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The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
Digital Arts MSc, MPhil, PhD
This is a research programme within the Engineering and Digital Arts subject area.
Key facts
- Subject area: Engineering and Digital Arts
- Location: Canterbury
- School: School of Engineering and Digital Arts
- Duration: MSc one year full-time or two years part-time, MPhil two years full-time or three years part-time, PhD registration three to four years full-time or five to six years part-time.
- Start: At any time but preferably in September.
- Fees: More info
- Entry requirements: A 1 or 2.1 honours degree in electronics, computing or a related electronics subject. Please also check our general entry requirements (including English language requirements).
Outline
The School conducts high-quality significant national and international research and offers excellent opportunities for graduate studies. We have consistently attracted substantial research funding from the UK Research Councils, European research programmes, industrial and commercial companies, government agencies and others, and our spread of expertise allows us to respond rapidly to new developments.
We offer higher degree research programmes in the four areas listed below on a full-time or part-time basis.
Programme structure
For further information see the School site.
Funding
The School of Engineering and Digital Arts has access to a wide range of student funding.
Taught- Bursaries offering contributions towards fees for UK and EU students on the Computer Animation or Digital Visual Effects programmes
- A Ratiu Foundation Scholarship for home tuition fees plus a £3,000 scholarship for Romanian students on the MSc in Information Security
- An Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Studentship, for EU candidates applying for a Master's degree in Computer Animation or Digital Visual Effects
- Richard Collier Scholarships, for overseas PhD applicants
- Sobhy Scholarships for overseas engineering taught MSc applicants
- Davies Scholarships for overseas applicants for the Architectural Visualisation, Computer Animation and Digital Visual Effects programmes
- University of Kent postgraduate research studentships, each available for three years and covering fees at the home level and a stipend up to £13,590 (2011/12 rate)
- EPSRC studentships for research programmes, covering home tuition fees and a stipend of £13,590 (2011/12 rate)
- Departmental fees-only studentships for international students doing research degrees
- Engineering and Digital Arts students are also eligible for other forms of University-wide funding
Many schools offer scholarships in the form of Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs) whereby postgraduate research students receive financial support in return for teaching. The value of awards may vary, but often cover tuition fees at the home/EU rate and a substantial maintenance grant.
All postgraduate research students are eligible to apply for GTAs. See Graduate Teaching Assistantships.
For further details of postgraduate funding, see Postgraduate funding.
Further information:
Resources and facilities
The School is well equipped with a wide range of laboratory and computing facilities and software packages for teaching and research support.
There is a variety of hardware and software for image acquisition and processing, as well as extensive multimedia computing resources. The School has facilities for designing embedded systems using programmable logic and ASIC technology, supported by CAD tools and development software from international companies, including Cadence™, Xilinx™, Synopsys™, Altera™, National Instruments® and Mentor Graphics™. The SMT laboratory can be used for prototyping and small-volume PCB manufacture. A well-equipped instrumentation research laboratory is also available.
Students studying communications have access to both commercial and in-house software tools for designing microwave, RF, optoelectronics and antenna systems (such as ADS™, CST™, HFSS™) and subsequent testing with network and spectrum analysers up to 110 GHz, an on-wafer prober, and high-quality anechoic chambers.
Students on the programmes in Computer Animation and Digital Visual Effects work in a dedicated, state-of-the-art suite, equipped with leading-edge PC workstations running Alias™ Maya and Foundary Nuke. There is also an audio-video laboratory and two video studios with green screen and motion capture facilities. The School is also equipped with a 3D body scanner – one of only two in the UK.
Students on the Information Security and Biometrics Master's course have access to state-of the- art biometrics equipment, which can be used for studying the characteristics of the different biometric modalities introduced during the course.
Further information:
Research groups
Image and Information Engineering
The group has research interests in all aspects of image processing, image analysis and pattern recognition, including high-performance classifier design and image interpretation, image coding and video processing, colour and texture feature analysis, and intelligent processing structures. It also has an international reputation for its work in a number of key application areas, which include handwriting analysis, medical image processing, document processing and, especially, biometrics and security.
Current research themes include:
- high-performance image analysis
- visual communication
- biometrics and security
- handwriting analysis
- medical image analysis
- document processing
- robotic systems
- neural systems engineering and biologically inspired processing.
