Month: August 2022

MyWorld Scholarship: Deep Video Coding

Posted on by Aaron

About the Project

Video technology is now pervasive, with mobile video, UHDTV, video conferencing, and surveillance all underpinned by efficient signal representations. As one of the most important research topics in video processing, compression is crucial in encoding high quality videos for transmission over band-limited channels.

The last three decades have seen impressive performance improvement in standardised video algorithms. The latest standard, VVC and the new royalty free codec, AOM/AV1, are expected to achieve 30-50% gains in coding performance over HEVC. However, this figure is far from satisfactory considering the large amount video data consumed every day.

Inspired by the recent breakthrough in artificial intelligence, in particular deep learning techniques developed for video processing applications, this PhD project will investigate novel deep learning-based video coding tools, network architectures and perceptual loss functions for modern codecs.

This project is funded by MyWorld UKRI Strength in Places Programme.

URL for further information: http://www.myworld-creates.com/ 

Candidate Requirements

Applicants must hold/achieve a minimum of a master’s degree (or international equivalent) in a relevant discipline. Applicants without a master’s qualification may be considered on an exceptional basis, provided they hold a first-class undergraduate degree. Please note, acceptance will also depend on evidence of readiness to pursue a research degree. 

If English is not your first language, you need to meet this profile level:

Profile E

Further information about English language requirements and profile levels.

Basic skills and knowledge required

Essential: Excellent analytical skills and experimental acumen.

Desirable: A background understanding in one or more of the following:

Video compression

Artificial intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning

Application Process

  • All candidates should submit a full CV and covering letter to myworldrecruitment@myworld-creates.com (FAO: Professor David R. Bull).
  • Formal applications for PhD are not essential at this stage, but can be submitted via the University of Bristol homepage (clearly marked as MyWorld funded): https://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/
  • A Selection Panel will be established to review all applications and to conduct interviews of short-listed candidates.
  • This post remains open until fulfilled.

For questions about eligibility and the application process please contact SCEEM Postgraduate Research Admissions sceem-pgr-admissions@bristol.ac.uk

Funding Notes

Stipend at the UKRI minimum stipend level (£16,062 p.a. in 2022/23) will also cover tuition fees at the UK student rate. Funding is subject to eligibility status and confirmation of award.


To be treated as a home student, candidates must meet one of these criteria:

  • be a UK national (meeting residency requirements)
  • have settled status
  • have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements)
  • have indefinite leave to remain or enter.

MyWorld PhD Scholarship: Low Light Fusion and Autofocus for Advanced Wildlife Coverage

Posted on by Pui

About the Project

Natural History filmmaking presents many challenges. For example, filming in low light or using modalities such as infra-red can result in noisy, low-resolution images, or can suffer from poor contrast range and colours. Also, the camera sensor is normally operating with high ISO levels and hence has wide aperture and extremely shallow depth of field.

This project will enable production workflow to push the boundaries of what is possible in terms of new image acquisition and processing methods for telling stories of the natural world. The project will look at image-based approaches to understanding and explaining the natural world, for example by combining multiple imaging modalities such as visible and infra-red. It will investigate means of autofocus for low light content using spectral, spatial, or other image processing methods to control the focus action. Machine learning methods to estimate focus from blur after training will also be explored.

Launched in April 2021, MyWorld is a brand-new five-year programme, the flagship for the UK’s creative technology sector, and is part of a UK-wide exploration into devolved research and development funding (UKRI video). Led by the University of Bristol, MyWorld will position the South West as an international trailblazer in screen-based media. This £46m programme will bring together 30 partners from Bristol and Bath’s creative technologies sector and world-leading academic institutions, to create a unique cross-sector consortium. MyWorld will forge dynamic collaborations to progress technological innovation, deliver creative excellence, establish, and operate state of the art facilities, offer skills training and drive inward investment, raising the region’s profile on the global stage. 

URL for further information: http://www.myworld-creates.com/ 

Candidate Requirements

Applicants must hold/achieve a minimum of a master’s degree (or international equivalent) in a relevant discipline. Applicants without a master’s qualification may be considered on an exceptional basis, provided they hold a first-class undergraduate degree. Please note, acceptance will also depend on evidence of readiness to pursue a research degree. 

