Informatics: ILCC: Language Processing, Speech Technology, Information Retrieval, Cognition PhD

Strongly interdisciplinary in nature, the Institute for Language, Cognition and Communication (ILCC) is dedicated to both basic and applied research in the computational study of language, communication, and cognition, in both humans and machines.

As technology focuses increasingly on language-based communication tools, research into the automation of language processing has become vital. ILCC offers you the broadest research scope in the UK, and a strong computational focus.

Our primary areas of research are: natural language processing and computational linguistics; spoken language processing; dialogue and multimodal interaction; information extraction, retrieval, and presentation; computational theories of human cognition; educational and assistive technology; visualization.

Much of our research is applied to software development, in areas as diverse as social media, assisted living, gaming and education.

You may find yourself working closely with other departments of the University, particularly the School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences.

Career opportunities

While many of our graduates pursue an academic career, others find their skills are highly sought after in the technology industry. A number of our students serve internships with large UK and international software developers, while others take up positions with major social media companies.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, typically in an area of informatics, such as artificial intelligence, cognitive science or computer science. You should have experience in computer programming. We may also consider a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in engineering, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy, physics or psychology.