Staff
Dr Farzin Deravi, Professor Michael Fairhurst, Dr Richard Guest, Dr Sanaul Hoque, Dr Gareth Howells, Dr Konstantinos Sirlantzis.
Instrumentation, Control and Embedded Systems
The Instrumentation, Control and Embedded Systems research group comprises a mixture of highly experienced, young and vibrant academics working in three complementary research themes – embedded systems, instrumentation and control. The group has established a major reputation in recent years for solving challenging scientific and technical problems across a range of industrial sectors, and has strong links with many European countries through EU-funded research programmes. The group also has a history of industrial collaboration in the UK through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. The group's main expertise lies primarily in image processing, signal processing, embedded systems, optical sensors, neural networks, and systems on chip and advanced control. It is currently working in the following areas:
- monitoring and characterisation of combustion flames
- flow measurement of particulate solids in pipelines and stacks
- online particle sizing and characterisation of granular and pulverised materials
- online tracking of pulverised fuel
- analysis and characterisation of diesel sprays
- online inspection of laser welding processes
- condition monitoring of thermal systems and high-speed rotating machinery
- medical instrumentation
- control, monitoring and reconfiguration of autonomous vehicles
- control of time-delay systems
- high-speed architectures for real-time image processing
- novel signal processing architectures based on logarithmic arithmetic
- low power digital techniques
- reconfigurable architectures for high-speed instrumentation.
Staff
Stephen Kelly, Peter Lee, Dr Gang Lu, Dr Matthew Pepper, Professor Sarah Spurgeon, Winston Waller, Professor Yong Yan.
Broadband and Wireless Communications
The group's activities cover system and component technologies from microwave to terahertz frequencies. These include photonics, antennae and wireless components for a broad range of communication systems. The group has extensive software research tools together with antenna anechoic chambers, network and spectrum analysers to millimetre wave frequencies and optical signal generation, processing and measurement facilities.
Current main research themes include:
- photonic components
- networks/wireless systems
- microwave and millimetre-wave systems
- antenna systems
- radio-over-fibre systems
- electromagnetic bandgaps and metamaterials
- frequency selective surfaces.
Staff
Dr John Batchelor, Dr Nathan Gomes, Dr Shyqyri Haxha, Adam Jastrzebski, Robert Oven, Dr Paul Young, Professor Jiangzhou Wang.
Digital Media
The digital media group has interests in many of the areas of modern multimedia systems. Activities and interests range from interactive CD/DVD presentation design, through digital film capture, editing and manipulation on to fully animated 3D modelling techniques as used in games and feature films. There is also strength in the e-commerce-related server-side web design and coding.
Current research themes include:
- internet technology, distributed systems and object technology
- medical multimedia applications and telemedicine
- interface/interaction design, multimedia authoring and human-computer interaction
- 3D modelling, animation and digital effects
- computer game studies and interactive narrative
- social computing and sociability design
- virtual worlds
- online communities and computer-mediated communication.
- mobile applications.
Staff
Dr Jim Ang, Ania Bobrowicz, David Byers-Brown, Stephen Kelly, Dr Les Walczowski.
Show all
|Staff research
Dr (Jim) Chee Siang Ang: Lecturer in Multimedia/Digital Systems
Human computer interaction; usability and playability design; computer game studies and interactive narrative; social computing and sociability design; virtual worlds; online communities and computer-mediated communication.
Dr John Batchelor: Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering
Design and modelling of multi-band antennae for personal, on-body and mobile communication systems; reduced-size frequency selective structures (FSS and EBG) for incorporation into smart buildings for control of radio spectrum; passive RFID tagging.
Ania Bobrowicz: Lecturer in Multimedia Technology and Design
Multimedia design tools and techniques; humancomputer interaction; design and development methodologies.
Dr Farzin Deravi: Reader in Information Engineering
Image processing; computer vision; image compression; shape and texture recognition; fractals and self-similarity; biometrics; information fusion; joint audio-visual processing for recognition; synthesis and communication.
Professor Michael Fairhurst: Professor of Computer Vision
Image analysis; computer vision; handwriting analysis; biometrics and security; novel classifier architectures; medical image analysis and diagnostics; document processing.
