AI4ME (BBC Prosperity Partnership) – PhD Studentship in Quality of Experience (QoE) in Object-Based Media

AI4ME is an exciting five-year EPSRC & BBC-funded Prosperity Partnership that is addressing the key challenges involved in creating and delivering personalised content at scale. AI4ME brings together the BBC, Lancaster University and the University of Surrey to design entirely new types of media experiences that can adapt to individual preferences, accessibility requirements, devices, and location. This is a unique opportunity for students to join a major new research partnership and take advantage of this vibrant collaborative research environment.

AI4ME builds upon the rapid changes underway within the industry in how media experiences are produced and delivered, from television and films to video games. In television and broadcast media, the prevalence of Internet-based delivery supports the independent transport of different parts of a stream – including audio, video, and additional media experience components – to be composed together at the point of playback. This paradigm is enabling new forms of hyper-personalised and immersive storytelling and represents both opportunities and new challenges in the network delivery of these experiences.

Quality of Experience (QoE) is a key component of multimedia delivery. It measures the perceived quality of multimedia experiences, allowing for better decision making in the delivery chain. Object-Based Media allows for a new kind of multimedia experiences which offer greater levels of interaction and personalisation. This presents a unique opportunity to improve the QoE in the multimedia world while exploring areas such as: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Computer Networks and Cloud Gaming. We are looking for a PhD candidate interested in one of these areas as well as QoE.

Potential PhD themes include:

• Exploring the use of AI and ML to aid the estimation & management of QoE in OBM experiences. Can the recent advancements in AI and ML be used to improve our understanding of the perceived quality of object-based experiences?
• Investigating the QoE of new hyper-interactive experiences. How do we measure the importance and the perceived quality of user interaction in OBM experiences?
• Investigating the QoE of new hyper-personalised experiences. What role does personalisation play in terms of the perceived quality?
• Exploring the potential overlap between Perceptual Video Compression (PVC) and OBM QoE. Can a QoE model designed for OBM be utilised to improve video encoding in traditional multimedia delivery methods, aiming towards more sustainable video streaming?

This PhD position offers great flexibility and we welcome the opportunity to explore other ideas & themes around QoE & OBM.

Requirements

You will have a 1st or 2:1 (Hons) degree in Computer Science (or related field), or a Master’s (or equivalent) in a relevant engineering or scientific discipline or equivalent specialist experience. We welcome applicants with a genuine interest in QoE or a related discipline.

Funding

These PhD studentships are open to UK students and cover university tuition fees for 4 years and a tax-free maintenance grant (stipend) of £19,237k per annum. The studentships also include funding to support travel costs to present research at national and international conferences.

Start Date

September 2024, with the flexibility to start later if necessary

General enquiries are welcomed by Professor Nicholas Race by email: networkedsystems@lancaster.ac.uk