PhD Studentship: On the simulation of advanced computer networks

University of Bristol

Qualification Type:	PhD
Location:	Bristol
Funding for:	UK Students
Funding amount:	Minimum tax-free stipend at the current UKRI rate (for 2025/26 standard stipend is £20,780, RTSG £7,000, full Tuition Fee covered)
Hours:	Full Time

Placed On:	15th January 2026
Closes:	1st March 2026

The project:

The High Performance Computing (HPC) services of today provide the computational density to perform groundbreaking science. These services facilitate the distribution of a problem space across numerous compute units, yielding performance improvements through parallelising the execution of a workload. Although the design of any one of the computational units in use can significantly impact the performance of a scientific workload, the network that provides the communication between them can serve as an equally disruptive bottleneck for a workload’s performance.

From the perspective of modern HPC networks, various topologies, routing logics, and advanced features, such as in-network computation, combine to form a multitude of options an architect or researcher must consider. Of the tooling used by architects and researchers to navigate this design space, simulators are commonplace and offer a powerful methodology for investigating the efficiencies and pitfalls of potential solutions.

During the PhD programme, a student would be expected to explore the design of advanced computer networks, both through simulation and the direct execution of workloads on real-world implementations. As part of such exploration, the procurement or development of relevant workloads that are representative of real-world behaviours impacted by the design decisions of the networks under study should also be carried out. Additionally, all aspects of simulation and the underlying creation of network models represent a non-trivial exercise. The learnings of such explorations may be applied through the refinement of theoretical network models, representative of possible next-generation HPC networks.

Alongside the University of Bristol's High Performance Computing research group, the PhD programme will be associated with the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS), home to Isambard-AI. BriCS is delivering over 300 million pounds of AI compute, and a successful applicant will be able to work closely with the BriCS team and their collaborators while delivering world-class supercomputer services.

How to apply:

Please select programme title on the Programme Choice page. You will be prompted to enter details of the studentship in the Funding and Research Details sections of the form.

Candidate requirements:

Applicants must hold/achieve a minimum of a merit at master’s degree level (or international equivalent) in a science, mathematics or engineering discipline. Applicants without a master's qualification may be considered on an exceptional basis, provided they hold a first-class undergraduate degree. Please note, acceptance will also depend on evidence of readiness to pursue a research degree. If English is not your first language, you need to meet this profile level: Profile E Further information about English language requirements and profile levels.

Funding:

4 year University Scholarship - Minimum tax-free stipend at the current UKRI rate (for 2025/26 standard stipend is £20,780, RTSG £7,000, full Tuition Fee covered), plus enhanced stipend per year.

Contacts:

For questions about the research topic, please contact Jack Jones at jj16791@bristol.ac.uk. For questions about eligibility and the application process please contact Engineering Postgraduate Research Admissions admissions-engpgr@bristol.ac.uk