in local RAM and work together with a software DBMS (e.g., MonetDB) to accelerate some compute intensive queries with the help of the FPGA. By using partial reconfiguration of FPGAs, only the accelerators currently needed have to be hosted on the chip which allows using more resources for specific queries.
This project is aligned to a couple of our present FPGA-related research projects, including the European Union projects ECOSCALE (ecoscale.eu) and EuroEXA euroexa.eu). Through this path, the candidate will get access to a cluster of 300 large capacity FPGA nodes for test and evaluation.
The candidate should have a first class or upper second class honours degree, or a master???s degree (or equivalent qualification), in Computer Science or Electronic Engineering. Evidence of good spoken and written English has to proven with an IELTS score (or equivalent) of 6.5 or above for students whose first language is not English and who have no degree from an English speaking university. This position is open to all qualified candidates irrespective of nationality. The ideal candidate for this project has already hardware design, FPGA and/or database experience.
A scholarship for this project is available as one of a number of projects at this institution. This is in competition for funding with one or more of our projects. Usually the projects which receives the best applicants will be awarded the scholarship. Early 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.
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?