Computer Science Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

Computer Science at Royal Holloway is one of the world's leading centres of research in advanced areas of theoretical and applied computer science.

We are renowned in particular for our research excellence in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Distributed Computing. Our research expertise is shaping the future of those key areas for society and the economy.

In the latest Research Excellence Frameworks (REF, 2021), we ranked 17th in the UK computer science departments for the quality of our research (THE, REF institutions ranked by subject, 2022).

Collaborative research is carried out in many different fields with companies and organisations, from finance to the analysis of movie scripts, from computational simulations of epidemics to foundational aspects of probability and logic.

We welcome applications for Postgraduate Research studies from across the world, and the department has earned a Bronze Athena SWAN award for best practice in equal opportunities and our inclusive environment.

In addition to the information below, check our separate page on the topics in which we supervise: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/computer-science/research/research-topics/

From time to time, we make changes to our courses to improve the student and learning experience. If we make a significant change to your chosen course, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.

esearch students in Computer Science join a lively research community and become fully involved in the research activities of the department, sharing their successes. Many of our research students present papers at international conferences, with financial support from the department.

A Postgraduate Colloquium is held annually: all second and third-year research students give 15-minute talks to present the results of their research achieved during the year to members of staff from different research groups, fellow research students, and external guests; first-year students give a poster presentation.

Regular departmental research seminars include talks by professionals in a variety of application areas, and there is a separate student-organised 'cakes talk' series which allows students to develop their presentational skills. We have a weekly social event to which all students, research assistants and staff are invited. Royal Holloway provides dedicated social space for graduate students, facilitating inter-departmental links.

Major research topics include Algorithms and Complexity, Bioinformatics and Medical Applications, Machine Learning, Planning, Cyber-Physical Systems, Distributed Computing, and Type Theory and Applications.

Especially for topics that involve data analytics, the department has a dedicated state-of-the-art computing cluster HP DL380 comprising 32 processors, 32 Terabytes of disk storage, GPU and RDMA networking. The cluster is currently running the full-fledged Hortonworks Hadoop distribution (HDP) as well as the PostgreSQL and MongoDB servers.

You will have 24/7 access to dedicated on-site facilities and equipment.