phd students | Scholarship for Nigerians and Africans

Multiple PhD Stipends/Scholarships at the AQUA Group, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

The Software Engineering: Analysis of Quantitative Aspects (AQUA) group is a newly founded research group which focuses on integrating statistical concepts into practical software engineering.

Basically, the benefits can be summarised as follows:
–   You will work on real-world research problems. (There will always be opportunities to cooperate with major software and systems engineering companies, especially in the automotive and avionic domain.)
–   You will be trained in all skills that are required to successfully finish you research project. Our goal is to help you develop the skills, connections, and opportunities required, that ensure a successful postgraduate career.
–    You will create research outputs at the highest standards. In today’s world, it is not only enough to be good, students must be great and competitive compared to other graduate students. Please have a look at our own research outputs.
–  You will get optimal and continuous supervision. Our goal is to give you strong support on your research from a technical side. However, we also try to help our students to develop their personal skills.
–       You study in a friendly and cooperative environment. Kaiserslautern is known for its friendliness.

We require:
We are interested in a PhD student who has a good academic record (first class honours or equivalent with marks above 80-85%) with background in one or more of the following areas:
–   probabilistic logics and probabilistic verification
–   quality attributes such as performance, reliability, availability,
safety, and security
–    software engineering (in the areas of embedded systems, robotics, etc. )
–    formal methods in system design
–    statistics
–    machine Learning
–     mathematics
Since the projects involve working with other PhD students and industrial partner, communication skills and the ability to work in a team environment are especially required.

The scholarship carries a value of around 21,000 Euro p.a., with tuition fee exemption for both German and international students. The selection process will be competitive. If you are interested in aresearch project, please provide the following information (for the
first selection round) via email to aqua-career-at-cs.uni-kl.de:
–    detailed curriculum vitae
–    an (electronic) copy of undergraduate and postgraduate
transcripts (we normally require  marks above 80-85% or a GPA 3.70/4)
–    evidence of English proficiency for non native English speaker
(the official language of the group is English).

Scholarship Application Deadline:  Contact Employer

Further Scholarship Information and Application

PhD Studentship in Implications for Seabird Conservation at University of Exeter, UK

We are inviting applications for this PhD studentship to commence October 2011. The studentship will provide an annual stipend of £17,290 for three years. Worldwide, seabirds are one of most threatened groups of birds. Global changes have had profoundly negative impacts on seabirds and their food, which in turn have been linked with wide scale population declines. More than 96% of seabirds nest colonially and theory suggests that group living can improve foraging success, particularly when food is ephemeral. Therefore current declines in colony sizes, coupled with changes in food availability, could have synergistic effects on the ability of seabirds to meet their energetic needs, with subsequent issues for sustainability. Despite this, we still understand little about the role that colonial living plays in seabird foraging ecology.
Theoretically, a key benefit of living as part of a group is improved foraging efficiency, which is believed to have been an important selection pressure shaping the evolution of coloniality. Foraging benefits may arise because; (1) conspecifics transfer information on the whereabouts of food when they return to the colony (the Information Centre Hypothesis), (2) group foraging is beneficial, and colonies provide a source of recruits to the foraging flock (the Recruitment Centre Hypothesis), or (3) individuals are attracted to the presence of food by aggregating conspecifics (local enhancement). Although there is strong empirical and theoretical evidence for information sharing, particularly at some avian communal roosts, our insights into the relevance of information transfer across colonial animals is limited. Understanding the impact of conspecific behaviour on foraging success has clear fundamental implications, but may also have significant conservation relevance. For colonial species reliant upon conspecifics to find particularly patchy, ephemeral or cryptic food, population declines may greatly compromise long term stability. These Allee-type effects may be further exacerbated if prey availability declines to such a degree that some populations are unable to obtain sufficient food to meet their energetic requirements. Assessing the relevance of information transfer for foraging efficiency in a colonial nesting seabird of conservation concern that is experiencing population declines and changes in fish availability is the central theme of this studentship.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 22 May 2011.

Further Scholarship Information and Application

PhD Studentship in the Departments of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Exeter, UK

As part of our new developments and our commitment to research excellence, applications are invited from suitably qualified graduates, 2:1 or above, for a PhD studentship in the above field.  International students must also have IELTS [International English Language Testing System] score of 7 and above (or equivalent qualification).
The stipend will be £13,590 (based on full time 10/11 rate). Tuition fees will be paid at the home rate. Candidates from countries outside the European Union will be liable for the difference between ‘home student fees’ and ‘international student fees’. If you wish to be considered for this studentship you must confirm that you are able to pay the international portion of the fee.  For the 10/11 academic year this is £9200 but is likely to increase slightly each year. If you are selected you will be required to provide financial assurances.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 31 May 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application