PhD Studentship in Artificial Intelligence: Multi-modality based Conversational Recommender Systems

Award Summary

100% Home fees covered and a minimum tax-free annual living allowance £18,622
(2023-24 UKRI rate)

Overview

The general aim of this project is to develop novel conversational recommendation algorithms to support recommendation specific tasks and goals. The general idea of these algorithms is to support a task-oriented, multi-turn dialogue in natural language with their users. During such a dialogue, the system can elicit the detailed and current preferences of the user, understand individual user’s sentiment and emotional status, provide explanations for the item suggestions, or process feedback by users on the made suggestions in the form of realistic and grammatically correct utterances. This project will adopt advanced Natural Language Understanding and Generation techniques such as Large Language Models, and machine learning techniques such as deep learning, reinforcement learning, multi-modality (including images, audio, text) data modelling techniques and self-supervised machine learning methods. It will process large scale data from novels, movies, and online communities. Its outcomes will alleviate the major difficulty--the lacking of accurate user profiles--of many personalized recommender systems in domains such as ecommerce, e-health, and e-learning. It will maximise recommendation relevance and help users to make satisfactory decisions.

Number Of Awards: 1

Start Date: September 2024

Award Duration: 3.5 years

Application Closing Date: 29 February 2024

Sponsor: School of Computing

Supervisors: Dr Huizhi Liang

Eligibility Criteria

You must have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2:1 Honours degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics or a related subject or international equivalent. Good understanding about the theories related to machine learning, optimization, data mining and good scientific programming skills in python or other languages are needed. 

The studentship covers only home fees (UK and EU applicants with pre-settled/settled status and meet the residency criteria). International applicants are welcome to apply but will be required to cover the difference between Home and International fees. 

Applicants whose first language is not English require an IELTS score of 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in each subsection.  

International applicants may require an ATAS (Academic Technology Approval Scheme ) clearance certificate prior to obtaining their visa and to study on this programme. 

How To Apply

You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal . Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’. 

Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study: 

• Search for the ‘Course Title’ using programme code: 8050F 
• Research Area: Computing Science  
• Select PhD Computer Science as programme of study 

You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Details’ section: 

• Personal Statement - upload a document or write a statement directly into the application form. It should include your motivations, interests and a brief research proposal 
• Studentship code COMP2156 in the ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’ field
• When prompted regarding your research proposal - select ‘Write Proposal’. You should then type in the title of the research project from this advert. You do not need to upload a research proposal in this field.   

In the ‘Supporting Documentation’ section please upload:  

Contact Details

Huizhi Liang