Information and Communication Systems

At the Information and Communication Systems programme of the University of Surrey, you’ll be taught by leading experts in the field, become part of our thriving postgraduate research community and gain excellent employment prospects.

The University of Surrey ’s Institute for Communication Systems (ICS), home of the 5G/6G Innovation Centre (5G/6GIC), is the one of the UK’s major academic research centres specialising in information and communications technology.

Career opportunities

It normally takes three to four years of full-time study to complete this Information and Communication Systems PhD programme. Your research can be based on a topic of your choice, or may be dictated by industry sponsorship or government funding.You’ll be assigned two supervisors, who’ll guide you through your studies. Your supervisors will give you direction and experience of the cutting-edge technologies in their areas of expertise. They’ll also give you the support you need to complete your PhD, from giving you guidance and feedback on your work to helping you frame your research proposal. Though you’ll primarily be in contact with your two supervisors, you’ll also work with other staff within ICS and you may have the opportunity to become a team member on research projects.You’ll be required to write a confirmation report on your research in your first year, and you will be examined by two examiners.Your final assessment will be based on the presentation of your research in a written thesis, which will be discussed in a viva examination with at least two examiners. You have the option of preparing your thesis as a monograph (one large volume in chapter form) or in publication format (including chapters written for publication), subject to the approval of your supervisors.

Research themes

• 5G-Advanced and 6G

• Integrated satellite and terrestrial 5G and 6G

• Artificial intelligence networking and wireless communications

• Reflective and transmissive intelligent surfaces

• THz communications and components

• Positioning and image sensing

• High-quality time and frequency transmission

• Teleportation

• Connected transportation

• Ultra-Massive MIMO

• Terabits-per-second communications

• Internet of senses

• Network and physical layer security