PhD Studentship: Scaling 3D Intelligence – AI for City-Scale Reconstruction and Generation University of East Anglia in United Kingdom

[Home tuition fees, annual tax-free maintenance stipend (£20,408 for 2026/27) for up to 3 years, and £2,000 per annum for research training activities.]

This PhD studentship at the University of East Anglia offers an exciting opportunity to advance the frontiers of 3D computer vision and generative AI, focusing on city-scale reconstruction and generation. The project is hosted by the Colour & Imaging Research Lab within the School of Computing Sciences, and is a collaborative initiative with the University of Tokyo, Japan. Supported by Royal Society funding, the research aims to develop novel algorithms and applications for representing, understanding, and generating urban-scale 3D content, ultimately enabling the creation of realistic, editable, and semantically rich digital twins of urban environments.

Key research objectives include developing robust 3D reconstruction pipelines for urban scenes using multi-view imagery, video, or sparse sensor data; investigating multimodal 3D generative models that integrate visual, linguistic, and spatial cues; and leveraging neural scene representations for digital twin applications, enabling interactive editing, simulation, and predictive modelling. The project combines fundamental research in 3D representations and generative models with applied innovation in urban modelling and digital technologies, targeting high-impact publications in venues such as SIGGRAPH, CVPR, and ICCV.

The successful candidate will join a vibrant research environment, collaborating with multi-national companies such as Apple, BT, the National Trust, and Aviva, as well as research institutes in the Norwich Research Park. The School of Computing Sciences is a member of the Turing University Network, fostering world-class research and skill development. The PhD programme includes a three-month research visit to the University of Tokyo and opportunities for industrial internships with companies like Adobe, Meta, and Epic Games, alongside partners in urban analytics.

Applicants should hold (or be close to completing) a bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, applied mathematics, or a closely related discipline. The minimum entry requirement is a 2:1 in Computer Science or a related subject area. The successful candidate will also contribute to laboratory support activities for BSc and MSc courses in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computing Sciences, and Cyber Security, within the permitted working hours for full-time postgraduate researchers.

Funding for this studentship includes ‘Home’ tuition fees, an annual tax-free maintenance stipend (£20,408 for 2026/27) for up to three years, and £2,000 per annum to support research training activities. The application deadline is 18 June 2026, and the programme starts on 1 October 2026. For informal enquiries, contact Dr Cheng Wang at [email protected]. Apply online via the University of East Anglia postgraduate research portal.