Studentship Vacancies

Networks & Ontologies for Transforming Broadcasting

The aim of this project is to investigate and facilitate novel ways for production, distribution and discovery of all sorts of internet TV and multimedia content. While the way people consume content significantly changes with the ongoing digitalisation and particular the rise of the internet as digital distribution channel, e.g. now ranging from digital terrestrial TV to Video on Demand (VoD) and IPTV facilitated by the Web, current technologies are still not capable of providing a highly flexible, personalised and context-aware experience to the user. Semantic Web and Web 2.0 technologies provide a huge potential to address these issues and will contribute to provide a fully personalised and channel-independent TV experience.

This research will be conducted within the context of the EU funded NoTube project (http://notube.org). Within NoTube, the ultimate goal is to develop a flexible/adaptive end-to-end architecture, based on semantic technologies, for personalised creation, distribution and consumption of TV content. The consortium coordinated by the Vrije University (VU) Amsterdam in the Netherlands and includes 13 partners operating in the fields of TV broadcasting (e.g. BBC, RAI), telecommunications (e.g. Korean Telecom) or research and development in the area of Semantic Web (e.g. VU, KMi, Ontotext, Asemantics).

In particular, Semantic Web Services technology such as WSMO and IRS-III will play a major role for the work of KMi, while integration with general-purpose Semantic Web standards such as RDF and OWL is of concern as well. The consortium coordinated by the Vrije Univerity (VU) Amsterdam in Netherland, includes 13 partners operating in the fields of TV broadcasting (e.g. BBC, RAI), telecommunications (e.g. Korean Telecom) or research and development in the area of Semantic Web (e.g. VU, KMi, Ontotext, Asemantics).

Within this context, the PhD research may address one or more of the following questions:

• How can semantics be added and exploited to provide a richer, dynamic and most importantly, more personalised TV experience?
• What are the specific characteristics of the TV domain and how do semantic technologies need to consider and support these?
• How can service technologies support the distributed nature of evolving internet TV stakeholders - consumers and providers?

Applicants should have a first or upper second class honours degree or masters degree in computer science, information systems or related discipline. The successful applicant should have the following skills:

• Familiarity with existing Semantic Web and/or Semantic Web Services standards and technologies (e.g. RDF, OWL, WSMO)
• Strong interest in next generation TV applications as well as digital TV and multimedia content management and metadata handling
• Ability to handle constructive feedback
• Ability to work in a team
• Ability to work to deadlines
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• A plus: experience in development of Knowledge-based systems and Semantic Web applications

This studentship is open to national and international applicants. For further information on this PhD project please contact:

Stefan Dietze
Research Fellow

Tel. +44 (0)1908 858217.

John Domingue
Professor & Deputy Director

Tel. +44 (0)1908 653800.

Background Reading:

Lora Aroyo, Pieter Bellekens, Martin Björkman, Geert-Jan Houben, Paul Akkermans, Annelies Kaptein: SenSee Framework for Personalized Access to TV Content. EuroITV 2007: 156-165

Dietze, S., and Domingue, J. (2009) Towards Context-aware Multimedia Processing through Semantic Web Services, EuroITV 2009, Leuven, Belgium

Dietze, S., Gugliotta, A., Domingue, J., (2008) Bridging the Gap between Mobile Application Contexts and Semantic Web Resources. Chapter in: Context-Aware Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing for Enhanced Usability: Adaptive Technologies and Applications, Editor: Dragan Stojanovic, Information Science Publishing (IGI Global), November 2008.

J. Domingue, L. Cabral, F. Hakimpour, D. Sell and E. Motta (2004) IRS-III: A Platform and Infrastructure for Creating WSMO-based Semantic Web Services. Proceedings of the Workshop on WSMO Implementations (WIW 2004) Frankfurt, Germany, September 29-30, 2004, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, ISSN 1613-0073

Motta, E. (1999) Reusable Components for Knowledge Modeling, IOS Press, Amsterdam 1999.

Troncy, R., Bailer, W., Hausenblas, M., Hofmair, P., Schlatte, R.. Enabling Multimedia Metadata Interoperability by Defining Formal Semantics of MPEG-7 Profiles. In: 1st International Conference on Semantics And digital Media Technology (SAMT 06), Athens, Greece. December 2006.

Wagner, M., Kellerer, W. 2004. Web services selection for distributed composition of multimedia content, Proceedings of the 12th annual ACM international conference on Multimedia, October 10-16, 2004, New York, NY, USA.

Additional Information:

The Knowledge Media Institute (http://kmi.open.ac.uk) is home to internationally recognised researchers in semantic web, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, human-computer interaction, information retrieval and multimedia processing. KMi offers students an intellectually challenging environment with exceptional research and computer facilities. You will be joining a dynamic PhD programme with about 15 other students in KMi, plus peers in the Computing department and Institute of Educational Technology who together make up the OU's Centre for Research in Computing (http://crc.open.ac.uk/).

KMi sees PhD students as critical to its mission, and awards Studentships (£12,978/year tax free for 2008/09), with no additional fees, compulsory examinations or teaching required. Participation is required in CRC PhD events and thesis milestones, as specified in the KMI Research Degrees policy (http://kmi.open.ac.uk/studentships/policy.php). Additional training courses to develop your generic research skills are run across the OU, attendance at which is agreed with your supervisor.

The Open University (http://www.open.ac.uk) is UK's only distance learning university with a dedicated mission for excellence in teaching and research. PhD programmes are residential, however, and the student would carry out their research at the KMi in the Open University's central Milton Keynes campus.

Milton Keynes (http://www.mkweb.co.uk/), located in the triangle Cambridge, Oxford and London, is an exciting and vibrant place to be. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the country with fantastic shopping facilities, Xscape Snow slope, new skydiving centre and much more. Milton Keynes is also home to some major employers with Abbey National, Argos and The Open University having headquarters in the city. With more businesses continuing to locate here, unemployment levels are among the lowest in the country. Milton Keynes has excellent transport links with the M1 motorway and A5 running alongside the city and a fast train link into London Euston (35 minutes).

Applications

This studentship is available for immediate start. Applications should comprise an application form, C.V. and a proposal outlining how you would tackle this project. They should be submitted to:

Research School
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
UK