Universities and Online Degrees Guide

Stellenbosch University

Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science

The Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science in Computer and Information Systems is offered by Stellenbosch University.

Program Length: 4 YEARS.

Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science offered by Stellenbosch University at the Faculty of Science

Programme Description

A dissertation containing the results of your independent research is required. 

Computer Science is a vibrant and innovative environment, with a particular emphasis on high quality research. All the university's senior researchers are NRF rated, and they attract postgraduate students from all over the world. In addition to being strong in the foundational theories of Computer Science, postgraduate students are expected to have excellent programming and technical skills.

The Division is home to the first IBM Software Centre of Excellence (CoE) in South Africa. This postgraduate computer laboratory includes advanced software such as the Rational® Development Environment, which provide a fully-fledged software production environment for students to hone their skills.

This postgraduate qualification is directly accepted at prestigious international institutions, and sought after in industry.

Fields of research

Automata theory, grammars, and applications: We consider theoretical problems related to nondeterministic finite automata, tree automata, and graph grammars. We apply the theory to practical problems in image processing, diagram understanding, music generation, regular expression matchers, and more.

Program testing and verification: We work on testing, program analysis, symbolic execution, probabilistic symbolic execution, logic-based techniques, and model checking, for both sequential and concurrent systems. We also help develop the widely used Java PathFinder tool suite, as well as the CSeq and ESBMC tools that focus on analysing concurrent and embedded software.

Artificial intelligence: We consider various aspects of artificial intelligence, including probabilistic modelling and machine learning. Application areas include, computer vision, natural language processing, robotics and computer players for various games.

Broadband and mobile networks: We investigate incentive schemes to promote cooperation and improve performance in mobile ad hoc networks. We also investigate protocols for data forwarding in vehicular ad hoc networks. We investigate the behaviour of the Bitcoin blockchain and the profitability of various dishonest data mining schemes.