Meet the Team
This handbook has been prepared by the School of Computing, to help postgraduate researchers and supervisors find information regarding administrative procedures and support arrangements. This handbook supplements the information provided by the Doctoral College in relation to policies and procedures.
You will have already met with your supervisors and understand that their primary role is to offer you guidance and support in your studies.
Your PhD Researcher Representative is Muhammad Aaqib. They will represent your School on University level committees to ensure that your voice is heard, and any concerns raised.
Your Research Director, Postgraduate Tutor and research area administrators are also available for you, should you require any additional support.
Research Ethics and Integrity
Ulster University requires the highest standards of professionalism in research conducted by all staff and students in all disciplines. Refer to the Research policy and procedures with regard to research practice, publications and intellectual property. All PhD researchers should act professionally in your role. Including the use of appropriate email etiquette in a reasonable fashion and acting professionally in the office and around campus.
Integrity is fundamental to the research process and an important component of our research environment, demonstrating to partners and funders that we undertake excellent quality research to a consistently high standard.
Professor Cathy Gormley-Heenan explains the importance of integrity in this short video.
The research integrity course is mandatory for all PhD researchers and must be completed prior to undertaking the Initial Assessment. This course is available via your Blackboard account.
It is University policy that all research involving human participants must be reviewed through the filter and ethics committee process as appropriate.
Details of the University’s policies and procedures in this area are currently available through the portal. Please click on the Research Governance & Ethics tab. Early in your project you should discuss the Ethical implications of your work with your supervisor. If required, you should then make an ethical application. More faculty level guidance and templates can be found on the ethics submission website.
Filter committees have been established in all the areas in which significant levels of human research are likely to take place. For information on the Filter committee for the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment contact Skye Aughey s.aughey@ulster.ac.uk.
Applications should be completed fully and must also include the peer review at time of submission. Guidance is available on how to prepare a research ethics application.
Supervision and Attendance
The primary responsibility for organising your research work lies with you. However, it is your supervisor’s responsibility to guide your research, point you in interesting directions, monitor your progress and generally provide moral and technical support. Supervisors differ in their methods, but you should normally expect to see your supervisor at least once a fortnight. Feel free to contact them any time if you have a problem or are unsure how to proceed. You will find that you can obtain the most benefit from meetings with your supervisor if you prepare some material for them to read in advance or formulate some specific questions you would like to discuss.
It is anticipated that initially you will need to have relatively frequent supervisory meetings. However, when you settle into a more familiar pattern of work, meetings may become less frequent although at various times you may need more support (approaching assessments or during the final writing up stage). The actual supervisory procedure and systems adopted should be agreed by yourself and your supervisors, but for clarification School of Computing would expect that full time PhD researchers should have substantive meetings with their supervisors at least once a month and that part-time PhD researchers at least once during a three-month period. The PhD Manager system allows uploading of digital records of supervisory meetings, and it is the responsibility of the PhD researcher to ensure that a full record of meetings is held.
It is expected that you attend University on a daily basis, except by mutual agreement of your supervisor or Research Director. Typically, PhD researchers work 35-40 hours per week between the hours of 9.00am - 5.00pm. Holidays must be approved by your supervisor and must not exceed a total of eight weeks including public holidays (40 days) per year.
If you need to take some leave due to poor health or family problems, you firstly need to inform your supervisor. If the leave is for more than two weeks, you must notify your supervisors, who will then notify the Doctoral College in writing of the dates of absence, accompanied by a medical certificate.
If you require a prolonged period of leave (exceeding 28 days) then you may need to consider taking a Leave of Absence. Funded PhD researchers should be aware that they may normally be allowed a Leave of Absence for a maximum of one year. It is important to note that your maintenance grant will be suspended during a Leave of Absence, although with medical evidence you can avail of 13 weeks of paid sick leave per annum. You are not permitted to take up paid employment during a Leave of Absence. Please read the terms and conditions of your funding if applicable. If you decide to request a Leave of Absence please submit your request on PhD Manager once you have spoken with your supervisor.
If you need any further information or advice regarding attendance and absence regulations, please contact your supervisor or Postgraduate Tutor.
Working Environment
To support its Research, the School of Computing has a range of cutting-edge computing inside a dedicated laboratory space. This includes a suite of pervasive sensing technologies, image and video modelling tools and a large suite of computing and software resources including high performance PowerEdge Tower servers. These facilities are used to support the development, deployment and evaluation of connected solutions, data acquisition and semantic analysis of a user environments. Contact Idongesit Ekerete if you have any questions regarding access to equipment.
A desk within a shared office will be provided for you to work at whilst on campus. These are generally in open plan office space on Floor 4 or 5 within the BC block of the Belfast Campus. Offices are a mix of PhD Researchers and Research Staff. You should endeavour to make use of the knowledge you have available in your office. Typically, this space will include a clear desk space, a comfortable computing chair, 24” monitor and a locker to store personal items.
It is Researchers responsibility to keep these spaces tidy and to clear the space when leaving at the end of the PhD journey.
Each shared office offers a kitchen with Quooker tap and fridge. The Belfast Campus offers a range of catering facilities. Details of these can be found online. Hydration Stations are located at most stair and lift cores across all Belfast campus buildings.
The Doc, located in BC-06-225, is a shared social space for use by all PhD researchers, and this space also includes a small kitchen area and areas to meet and socialize with other PhD researchers.
Where possible, a Desktop or Laptop computer will be provided for you if needed. This should be discussed with your supervisors. In some cases, a new desktop/ laptop will need to be purchased. If this is the case, money may be used from your Research Training Grant to support essential equipment. Your Supervisors can advise you further on this. For Self-funded Researchers, it is expected that they will supply their own computing equipment.
Digital Services provide information on how to print including how to access multifunction devices (MFD) that will allow you to print, copy and scan documents. More information can be found on their website. PhD Researchers within the school can access £50 of printing credits. Speak to the research area administrator to arrange this.
School of Computing
The School of Computing is part of the Faculty of Computing, Engineering, and the Built Environment and is comprised of two focused research groups in Pervasive Computing and Artificial Intelligence, which sit within the Computer Science and Informatics research area. The School is also home to three industrially focused Innovation centres, BT Ireland Innovation Centre (BTIIC), the Connected Health Innovation Centre (CHIC) and the Advanced Research and Engineering Centre (ARC).
Computer Science and Informatics
World-leading research in intelligent systems, assistive technologies, next generation networks, and semantic analytics.