Fully funded Ph.D. Grant in Prescriptive Analytics

— DEADLINE FOR PRELIMINARY APPLICATION PHASE: 30/JULY/2018 —
The Ph.D. Programme in Informatics Engineering at the University of Porto is starting a groundbreaking funding initiative in collaboration with some of the leading IT companies in Portugal to support outstanding candidates in areas including machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering, blockchain and others.
The funding includes:
-a monthly grant of 1100€ (above the value of the portuguese national grants, 980€)
-tuition fees
-some additional funding for traveling and equipment
-2 MSc grants/year, to be supervised by the PhD student
The candidate should have a very strong background in Informatics engineering, computer science and, ideally in artificial intelligence/machine learning.
The first grant is funded by InovRetail and aims to develop a platform for prescriptive analytics to automate decision making processes based on predictive models. The project will be supervised by Carlos Soares.
Interested students should send a 1 page PDF document to csoares@fe.up.pt — UNTIL 30/JULY/2018 —, containing:
-a summarized CV
-a one paragraph statement of why you should be selected for the grant
Additional advantages of this initiative are:
-a PhD project tightly coupled with industry and focused on problems of great interest to industry;
-Access to training activities and workshops promoted by the funding company (including training on additional technical areas and soft skills);
-Advice on writing the cv, on best ways to behave on interviews, on time management, etc.
-Privileged access to technical reports and technology;
-Advise on business plans and IP (registration, patent applications, etc.)
-Privileged access to investors investor capital and startup programs;
-Possibility to achieve higher impact based on the combination of two worlds (academia + industry) and on the associated  resources;
-Influence and propose future technology, methodologies, and practices (Informatics Engineering of the Future);
-Acquire the expertise to strongly contribute to decision making in terms of technology;
The Ph.D. project will be carried out at the Department of Informatics Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, one of the most dynamic and fastest growing departments of the U. Porto.