The research activities of the School are convened within its established one research centre and nine research groups representing cutting edge research areas within disciplines of computer science and engineering.
The Centre for Parallel Computing has a highly successful track record in investigating new models and developing novel solutions for cloud computing applications and generating impact though industry and public sector collaborations. The Distributed and Intelligent Systems Research Group investigates smart extreme-scale platforms with focus on performance, energy and security, logic engineering for autonomy and management, and advanced concurrent computation and communication models.
Various cutting edge topics of engineering are investigated by the Applied Digital Signal Processing and VLSI Research Group and the Wireless Communications Research Group. These groups are conducting industry-facing applied research and development for systems and sub-systems applied in cutting edge commercial products. Research areas incorporate digital signal and image processing, sensor network, Internet of Things, and components, circuits and systems for microwave and radio frequency applications including current and future communication systems, such as 5G and 6G.
Healthcare as application area is the primary target for the Health and Social Care Modelling Research Group that follows state of the art analytics and computing research assisting professionals in healthcare services to rethink how they manage large and complex systems through a better use of big data.
Multimedia, image and video processing and computational games are another high profile area represented by various research groups of the school. The Computational Vision and Imaging Technology Research Group focuses on image and video formation, processing, analysis, visualization, interpretation and evaluation, while the Serious Games Research Group investigates factors and approaches that contribute to effective serious games design and adaptation of serious games in various domains.
Finally, fundamental and applied computer science research is carried out in the areas of cyber security concentrating especially on the security challenges of emerging computing models and infrastructures such as cloud computing or Internet of Things by the Cyber Security Research Group, semantic computing, pattern search and recognition, deep learning, question-answering systems and conversational user interfaces pursuing the fundamental research questions of what makes humans and machines intelligent by the Cognitive Computing Research Group, and programming principles, modelling methods, architectures, infrastructures and tools for the design and development of modern, medium to large scale, software systems by the Software Systems Engineering Research Group.
How to apply
The academic staff member responsible for PhD admissions in the School is Dr Alexandra (Aleka) Psarrou who can be contacted by email at [email protected].
You can find more information about study options on our Mode of study page.
PhD via MPhil
The majority of students will apply via the PhD via MPhil route. You can read more about the application process and entry requirements on our How to apply page.
Distance Learning
If you intend to apply for a research degree by distance-learning, you will need to demonstrate that you have appropriate local support for the duration of registration – please refer to the information on our Distance learning page.
PhD by published work
If you intend to apply for a PhD by Published Work please refer to the information on our PhD by published work page as the application process differs from the normal MPhil/PhD. Before applying, you should first make contact with the relevant academic for an informal discussion of your publications. You should only submit a formal application at this stage.
Apply now
Apply for the following subjects
Apply to our research degrees using the links below.
- Computer Science
- Electronic Engineering
You'll be able to select your subject area in the 'Supporting Information' section of the application form.
January 2025 start
| mODE OF STUDY | Apply now |
|---|---|
| Full-time | Apply nowApply for MPhil/PhD full-time course with a January 2025 start date |
| Part-time | Apply nowApply for MPhil/PhD part-time course with a January 2025 start date |
| Distance Learning | Apply nowApply for MPhil/PhD via distance learning with a January 2025 start date |
| PhD by Published Work | Apply nowApply for MPhil/PhD by published work with a January 2025 start date |
September 2025 start
Studentships
The Graduate School and each of the academic schools at the University of Westminster are committed to doctoral programmes which encourage and make possible excellent research. As part of this, we are committed to offering a range of studentships.
Find out about all current studentships being offered across the university on our Studentships page.
Research centres and groups
Computer Science
- Centre for Parallel Computing
- Cognitive Computing Research Group
- Computational Vision and Imaging Technology
- Cyber Security Research Group
- Distributed and Intelligent Systems
- Health and Social Care Modelling
- Serious Games at Westminster
- Software Systems Engineering