Ever considered doing a PhD in web based application development?

jimbo007

One way to move forward with your software development career is through doing a research masters/phd.

Would you like to do a PhD where a web based application will be developed and tested in industry? We have a position (2/3 years) available (with a scholarship, funded by Enterprise Ireland) for a research Masters/PhD student in the Enterprise Research Centre, University of Limerick www.ul.ie/erc.

Current projects in the same department are carried out using ASP.NET with C#, SQL Server 2005 and Adobe Flash, integrating with other technologies.

To apply, you need a 2.2 degree or higher in an appropriate discipline.

I can be contacted informally at: james(dot)byrne(at)ul(dot)ie if you want to know more!

A brief description of this position can be seen at http://www.ul.ie/erc/research_vacancies.html - position 4.

jimbo007

alternatively, you can ask questions here on the forum..

jimbo007

one other thing, other technologies/languages (for example - Java, Python, XML, other databases, etc.) will also be considered

pwd

link is dead

Tom Dunne

Take the ) from the end.

jimbo007

thanks

damnyanks

What sort of scholarship / funding is provided. Can't seem to find it on the position vacant section.

jimbo007

full fees paid + enough to cover living expenses...

markf909

jimbo007 wrote:

full fees paid + enough to cover living expenses...

Most funded PhD's are paid about €16k p/a (after fees) these days.

Civilian_Target

A PhD is surely supposed to include a bulk of novel work. What exactly is novel about this PhD? (I assume you're referring to position 1)

jimbo007

Civilian_Target wrote:

A PhD is surely supposed to include a bulk of novel work. What exactly is novel about this PhD? (I assume you're referring to position 1)

The ideas behind and the methods used in solving position 1 are novel, but I'm not going into them, because as I said in my original post, I'm advertising position 4. If you're interested in the position, you can email me on your CV and we can discuss it further.

markf909 wrote:

Most funded PhD's are paid about €16k p/a (after fees) these days.

I don't have the exact figures with me, but this figure isn't too far off..

jimbo007

Ok, I have the exact figures for this:

€14,434 per year and, separately, fees will be paid.
Fees are currently €4,304.


(Something to take into account is that accommodation around the University is plentiful (there's a lot of new houses and apartments built recently) and is around €55-75 per week in general, and around €35 in the summer months - student villages are a small bit more expensive).

markf909

Another thing folks need to be aware if you accepting a PhD with funding, is how much is available to travel to conferences.

Its a great feeling knowing you can submit to the top conferences in your field knowing you can afford to go. So a budget for this is desirable as you could not afford to go to say the west cost of the states, pay conferences registration and accommodation on 1200 a month!

jimbo007

conferences are budgeted for and submission of papers and attendance at conferences is encouraged as part of this phd.

jimbo007

Based on some of the questions i'm getting via email:

The PhD would be written based on the work carried out. The idea behind the software being developed is novel. A Masters takes at least two years, a PhD at least a further year. Funding is available to cover both, as described already. If you don't have a Masters previously, you start at Masters level, and after about 2 years, you 'transfer' to a PhD, which takes a further year. This involves writing a document that proves that the work is good enough to progress to a PhD, and is examined internally, both a document and presentation with questions/answers. The PhD is a document, typically describing a literature review of the area, work carried out and ideas, and conclusions with future work. You go in front of a board consisting of your supervisor, an internal examiner (in your area) and an external (from another university, in your area). You have to present and defend your work in what's called a Viva Voce, and answer any questions asked.

You'd have your own desk, computer etc. in the Enterprise Research Centre, in the new Engineering Research Building in UL. You'd typically be expected put in something like a 40 hour week, the hours are flexible, but it's a good idea to take a structured approach to the hours you put in, and treat it something like a normal job. What matters more is the quality of the work that gets done, not the hours put in. The person considering the position should be good at working on their own initiative.

The project has very recently started and is currently in the software requirements gathering / exploratory phase. As part of this phase, requirements elicitation is being carried out with two large semiconductor manufacturers. There will possibly be other companies involved in the future. The full team consists of two postdoctorates, two postgraduate students (including the one advertised for here), and is supervised by two others. There would be a large emphasis on 'what the tool/application will do', a large emphasis in defining the requirements and designing the software (iteratively, using a prototyping approach). As it's a commercialisation project, a useable piece of software is required at the end of it, which will be tested. Defining what the tool will do will be driven by the researchers on the project.

For the person starting, there would be an initial period where they would gain an understanding of the area. Roles outside of the project work to be carried out (as part of the phd) include publication of work/ideas at International conferences (funding provided for this), publication of journal papers, some hours teaching labs to undergraduate students during the academic terms, along with writing the PhD.

Here's another copy of an advertisement that might make it a bit clearer what's involved:

jimbo007 wrote:

A research postgraduate position is available to work on a project called Knowledge Capture Systems Engineering Tool for Simulation (KSETS) at the Enterprise Research Centre, University of Limerick (click here).

The aim of the project is to develop a software application that will assist personnel in complex manufacturing sectors (i.e., semiconductor manufacturing) in the pre-coding phase of a simulation project particularly in relation to providing a highly visual and communicative modelling software tool to support system knowledge capture and storage.

The research project will involve user requirements collection at end user sites, research of modelling methods, modelling standards (Systems Modeling Language (SysML) and Process Specification Language (PSL)), software design and software development. Current software projects involve the use of Microsoft .NET and Adobe Flash, but other technologies/products will be considered.

The postgraduate student will work as part of a research team of two postdoctorates and another postgraduate student. This position would suit a person with computer modelling and software development background.

This project is funded by Enterprise Ireland through its Commercialisation Fund - Technology Development (see click here).

If you do have any questions, please feel free to post them up here or email them on!

Rafferty

You mentioned that this project has an industrial connection - this seems really good from the point of view of defending the relevance of the work [and getting industrial contacts! ] but will there be a problem publishing the work in journals etc.?

jimbo007

of course care has to be taken with what you write, but no we don't forsee any real issues with this in terms of publishing work from this project/PhD.

Rafferty

Is this position still available?

jimbo007

Yes, it's still available.

Interviews are currently taking place, so please send me a CV as soon as possible if you're interested in the position.

jimbo007

This position is now filled. Thank you for your interest.

Tom Dunne

jimbo007 wrote:

This position is now filled. Thank you for your interest.

Just curious - was it somebody from Boards.ie who got it?

jimbo007

tom dunne wrote:

Just curious - was it somebody from Boards.ie who got it?

I'm not sure if I can reveal who got it, I'll just say that boards.ie was very useful..

GoneShootin

jimbo007 wrote:

I'm not sure if I can reveal who got it, I'll just say that boards.ie was very useful..

Sure you're not a politician jimbo ?

jimbo007

if you knew me you wouldnt ask me that!