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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
PhD Project Template
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Use one form per project
Please complete & submit to international@nuigalway.ie as soon as possible, and by 27/11/2012
In your email, begin the subject line with [SWB] (be sure to use square brackets) to ensure that
your email is filed correctly. Emails will be automatically filed
PI name & contact details:
School:
Has project been agreed with head (or
nominee) of proposed registration school?
Michael Mc Gettrick [michael.mcgettrick@nuigalway.ie]
(PI) & Colm O’Riordan [colm.oriordan@nuigalway.ie]
Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics /
Engineering and Informatics
Yes
Research Centre / group affiliation:
Research group / centre website:
http://www.maths.nuigalway.ie/~gettrick/
http://www3.it.nuigalway.ie/cirg/
PI website / link to CV:
http://www.maths.nuigalway.ie/~gettrick/
http://www3.it.nuigalway.ie/cirg/
Brief summary of PI research / research group / centre activity (2 or 3 lines max):
If you are already involved in relevant scholarly activities relating to Brazil, please mention them here.
Michael Mc Gettrick works in Quantum Computation while Colm O’Riordan works mainly in
Evolutionary Computation
Title & brief description of PhD project (suitable for publication on web):
STRATEGY CHOICE IN QUANTUM EVOLUTIONARY GAME THEORY
Quantum Evolutionary Game Theory is a new field being developed at NUI, Galway that marries
the ideas of Evolutionary Computation with Quantum Game Theory.
The main purpose of this PhD will be to investigate optimal strategies in quantum evolutionary
games that are played on a network. As such, this is a model for calculating the behaviour of
quantum agents.
The expertise in quantum game theory comes from Michael Mc Gettrick, who has worked in
quantum computation for a number of years. Colm O’Riordan provides the expertise in
evolutionary computation, and also in classical game theory. The idea will be to model quantum
evolutionary games played on some simple graphs (e.g. cycle, star graph,…) initially. Following
from this, we anticipate results on how the behaviour depends on the adjacency of the nodes in
the graph, and on its topology.
In our initial models, we also anticipate that the behaviour will depend on how we entangle the
initial (quantum) state of the agents: Whether this entanglement is local (nearest neighbour, next
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
nearest neighbour, etc.) or global. For comparison with the classical case, the PhD student will
examine the particular case of the quantum iterated prisoners dilemma.
It is anticipated that this PhD work will result in theoretical advances important in the design of
future quantum algorithms. The PhD student should be relatively comfortable coding with
established packages (e.g. mathematica, maxima, maple,…), or coding themselves directly in a
high level programming language, in order to run simulations to check theoretical results.
We have been in touch with Prof. Renato Portugal (Laboratório Nacional de Computação
Cientifica) and Prof. Franklin Marquezino (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro), and we are
regular users of their wonderful software “QWalk: Simulador de Caminhadas Quânticas” (see
http://qubit.lncc.br/qwalk/ ).
Unique selling points of PhD project in NUI Galway:
NUI Galway projects should emphasise features that are not typically available in Brazil – specific equipment,
multi-disciplinarity, aspects of structured programme, links with industry, placements, links with other research
groups etc.
1. In the School of Maths, Statistics and Applied Mathematics, we have available expertise in Physics,
Mathematics and Computer Science, all of which play a role in this PhD research.
2. In the Information Technology discipline there are a number of International experts in Evolutionary
Computation, Agent Based systems and Computational Intelligence.
3. The research is by its very nature interdisciplinary, and the PhD student will benefit from acquiring
additional expertise in Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science.
4. NUI, Galway is the only University in Ireland active both quantum and evolutionary computation.
Name & contact details for project queries, if different from PI named above:
Please indicate the graduates of which disciplines that should apply:
Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science.
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Please indicate the specific programme priority area under which the proposed PhD project fits- choose only
one (tick box):
Engineering and other technological areas
Pure and Natural Sciences (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry)/Physical Sciences (Mathematics,
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geosciences)
Health and Biomedical Sciences / Clinical, Pré-clinical and Health Sciences
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Computing
X
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
Sustainable Agricultural Production
Oil, Gas and Coal
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Renewable Energy
Minerals, Minerals Technology
Biotechnology
Nanotechnology and New Materials
Technologies for Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Disasters
Bioprospecting and Biodiversity
Marine Sciences
Creative Industry
New technologies in constructive engineering
Please indicate which of the following applies to this project (referring to Science Without Borders
arrangements):
Suitable only as a Full PhD (Y/N): _ Y____
Available to candidates seeking a Sandwich PhD arrangement (Y/N): _N____
Suitable for either/Don’t know: _____