PhD Project in TinyML for UAV Inference

Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises to revolutionise our ability to interpret electronic data across a vast array of applications, from large-scale data analytics to real-time signal processing on streaming data. However the most accurate current approaches are computation, power and memory hungry and couldn’t, for example operate at real-time on portable battery-operated devices such as UAVs. Realising lightweight machine learning (TinyML) for portable devices is a key challenge for real-time AI for streaming data.

This project tackles the issue of enabling powerful, lightweight AI on constrained devices, most particularly, programmable hardware. It will address the co-design of machine learning operations, where co-design means joint consideration of the AI capability of the function along with its performance (speed) and cost (computational, memory, energy) when realised on programmable hardware. This project will devise novel algorithms, training, optimisation and synthesis techniques to produce powerful, lightweight ML operators on programmable hardware devices.

The specific objectives of this project are:

[1] Become familiar with techniques for lightweight machine learning, with particular focus on programmable hardware targets.

[2] Characterise the performance (speed, accuracy) and cost (computation, memory, energy) of existing lightweight ML approaches on programmable hardware.

[3] Devise novel algorithms, optimisation/training or synthesis approaches which optimise the effectiveness of lightweight ML approaches.

[4] Extend the techniques above to optimise performance (speed) and cost on programmable hardware.

[5] Present your work in leading international journals and conferences in the area.

Funding Information

To be eligible for consideration for a Home DfE or EPSRC Studentship (covering tuition fees and maintenance stipend of approx. £19,237 per annum), a candidate must satisfy all the eligibility criteria based on nationality, residency and academic qualifications.

To be classed as a Home student, candidates must meet the following criteria and the associated residency requirements:

• Be a UK National,
or • Have settled status,
or • Have pre-settled status,
or • Have indefinite leave to remain or enter the UK.

Candidates from ROI may also qualify for Home student funding.

Previous PhD study MAY make you ineligible to be considered for funding.

Please note that other terms and conditions also apply.

Please note that any available PhD studentships will be allocated on a competitive basis across a number of projects currently being advertised by the School.

A small number of international awards will be available for allocation across the School. An international award is not guaranteed to be available for this project, and competition across the School for these awards will be highly competitive.

Academic Requirements:

The minimum academic requirement for admission is normally an Upper Second Class Honours degree from a UK or ROI Higher Education provider in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University.

Entrance requirements

Graduate
The minimum academic requirement for admission to a research degree programme is normally an Upper Second Class Honours degree from a UK or ROI HE provider, or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University. Further information can be obtained by contacting the School.

International Students

For information on international qualification equivalents, please check the specific information for your country.

English Language Requirements

Evidence of an IELTS* score of 6.0, with not less than 5.5 in any component or equivalent qualification acceptable to the University is required (*taken within the last 2 years).

International students wishing to apply to Queen’s University Belfast (and for whom English is not their first language), must be able to demonstrate their proficiency in English in order to benefit fully from their course of study or research. Non-EEA nationals must also satisfy UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) immigration requirements for English language for visa purposes.

For more information on English Language requirements for EEA and non-EEA nationals see: www.qub.ac.uk/EnglishLanguageReqs.