G'day! Thinking of joining my group as a PhD or MPhil student or to visit me? Yes, I am always looking to work with motivated students. For non-UoW students, send me your CV and transcripts.
Note: if you are an undergraduate student looking for an undergraduate thesis (or capstone project) supervisor, this page is not for you.
My research is theoretical in nature; check out my research listed on my home page. Theory is very important if you want high quality publications or thesis.
I require the use of mathematical tools, examples include optimization theory, graph theory, machine learning (e.g., statistical learning, reinforcement learning, etc), game theory, or stochastic processes.
If you are worried whether you have the required background, send me an email with your CV. I'll determine whether I can create a project that suits your background.
For UoW students, especially potential or actual First Class Honours students, you can come and see me personally. My office door is always open, or Zoom me!
I work very closely with all my students and reply quickly to all emails. I am a hands-on supervisor, where I will teach you academic writing, technical knowledge and research processes. My aim is for you to finish on time, and more importantly, with a strong thesis that is well-written, and contains multiple high quality journals/conference articles; all of which increase the value and quality of your PhD degree; note, you will be judged based on your publications as opposed to where you obtain your PhD degree. This is especially important if you want to pursue an academic career. Feel free to browse my past students' works or their thesis (Search for my student's name). Alternatively, send them an email (no guarantee they will reply!).
Note: admission into the PhD/MPhil degree does not grant you a scholarship.
Please see UoW's scholarship page for more information. International Students Application Deadline: 23rd May of each year. For domestic students, it is 3rd October.
Value: approx. $36K AUD p.a for living expenses, no tax. There is no tuition fee.
International Students
Competitiveness: to have a chance, you need to have a very high GPA/WAM, one publication in a high ranking venue and a degree from a university ranked higher or equal to UoW. Graduating from the top university in your country also helps. Publications in predatory journals, e.g., MDPI or low-ranking conferences, do not count. You must have a publication in top ranking conferences or high impact journals; e.g., IEEE Trans.
For international UoW students with a first class honours degree, you may receive a tuition fee waiver.
UoW Domestic Students
If you are a domestic student (citizen or permanent residency), please apply for an AGRTP. If you have a First Class Honours degree, it is relatively easy to get a scholarship.
Note, students who hold permanent residency or citizenship do not pay tuition fee.
If you are a self-funded student, note that your tuition fee per session is not only for 13 weeks, which is the case for coursework degree. For a research degree, your tuition fee for both session covers the entire year, meaning you get my time throughout the year and not just for 13 weeks of each session. Another way to look at it is as follows. The annual tuition fee is around $40K AUD. This equates to a cost of $3.3K/month.
It is possible to complete a PhD degree in two years and have a high quality thesis. Send me an email.
Note: UoW has a special scholarship arrangment with China (CSC), Pakistan (HEC) and Vietnam; see here. UoW will top-up (AUD $12K per year) your living allowance to match that of domestic students; i.e., your living allowance is supported by your home country's funding agency and UoW.
Endeavour Awards
The Department of Education, Skills and Employment of Australia offers a number of scholarships; see
Endeavour Awards.
For the project proposal, simply prepare one based on a past project; e.g., Master or Honours thesis. We will discuss the exact project topic after you joined. The proposal is usually 2-3 pages in length with Title, Background and Aims.
Officially, a PhD degree is a minimum of 2 years, and a maximum of 5 years. On average, students usually finish in 3.5 years. Most of my students have finished in less than 3 years.
Master of Philosophy is a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 2 years. On average, students complete in 1.5 years. Most of my students thus far have finished in 1 year.
It is possible to finish with a high quality thesis within three (3) years or less. It is not the duration of a degree that matters, but the time you spent on your thesis. Having the correct attitude, working hard, background and my help ensure you finish strong!
UoW is a young but high ranking university; see here.
For 2021, we are ranked 14-th in the world amongst universities under 50; see here. We are also ranked 2nd in Australia amongst young universities.
The Australian government ranked us number one in 2015; see hereFor the 2015 Excellent Research Australia (ERA), the school (0906 FoR Code) received a score of 5/5 (well above world standard) for its research prowess; see here. This means our research outputs have both quality and impact that are well above the world average mark.
The Good Universities Guide gave us five stars (full mark) in many categories every year; see here for 2018 results.
We are ranked 2nd in NSW, and 6-th in Australia for Engineering and Technology by the Times Higher Education; see here.
In the QS 2023 ranking, UoW is ranked 185-th in the world. Please see here
More importantly, Wollongong is an excellent and nice place to live. Everything is 5 mins drive away! There are free busses. See why We love the Gong.
Also, the living cost in Wollongong is much cheaper as compared to Sydney.
Please check out:
If you wish to apply for any fellowship, I'm happy to support your application provided you are competitive.
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