PhD Programmes

Overview

The supervision for MPhil or PhD research degrees is available in many areas of informatics, ranging from theoretical to applied in many subject domains such as information management, enterprise systems, business computing, financial prognosis, intelligent pervasive spaces, healthcare information management, systems analysis and design, requirements engineering, intelligent and collaborative computing. The University has a formal code of practice for research students, which ensures that adequate supervision and appropriate research skills training are provided.

Research interests

The IRC has expertise available from many subject fields and conducts interdisciplinary informatics research in theoretical and application domains. IRC’s research themes include:

Applied informatics and semiotics

Semiotics, as an established discipline to study signs (index, icons and symbols) and their functions, offer us a systematic way to study information and its effective use in organisations. Organisations and its activities of creating, managing and utilising information are modelled and analysed for designing business and technical solutions.

Investigator:  - k.liu@reading.ac.uk

Business diagnosis and decision support

Information systems to support enterprise from strategic and operational levels will sustain business competitiveness. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of data and knowledge discovery enable organisation to understand themselves and the positioning in environment. Enterprise solutions such as CRM, SCM and ERP allow them to enhance the business performance.

Investigator:  - y.tang@reading.ac.uk

Social informatics and collaborative systems

Problems in social informatics address issues in how information is created, processed, used, communicated, stored, discarded, and revived in the context of social interactions among people. Advances in collaborative systems, intelligent systems and human-computer interaction are directed towards information retrieval & management, public deliberation, and knowledge management.

Investigator:  - k.nakata@reading.ac.uk

Perceptual, Usability and Information Acquisition

A user will not continue to pay for a system or device that they perceive to be of low quality, irrespective of its intrinsic appeal. Consequently, commercial development should not ignore user-centric design or else will risk alienating or excluding the end-user. Research includes quantifying the perceptual impact of emerging technologies; human-centric data manipulation; eye-tracking and attentive displays, as well as intelligent systems and human-computer interaction.

Investigator:  - s.r.gulliver@reading.ac.uk

Modes of study

PhD in Informatics can be pursued full time at IRC, or part-time which may be carried out away from Reading. Working away from Reading usually applies to students who are working in institutions where research facilities are available, while pursuing research towards a PhD with the supervision of both IRC and the other institution.

Programme duration: 

• Full time: 3 years 
• Part-time: 4-6 years

Start date: October/January/May each year

Research training and activities:

PhD students at IRC are engaged in a variety of activities which create a vibrant research culture. 

Weekly PhD Workshops – informal sessions in which PhD students take turns to facilitate the discussion on a wide range of issues in pursuing a PhD, e.g., writing papers, managing stress, preparing for conference presentations. It is also a place where students can seek advice on their research topics from their peers and Research Students Tutor. 

IRC Seminars – arranged regularly during term time, given by internal members as well as external speakers. • Study groups – ad hoc groups centred on topics of interest, e.g., intelligent buildings, pragmatics. In addition, research training is offered through Research Methods module offered by the IRC, as well as sessions offered by the Business School and Graduate School of Social Sciences.

If you want to study for PhD at IRC…

… and join our multi-disciplinary international research group, apply following the link in the right box. It is also advisable to contact the member of staff with whom you are interested in carrying out your research to discuss your research proposal before you apply. Currently IRC has students from all over the world – Britain, China, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, etc. – you can find them in the list of current research students.

For more information, please read Brochure PhD