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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: 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.

MyWorld Postdoctoral Research Associate Posts – UKRI Strength in Places Programme

Posted on by Aaron

The Role

The newly established MyWorld research programme, led by the University of Bristol, is a flagship five-year, £46m R&D programme collaborating with numerous industrial and academic organisations. The MyWorld Creative Technologies Hub is now expanding in line with its mission to grow the West of England’s Creative Industries Cluster with major investments in new facilities and staff at all levels.

We are now offering unique opportunities for four Post-Doctoral Research Associates in

  1. AI methods for Video Post-Production
  2. Robot Vision for Creative Technologies
  3. Perceptually Optimised Video Compression (sponsored by our collaborator, Netflix, in Los Gatos, USA).
  4. Visual Communications

Contract and Salary

All these four posts are based in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Bristol, and the salary range is Grade I = £34,304 – £38,587 per annum or Grade J = £38,587 – £43,434 per annum.

Application Information

We anticipate that candidates will possess a good honours degree along with a PhD in related disciplines, or extensive relevant industrial/commercial experience. We expect a high standard of spoken and written English and the ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team.

Please following the link provided for each post to access detailed job description and the application system.

Chair in Creative Media Technologies

Posted on by Pui

For further particulars, please visit here.

The University of Bristol is offering the opportunity for outstanding candidates to apply for a strategically important role linked to the newly established £46m MyWorld Strength in Places programme. The Professor in Creative Media Technologies will be expected to contribute to leadership and development of the MyWorld programme, to carry out internationally-leading research and to take an active role in providing high quality and innovative teaching in related areas. 

The research focus of this post is linked to the strategic objectives of MyWorld including:  the development and delivery of new immersive experiences and services, new acquisition formats, mixed and extended realities, advanced production technologies (e.g. Virtual Production), AI based workflows, intelligent post-production / VFX techniques, data driven visual analytics and interactivity, metaverse-related  technologies, user experience evaluation, enhanced remote access to live experiences and energy efficient media delivery solutions for future (e.g.volumetric) formats. The appointee will be affiliated to the Visual Information Laboratory (VI-Lab) in Bristol Vision Institute (BVI). 

Suitable candidates will be recognised internationally for their contributions in the field of science or technology relevant to the creative industries, with an outstanding research track record including but not limited to the areas listed above. They will have excellent project management and research leadership skills, a strong track record of attracting significant research income and experience of delivering major research projects. They will be innovative and collaborative with experience of working with partners in the creative sector and across disciplines in academia and industry.  We anticipate that candidates will possess a good honours degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Computer Science or a related discipline along with a relevant PhD, or extensive relevant industrial experience. 

Deadline 20 April 2022

MyWorld PhD Scholarships 2022 – UKRI Strength in Places Programme

Posted on by Aaron

Introduction

MyWorld is a £46m R&D programme, awarded to the University of Bristol, under the leadership of Professor David Bull, with £30m from the UKRI Strength in Places Fund (SIPF) and a further £16m committed from an alliance of more than 30 industry and academic organisations. SIPF is a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) flagship competitive funding scheme that takes a place-based approach to research and innovation funding with the aim of creating significant local economic growth. It is a major intervention by UK Government to explore the potential of devolved R&D funding.

There are now a number of opportunities for outstanding candidates to join the MyWorld team as PhD students, who are expected to start from Sept 2022. Opportunities for innovation and investigation exist across the MyWorld portfolio, including content acquisition and post-production, content delivery and interactivity, and audience understanding.

Role Description

All posts will cover student stipend at a basic rate of £15,609 per annum (2022 rates) with possibility of enhancement by up by £3,000 in some cases. Fees for home (UK-based) students are covered in all cases. Several awards cover fees for EU students and some cover overseas students.

Appointees will be expected to integrate within the MyWorld team, to conduct internationally-leading research, and to contribute to the wider objectives and activities of the programme.  Many of the awards will involve collaboration with our industry partners and would offer the potential of career development through internships as part of the PhD.

Research Focus

The Visual Information Laboratory in Bristol Vision Institute (BVI) and the MyWorld Programme combine to make the University of Bristol a powerhouse for the development of visual media communications. The work of these groups in this area has been supported by world-leading organisations such as Netflix, BBC, BT, NTT and YouTube. The research focus of these PhD studentships will be linked to the strategic objectives of MyWorld, promoting new technology research that underpins the delivery of future experiences and services. Applications are invited in the following areas:

  • Content Acquisition and Post-Production: AI methods in post-production – video denoising, colorisation and enhancement; low light fusion and autofocus ; virtual production technologies; intelligent and automated cinematographies (including drone cinematography); camera tracking and SLAM methods in virtual production; Building interactive worlds – enabling the metaverse; creating re-useable assets for virtual production.
  • Content Delivery and Interactivity: perceptually optimised video compression; dynamic optimisation of streamed video; energy-efficient video coding; new architectures and tools for emerging AoM standards; machine learning methods for video delivery; perceptual video quality metrics; transcoding methods for user generated content; volumetric video coding; coding beyond compression, media network optimisation.
  • Audience Understanding: Methods for assessing quality of experience and immersion; biometrics, and fusion of these, for audience understanding; motion magnification for user engagement; creation and exploitation of visual field maps.
  • Experimental Productions: Enabling the metaverse; building environments for virtual rehearsal; building and evaluating immersive natural history experiences.

Application Procedure and Selection Process

  • All candidates should submit a full CV and covering letter to myworldrecruitment@myworld-creates.com (FAO: the contact of the research topic that you are applying for) by the deadline.
  • 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):
  • A Selection Panel will be established to review all applications and to conduct interviews of short-listed candidates.
  • Candidates will be invited to give a presentation prior to their formal interview, as part of the final selection process.
  • All posts will remain open until filled.

Contact

For an informal discussion about the scholarships, please contact:

Job Description Document

Detailed role description and research topics can be found in the [JD document] and at

MyWorld set to make SouthWest a Digital Media Leader on Global Stage

Posted on by webmaster

Image credit: Nick Smith Photography

We are pleased to advise that a University of Bristol initiative, led by VI Lab’s Professor David Bull, has been awarded £30 million by the UK Research and Innovation Strength in Places fund.

The South West is on track to become an international trailblazer in screen-based media thanks to £30 million funding from UKRI, with a further £16m coming from an alliance of more than 30 industry and academic partners joining forces in the five-year scheme due to start by the end of the year. This will launch a creative media powerhouse called MyWorld and supercharge economic growth, generating more than 700 jobs.

It will forge dynamic collaborations between world-leading academic institutions and creative industries to progress research and innovation, creative excellence, inclusive cultures, and knowledge sharing.

Professor David Bull commented, “The South West is already a creative capital in the UK and MyWorld aims to position the region amongst the best in the world, driving inward investment, increasing productivity and delivering important employment and training opportunities.

“This is the beginning of an exciting journey, which will align research and development endeavours across technology and the creative arts, to help businesses realise their innovation potential, raise their international profile, and maximise the advantages of new technologies.”

The MyWorld Bristol team of investigators has representation from across Engineering, Psychology, Arts and Management and includes:  Professor Andrew Calway, Professor Dimitra Simeonidou, Professor Mary Luckhurst, Professor Iain Gilchrist, Professor Martin Parker and Professor Kirsten Cater.

The full press release is available on the University of Bristol news page.

And for an insight into MyWorld, Strength in Places, watch this video.