Tuesday, August 3, 2010

[DMANET] Automating & Integrating Airport Operations, PhD studentship at the University of Nottingham

Automating & Integrating Airport Operations
PhD Studentship in the School of Computer Science, The University of
Nottingham

Studentships normally start in early October (2010), but flexibility is
possible here.
There is no closing date on this vacancy, but early application is
recommended.

Applications are invited for the above studentship, to be supervised by
Professor Edmund K. Burke and Dr Jason Atkin. The successful student
will join the current Integrating and Automating Airport Operations
project in the Automated Scheduling, Optimisation and Planning research
group (see: http://www.asap.cs.nott.ac.uk/) in the School of Computer
Science at the University of Nottingham. The group is currently involved
in a number of air transportation-related projects, further details of
which can be found here: http://www.asap.cs.nott.ac.uk/atr.

This studentship will join a large project across four UK universities,
to investigate the opportunities for increasing the level of automation
at airports. A number of airport operations are of particular interest
at Nottingham, including arrival and departure scheduling and
sequencing, the ground movement problem at airports, and the stand
allocation and stand resource allocation problems. These problems are
typically solved independently, and the two main areas of investigation
in this project are to increase the applicability of the problems to the
real world situations (considering increasingly realistic problems
rather than forming academic problems of interest by ignoring important
objectives and constraints) and to investigate the ways in which
simultaneous consideration of multiple problems (such as stand
allocation plus ground movement, rather than considering them
independently) can improve the overall efficiency of the system. This
project is supported by both Manchester and Zurich airports and some
site visits should be expected in order to understand the real details
of the problems under consideration. Further researchers on this
project, at Loughborough, Lincoln and Liverpool universities, will be
considering the human interaction issues, the multi-objective nature of
the problems and the baggage handling systems respectively. It is
currently envisaged that the successful student would, at least
initially, consider the stand allocation side of the system, including
the effects of stand allocation upon the other problems and the eventual
integration of this problem with the ground movement and sequencing
problems.

Students should have at least the equivalent of a UK upper second-class
honours degree (ideally a first class degree). They should preferably
have an undergraduate or Masters Degree in computer science, operational
research, mathematics or a closely related area. Students with a
mathematical background and good programming experience are especially
encouraged to apply.

This studentship is available for 3 years and includes an approximate
maintenance grant of 13,300 per year, and UK/EU tuition fees.
(Mantenance grants are not income and thus not subject to taxation, so
this is equivalent to a much higher income.) Due to funding
restrictions, this studentship is only open to UK/EU students.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Dr J Atkin, tel: 0115 846 6531 or
Email: jaa@cs.nott.ac.uk. Please note that applications sent directly to
this Email address will not be accepted.

Applications, with a detailed CV, any supporting information (such as
why you wish to do a PhD, why this PhD in particular, along with any
details illustrating your suitability and skills) and the names and
addresses of two referees, should be sent to Ms D Pitchfork, School of
Computer Science, The University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton
Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB. Tel: 0115 846 6543. Email:
deborah.pitchfork@nottingham.ac.uk. Please quote ref. SCI/874.
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