Dr Nathan Gomes: Reader in Broadband Communications
Optical-microwave interactions, especially fibreradio networks; optoelectronic devices and optical networks.
Dr Richard Guest: Lecturer in Multimedia Technology and Design
Computer vision; image processing; pattern recognition; biometrics; automated analysis of drawings and handwritten data, particularly for medical diagnosis and security applications.
Dr Shyqyri Haxha: Lecturer in Communication Systems
Developing and employing numerical techniques such as the full vectorial finite element method (FVFEM), finite difference time domain (FDTD) and plane wave method (PWM) to design, analyse and optimise optical and microwave properties of photonic and optoelectronic devices for application in communication systems.
Dr Sanual Hoque: Lecturer in Secure Systems Engineering
Computer vision; OCR; biometrics; security and encryption; multi-expert fusion and document modelling.
Dr Gareth Howells: Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering
Image processing and pattern recognition techniques; artificial neural network architectures, especially for application domains involving multidimensional data; application of formal logic to image processing and neural network models.
Adam Jastrzebski: Reader in Electronic Engineering
Modelling, simulation and design of microwave and millimetre wave integrated circuits.
Stephen Kelly: Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering
Medical electronics, including speech assessment, telemedicine and computer-based assessment of clinical conditions.
Peter Lee: Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering
Embedded systems; programmable architectures; high-speed signal processing; VLSI/ASIC design; neural networks; optical sensor systems and applications; image processing using VLSI.
Dr Gary Lu: Lecturer in Electronic Instrumentation
Advanced combustion instrumentation; visionbased instrumentation systems; digital image processing; condition monitoring.
Robert Oven: Lecturer in Electronic Engineering
Modelling of ion implantation processes and ion diffusion into glass for integrated optic applications.
Professor Ted Parker: Emeritus Professor of Radio Communications
Microwave antennae; frequency selective surfaces for microwave and millimetre wave multiband antennae (dichroics); radomes and frequency dependent screening for secure buildings.
Dr Matthew Pepper: Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering
Medical instrumentation, in particular neonatology, gait analysis, cardiology and rehabilitation engineering.
Dr Konstantinos Sirlantzis: Lecturer in Image Processing and Vision
Pattern recognition; multiple classifier systems; artificial intelligence techniques; neural networks, genetic algorithms, and other biologically inspired computing paradigms; image processing; multimodal biometric models; handwriting recognition; numerical stochastic optimisation algorithms; nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory; Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods for sensor data fusion.
Professor Mohammed Sobhy: Emeritus Professor of Electronics
Analysis and applications of nonlinear electronic systems.
Professor Sarah Spurgeon: Professor of Control Engineering; Head of School of Engineering and Digital Arts
Fundamental developments in the area of nonlinear control and estimation, with a particular interest in variable structure and sliding mode systems; industrial and biomedical application of nonlinear control and estimation techniques.
Dr Les Walczowski: Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering
The development of dynamic web applications, mobile applications and e-learning technology.
Winston Waller: Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering
Design for test; analogue and digital VLSI design; medical applications of VLSI and low power voltage circuit design.
Professor Jiangzhou Wang: Professor of Telecommunications; Director of Graduate Studies
Modulation; coding; MIMO; mobile communications; wireless sensor networks.
Professor Yong Yan: Professor of Electronic Instrumentation and the Director of Research for the School of Engineering and Digital Arts
Sensors; instrumentation; measurement; condition monitoring; digital signal processing; digital image processing; applications of artificial intelligence.
Dr Paul Young: Lecturer in Electronic Engineering
The use of photonic crystals for millimetre-wave components; electromagnetic modelling of millimetre-wave devices and transmission lines; microwave and millimetre-wave measurements; the use of micromachining for microwave and millimetre-wave devices.
Further information:
Contact details
Admissions enquiriesT: +44 (0)1227 827272
E: information@kent.ac.uk
Postgraduate Admissions Officer,
School of Engineering and Digital Arts,
University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NT,
UK
T: +44 (0)1227 823724
F: +44 (0)1227 456084
E: ee-admissions-pg@kent.ac.uk
Further information: