Design Engineering PhD Scholarship 18

Neuro-symbolic Artificial Intelligence for life and death decision making

Abstract
The application of AI in life and death decision making, such as in emergency medical settings, is challenging due to the inherent blackbox nature of many AI architectures.

Whilst considerable research effort has focused on post hoc interpretability as a means to provide assurance, there remains a heavily reliance on human-in-the-loop for the final decision.

This project will investigate the feasibility of designing AI architectures from the ground up that would be inherently suited to applications where there is a need to make autonomous life and death decisions, such as casualty triaging at scene of a road traffic accident.

How to Apply 
Please contact Prof Rupert Shute if you are interested in applying for this project. 

For more information on submitting a PhD application, please consult our application pages here. When you submit your application, please cite this project title in the 'how you are planning to fund your PhD' section.   

The deadline for submitting your application is 09 January 2026.