The Studentship provides a full scholarship (£9,000 per year for maintenance for three years and the full fees at home/ EU rate

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD studentship, to work on a joint project of Coventry University (CU), Faculty of Computing and Engineering and Bucks New University (BNU), Faculty of Enterprise and Innovation. The studentship will be based at the Coventry University campus.  The main aim of the project is to develop a new methodology to support judgmental forecast adjustments in order to improve their efficiency in practice. The potential of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic in the area of forecasting and judgmental adjustments will be explored and applied.

The studentship will last for a three year period at the end of which it is expected that the PhD will have been completed.). Overseas students are welcome to apply; however, they will need to pay the balance between overseas and home/EU fees. As part of the studentship, successful applicants will be expected to undertake some teaching duties and support activities and to contribute to research activities within the Faculty.

The Control Theory and Applications Centre – CTAC (CU) is a multidisciplinary applied research centre with a strong reputation for solving real world control problems in many industrial sectors. It has 10 staff members and 5 research assistants. The Business and Industrial Time Series group (BNU), focuses on forecasting research and has 7 successful PhD completions.

CU-BUCKS/DB

Supervisory team:

Prof Dobrila Petrovic (Coventry University)

Prof John Boylan (Buckinghamshire New University)

Forecasting is of paramount importance for supply chain decision making and control. Very often in practice, managers judgmentally adjust forecasts obtained by using statistical forecasting methods. It enables consideration of some special events that might have an impact on forecasts that statistical methods cannot handle and, also, provides a sense of “manager’s ownership” of the forecasts. In this project, we will develop a new methodology to support judgmental forecast adjustments in order to improve their efficiency in practice. We will use fuzzy sets theory and fuzzy logic to model imprecise, linguistically described adjustments such as “small positive adjustment”, “medium positive adjustment”, “high negative adjustment”, etc. We will develop fuzzy if-then rules to support decision making on when and how to judgmentally adjust forecasts and how to impove them over time, in order to increase forecast accuracy and improve stock control performance, through reduced inventory volumes and enhanced service levels. An industrial collaborator, Severn Trent Water, Birmingham, will provide their expertise and understanding of real world forecasting problems and ensure that the research results contribute to reducing the gap between the forecasting theory and practice.

You should have a good degree in operational research, computer science, mathematics, operations management or a related discipline, (2:1 or above), It is desirable, although not essential, to have an MSc in a relevant field from a recognised academic institution. An interest in the field of forecasting and/or fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic based applications would be an advantage. An IELTS score of 7 is required for students who do not have English as a first language.

Applicants will be required to submit an application form, a detailed CV, 2 references and a covering letter addressed to Professor Dobrila Petrovic, by email to research-apps.pg@coventry.ac.uk

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Filed Under: Computer Science • Coventry University