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
Text Analytics and Blog/Forum Analysis
Primary supervisor
Additional information
Contact admissions office
Other projects with the same supervisor
- Data-Science Approaches to Better Understand Multimorbidity and Treatment Outcomes in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Applying Natural Language Processing to real-world patient data to optimise cancer care
- Integrated text and table mining
- (MRC DTP) Unlocking the research potential of unstructured patient data to improve health and treatment outcomes
Funding
- Self-Funded Students Only
If you have the correct qualifications and access to your own funding, either from your home country or your own finances, your application to work with this supervisor will be considered.
Project description
There are many examples of documents that present author's subjective views on particular topics - for example, blogs, social media posts, user feedback. The capture and analysis of attitudes, opinions and topics in an automated and structured fashion offer a powerful technology to a number of problem domains, including business intelligence, marketing, national security, crime prevention and healthcare/wellbeing services.
This project aims to develop technologies for extraction and analysis of different aspects of user generated text, including sentiment and patterns from free text blogs and forums, using a combination of natural language processing, text mining and machine learning techniques. Research can include developing techniques for an automated analysis of the interactions between users within forum/blog communities (e.g. language used, roles adopted etc) and the kind of information that is exchanged. The work will involve building computational models. The project can be placed in the context of different communities, including research (e.g. biomedical/bioinformatics forums), medical/health wellbeing or energy consumption.
The successful candidate will have an excellent first degree in Computer Science or Computational Linguistic, with clear interests and at least some relevant experience in text mining and language modelling. Deep understanding of machine learning is also expected.
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?