If English is not your first language, you need to meet this profile level:

Profile E

Further information about English language requirements and profile levels.

Basic skills and knowledge required

Essential: Excellent analytical skills and experimental acumen.

Desirable: A background understanding in one or more of the following:

  • Image processing
  • Artificial intelligence/Machine learning/Deep learning
  • Computational Imaging / Computational Photography

Application Process

  • All candidates should submit a full CV and covering letter to myworldrecruitment@myworld-creates.com (FAO: Professor David R. Bull).
  • Formal applications for PhD are not essential at this stage, but can be submitted via the University of Bristol homepage (clearly marked as MyWorld funded):  https://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/
  • A Selection Panel will be established to review all applications and to conduct interviews of short-listed candidates.
  • This post remains open until filled.

For questions about eligibility and the application process please contact SCEEM Postgraduate Research Admissions sceem-pgr-admissions@bristol.ac.uk

Funding Notes

Stipend at the UKRI minimum stipend level (£16,062 p.a. in 2022/23) will also cover tuition fees at the UK student rate. Funding is subject to eligibility status and confirmation of award.
To be treated as a home student, candidates must meet one of these criteria:

  • be a UK/EU national (meeting residency requirements)
  • have settled status
  • have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements)
  • have indefinite leave to remain or enter.

MyWorld PhD Scholarship: Volumetric Video Compression Compression

Posted on by Aaron

About the Project

Among all video content, one of the areas that has grown significantly over recent years is based on the use of augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) technologies. They have the potential for major growth, and developments in displays, interactive equipment, mobile networks, edge computing, and compression are likely to facilitate these in the coming years.

A key new format that underpins the development of these new technologies is referred to volumetric video, with commonly used formats including point clouds, multi-view + depth and equirectangular representations. Various volumetric video codecs have been developed to perform data compression for transmission or storage of these formats. To present/display volumetric video content, the compressed data is decoded and post-processed using synthesizer/renderer which enables 3DoF/6DoF viewing capabilities on AR or VR devices.

In this context, this 3.5 year PhD project will focus on the two essential stages within this workflow: volumetric video compression and post-processing. Inspired by recent advances in deep video compression and rendering, we will research novel AI-based production workflows for volumetric video content to significantly improve the coding efficiency and the perceptual quality of the final rendered content.

This project is funded by the MyWorld UKRI Strength in Places Programme at the University of Bristol. It fits well within one of the core research areas outlined in the MyWorld programme on video production and communications for immersive content. The student working on this project will gain experience on immersive video production workflows, from capture and contribution to live editorial production and delivery at scale to a growing variety of XR capable devices.

URL for further information: http://www.myworld-creates.com/ 

Candidate Requirements

Applicants must hold/achieve a minimum of a master’s degree (or international equivalent) in a relevant discipline. Applicants without a master’s qualification may be considered on an exceptional basis, provided they hold a first-class undergraduate degree. Please note, acceptance will also depend on evidence of readiness to pursue a research degree. 

If English is not your first language, you need to meet this profile level:

Profile E

Further information about English language requirements and profile levels.

Basic skills and knowledge required

Essential: Excellent analytical skills and experimental acumen.

Desirable: A background understanding in one or more of the following:

Video compression

3D Computer vision

Artificial intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning

Application Process

  • All candidates should submit a full CV and covering letter to myworldrecruitment@myworld-creates.com (FAO: Professor David R. Bull).
  • Formal applications for PhD are not essential at this stage, but can be submitted via the University of Bristol homepage (clearly marked as MyWorld funded): https://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/
  • A Selection Panel will be established to review all applications and to conduct interviews of short-listed candidates.
  • This post remains open until fulfilled.

For questions about eligibility and the application process please contact SCEEM Postgraduate Research Admissions sceem-pgr-admissions@bristol.ac.uk

Funding Notes

Stipend at the UKRI minimum stipend level (£16,062 p.a. in 2022/23) will also cover tuition fees at the UK student rate and an industrial top-up. Funding is subject to eligibility status and confirmation of award.
To be treated as a home student, candidates must meet one of these criteria:

  • be a UK national (meeting residency requirements)
  • have settled status
  • have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements)
  • have indefinite leave to remain or enter.