UK; PhD Studentship – Measuring Perceived Healthiness: Extracting High-Level Feature Information from Colour Images of Faces

This PhD project aims to understand and predict how humans make judgments of health, age and attractiveness based on skin colour and texture. For example, how clinicians form immediate judgements of illness severity based on skin appearance. We will combine approaches from computer vision, human psychophysics, and colour science to quantify spectral properties of human faces and relate these to human perception and performance using statistical modelling.

The project will address the important biological question of how humans extract high-level information from low-level sensory cues such as colour and brightness, as well as the engineering challenge of how to implement this human ability in machine vision.

The project is highly interdisciplinary and the student will also work with co-supervisors Professor Gui Yun Tian (School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering) and Dr Shirley Coleman (Industrial Statistics Research Unit), and gain experience of hyperspectral imaging, visual psychophysics and neuroscience, image processing and statistical modelling.

The Institute of Neuroscience is a leading centre for the study of brain and behaviour, with a unique infrastructure for neuroimaging, and state-of-the-art equipment for studying and modeling human and animal behaviour. The Institute also supports a thriving postgraduate student community. The applicant thus has an ideal opportunity to join an active environment which integrates research on human vision with computational, comparative and clinical approaches.

Project start date: on or before 30th March 2010

Eligibility and Value of the Award
Due to funding criteria, this studentship is open to UK or UK-resident applicants only. The award covers tuition fees at the UK rate and an annual stipend (approximately £13,290).

Person Specification
You must have a first-class or upper-second-class Honours degree, or equivalent, in computer science, psychology, neuroscience, or a related discipline. Applicants should also have a strong interest in understanding human visual perception and programming experience (eg Matlab, C).

How to Apply
You must apply through the University’s postgraduate application form, inserting the reference number ION90 and selecting ‘PhD in the Faculty of Medical Sciences – Neuroscience’ as the programme of study.  Only mandatory fields need to be completed (no personal statement required), and you must attach a covering letter, CV and (if English is not your first language) a copy of your English language qualifications. The covering letter must state the title of the studentship, quote the reference number ION90 and state how your interests and experience relate to the project.

You should also send your covering letter and CV to Scott Macmillan, Postgraduate Secretary, Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, or by email to scott.macmillan@ncl.ac.uk

Closing date: 15th January 2010

Further Information
To find out more about the studentship contact anya.hurlbert@ncl.ac.uk (or at +44 (0) 191 222 7638). To find out more about how to apply contact scott.macmillan@ncl.ac.uk.

Tags: neuroscience, Neuroscience Scholarship 2010, PHD Neuroscience 2010, PHD Scholarship in Neuroscience 2010