Hi
Currently, I am looking for a topic related to EE field or CS in image processing. Actually, I have done two Masters degree, one in EE- Microelectronic and the other in CS- Forensic Computing. So, I strongly want to write a good proposal before I started apply for a PhD position at any UK University. and Nowadays, I experienced problems in finding a proposal topic, although I spent a lot of time searching for a topic that didn't mentioned before.
Regarding funding, I don't have problems with, because my government will be pay for.

Any one can advice me how to find a good topic proposal or find a supervisor in the UK, preferred in Nottingham University or Nottingham Trent University.

Any word from you will be accepted with great thank.

The answer depends on whether you are a man or a woman (sorry but I can't tell from your profile!). If you are a woman, then definitely go for Nottingham University because they have got an excellent Equality programme in place called Athena SWAN which helps promote women in engineering careers in all sorts of ways (also careers in science, technology, mathematics, and medicine). On the other hand Nottingham Trent University seems a bit stuck in the past and doesn't appear to have any such programme, which seems incredible these day because how funding now depends on having an Athena SWAN silver award for promoting gender equality. So regardless of if you are a man or a woman, if you support gender equality and want to be somewhere that is still being properly funded in 18 months time, then definitely go for Nottingham University.

Hi metabanalysis

Thanks so much for your reply. Actually I am man, and the information that you had advice me is a very helpful, but also I am asking if someone can tell me how can I get a PhD proposal topic which has not published in the IEEE organization before, as I know that any PhD dissertation must be a new research. So, I spent a lot of time to find a topic that has not been published before. Could you tell me If there is a place or someone can help me in this?

Saying any think may deliver us to a certain solution.

I think you're going about this the wrong way...

What aspects of CS/EE interest you? You mention Computer Vision, but can you narrow that down further?

If you're set on living in Nottingham, then look at the research interests of the lecturers there. Then, see if you can formulate any interesting research questions around their interests. Read some of the papers they have written, then identify whether there are any holes or gaps that you could do work in to extend their research.

There are many, many, many interesting research questions in this field. But, the only way you will find them is to read around the subject area and think hard!

That said, unless you have a very compelling reason to be in Nottingham, I would consider looking at all CS departments in the UK and identifying those that have specialist Computer Vision research groups. These are probably where you will find the experts, who are the people you will want to work with. Another way to identify departments with an interest in Vision is to look at their undergraduate degree programme modules and identify those that teach "Computer Vision" as a module. These places will most likely have people interested in the area.

What I'm saying is... it's up to you to formulate a research proposal that interests you and aligns with the interests of the people you might want to work with. So, you're going to have to do some research. It's not going to be given to you on a plate. And neither should it be!

As a woman in CS I could say a lot about the comment on Athena Swan - i.e. please point me to the evidence that says funding is influenced by Athena Swan awards - huh? Really? But, I don't really think this is the right place for that conversation.

Hi IntoTheSpiral

Thanks a lot for your helpful advice, I'll look at the papers of the lecturers in the UK universities.

The aspect of Computer Vision that I am looking for is the improvement of detecting shapes (lines, circle, faces..etc) in images ( in real time recording- video) using FPGAs technology with Hough Transform, Fourier Transform .. etc. methods. Regarding the EE aspects, any thing related to design measuring devices.

I'll be very happy of saying any words regarding these aspects.

Hi IntotheSpiral. It's good to hear that you have heard about Athena SWAN and I sincerely hope your institution is benefitting from being Athena SWAN active. It sounds like you haven't been keeping up with all the developments though. One of the key developments is that the NIHR will soon only be funding institutions with an Athena SWAN silver award: "The NIHR has stated that for future competitions to designate and fund NIHR Biomedical Research Units, Biomedical Research Centres, and Patient Safety Translational Research Centres, it does not expect to short-list any NHS/University partnership where the academic partner (often the Medical School/Faculty of Medicine) has not achieved at least the Silver Award of the Athena SWAN Charter for Women in Science" http://www.ris.port.ac.uk/athenaswan/nihr-statement-on-funding-links-to-athena-swan-silver-status/

This is just the beginning: the other four major funding bodies are going to do either exactly the same in all science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine areas (i.e. require an Athena SWAN silver) or do something very similar e.g. require compliance with JUNO or WISE standards. To be honest, I don't know why it has taken SO long for proper equality standards to put in place in Britain, and most decent people will agree with me on this. One way or the other, institutions that insist on acting like gender dinosaurs are soon going to be about as active as dinosaurs ;)

Hello, although I do not have a lot of knowledge about the subject of Computer Science, I do have a great resource for you where you can find the best dissertation proposals. Visit this site: http://www.researchomatic.com/thesis.html. This is the one where I went to find the topic ofr my marketing dissertation.

Thanks ClarkeBenson, I will look at this site.