I'm pleased to announce a PhD Scholarship within the Visualization and VR group at Leeds, generously funded by Microsoft Research. We are seeking a student to investigate how visualization techniques can be further developed to understand and improve the performance of parallel Haskell programs running on multi-core CPUs. Closing date for applications is 22 March 2010. Could you please pass on this call to anyone who might be interested in applying. Further details are included below, and are also available on the web, at http://www.engineering.leeds.ac.uk/pg/studentships/duke.shtml thanks, David Duke PROJECT TITLE: "Visualizing Performance for Multicore Haskell" SUPERVISION: Dr. David Duke, School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK MRL CO-SUPERVISION: Dr. Satnam Singh Prof. Simon Peyton Jones Dr. Simon Marlow Microsoft Research Laboratory, Cambridge, UK OUTLINE: The GHC Haskell compiler now provides high-level abstractions that allow the programmer to benefit from multi-core CPUs. These abstractions support implicit parallelism - the programmer can indicate expressions that could usefully be evaluated in parallel, but is freed from concerns about when parallel evaluation takes place. However, it now becomes more difficult to isolate and resolve performance issues. Visualization of run-time behaviour can help. The Haskell community already have the benefit of a tool, ThreadScope, developed at Microsoft Research Cambridge (research.microsoft.com/en-us/labs/ Cambridge/) that provides insight into resource utilisation. However ThreadScope, like other performance visualization tools, presents the programmer with a view of low-level resources that differs from the level of abstraction at which Haskell programmers are encouraged to work. This studentship will investigate visualization techniques for linking high-level program abstractions with low-level runtime performance data. It should allow Haskell programmers to exploit parallelism more effectively. The student will join the Visualization and VR group at Leeds (www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/vvr) . Work on the PhD will involve: understanding how information about run-time resources can be extracted and visualized, and how programmers use these representations to reason about design and implementation choices; building or extending visualization tools; conducting user evaluations; modify components of the GHC compiler and runtime system. Work will be undertaken with support from the GHC/ ThreadScope team at Microsoft Research (Satnam Singh, Simon Peyton Jones, and Simon Marlow). At the discretion of Microsoft Research, the student may also be offered an internship at MRL Cambridge. FUNDING: The Scholarship provides a bursary of £20,000 per year for three years, covering fees and maintenance. A further £3000 per annum has been reserved for travel expenses to attend conferences and visits to Microsoft Research in Cambridge. Applicants from outside of the EU should note that higher student fees (currently £13,300) will necessarily reduce the amount available for maintenance. Home/EU fees stand at £3,390 currently. Microsoft Research will provide the successful candidate with a laptop equipped with a suite of software. ENTRY REQUIREMENTS: Applicants must hold a First-Class BSc (Hon) degree in Computer Science or equivalent. It is essential that applicants have excellent knowledge of functional programming and significant practical experience writing software in Haskell, Clean, or ML. Experience with GUI programming and/or information visualization is highly desirable. Knowledge of programming technologies, in particular compilers and implementation techniques for functional languages is also desirable. The position is open to students of all nationalities. SCHOOL OF COMPUTING, LEEDS: The School of Computing (www.comp.leeds.ac.uk) is among the 10 best Computing departments in the UK according to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). An impressive 80% of staff is rated internationally excellent or world leading. This clearly confirms the School’s position as one of the leading computing departments in the UK and a leader in the field internationally. APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Formal applications for research degree study must be made either online through the University website, or on the University’s application form. Detailed information of how to apply on line can be found at: www.leeds.ac.uk/students/apply_research.htm The paper application form is available at: www.leeds.ac.uk/rds/Admissions/Admis_home.htm Please return the completed application form to: Research Degrees & Scholarships Office, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT. Please provide all the documents required as soon as possible, either included with your paper application or sent directly to the School of Computing secretary (rsadmit@comp.leeds.ac.uk) if you apply online. Scanned copies are acceptable for a conditional offer; however you will need to provide originals or certified copies at registration. These will include your degree certificate(s), transcripts of marks achieved in previous degrees, plus evidence of English language qualifications if your first language is not English and you do not hold a degree from an English-speaking country. Please note, if you intend to send academic references we can only accept them if they are on official letter headed paper and contain an original signature and stamp; they must arrive in sealed envelopes. Alternatively, the School will contact your named academic referees directly. CLOSING DATE: Applications must be received by 22 March 2010. ACADEMIC CONTACT: For questions about the research topic, please contact Dr. David Duke, University of Leeds; Tel: +44 113 343 6800; Email: D.J.Duke@leeds.ac.uk; Web: www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/djd/