PhD Scholarship in Applied Informatics/Applied Computer Science: Transformation of medical data for fuzzy data mining

Dear prospective PhD student. We are looking for a PhD student who wishes to apply for our PhD position in Applied Informatics/Applied Computer Science with the possibility of funding.

PhD Project Title: Transformation of medical data for fuzzy data mining.

Tutor: Assoc. Prof. doc. Ing. Jan Bohacik, PhD.

Place of Studies: Department of Informatics, Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, University of Zilina, Zilina, Slovakia.

The University of Zilina is a public university in Zilina, Slovakia established in 1953. It has 231 accredited fields of study in all forms and degrees of university studies. In the field of science and research, University of Zilina participates in 200 national and 41 international scientific projects and organizes about 60 scientific and professional events annually. The University has signed bilateral cooperation agreements with more than 150 foreign partners and it belongs to the most successful universities within the Erasmus Programme, both in the number of seconded staff and students. Students study in modern and well-equipped classrooms and laboratories centralized on the complex and modern university campus at Velky Diel, located in quiet surroundings nearby a forest park but at a reasonable walking distance from the accommodation facilities as well as the historical center of Zilina. University of Zilina has a burning ambition to continue in dynamic growth, to provide high quality education, to educate well-prepared and demanded graduates, and to develop international cooperation both in science and education.

Compulsory Study Units:
Mathematical Principles of Applied Informatics
Theory and Methodology of Applied Informatics
Subject of Specialization

Problem Area Description:
Uncertainties existing in almost every stage of a clinical decision making process require a framework that can handle them by allowing variable and multiple memberships and facilitating approximate reasoning. This has made fuzzy logic a valuable tool for depicting medical concepts and preserving their imprecision without inserting distortions. The inclusion of the notions of fuzzy logic in processing data through data mining leads to the concept of fuzzy data mining.
The goal of the project is to design new or improved methods for the transformation of specified medical data into a form suitable for fuzzy data mining algorithms and to implement a related software tool. During the development of the methods, it will be important to test the accuracy of transformed data while it is used in the process of knowledge discovery in data.
The designed solutions will be validated on available medical data such as data about patients with heart disease.

Expected Scientific Contributions:
Development of new methods and algorithms for capturing and considering uncertainties in clinical decision making. More accurate decision-making support and a better interpretation of knowledge discovered in medical data will potentially be achieved.

Recommended Methods:
Analysis of available literature, use of known algorithms transforming medical data for fuzzy data mining methods, development of new or improved algorithms for medical data from a defined domain, testing of transformed data.

Type of Research: Applied research and experimental development.

Related Results Achieved at the Place of Studies Till Now:
The development of a software tool containing algorithms for working with medical data and their use in decision support has been elaborated [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. It is possible to use categorical and numerical data and their transformation for systems based on the notions of fuzzy logic.
[1] J. Bohacik, D. N. Davis, “Fuzzy rule-based system applied to risk estimation of cardiovascular patients,“ Journal of Multiple-Valued Logic and Soft Computing, vol. 20, no. 5-6, 2013, pp. 445-466.
[2] J. Bohacik, C. Kambhampati, D. N. Davis, J. G. F. Cleland, “Use of cumulative information estimations for risk assessment of heart failure patients,“ in IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, IEEE, 2014, China, pp. 1402-1407.
[3] J. Bohacik, K. Matiasko, M. Benedikovic, “Linguistic variable elimination for a heart failure dataset,“ in IEEE International Conference on Cybernetics, IEEE, 2015, Poland, pp. 196-200.
[4] J. Bohacik, M. Zabovsky, “Naive Bayes for Statlog heart database with consideration of data specifics,“ in IEEE 14th International Scientific Conference on Informatics, IEEE, 2017, Slovakia, pp. 35-39.
[5] J. Bohacik, M. Zabovsky, Fuzzy Rule Miner: A software library used in project based teaching of topics related to knowledge discovery in databases“, in IEEE 16th International Conference on Emerging eLearning Technologies and Applications, IEEE, Slovakia, 2018, pp. 75-80.

Application Deadline: 31 May 2019.

Application Fee: 20 EUR (both electronic and traditional).

Entrance Exam: 24 June 2019, 25 June 2019.

Beginning of Studies: 01 September 2019.

Standard Duration of Studies: 3 years for full-time students and 4 years for part-time students.

Study Program: Applied Informatics/Applied Computer Science.

Eligible Countries: Citizens of all nationalities are eligible to apply.

Scholarship Award: Full-time students with permanent stay in any European Union country studying in Slovak or English receive a stipend of 8100 EUR per annum before the Draft of PhD thesis is successfully submitted (at about the end of the first year) and 9438 EUR per annum after it until the end of the standard duration. Full-time students without a permanent stay in any European Union country do not have right to get a stipend but the faculty can decide to give it (it can be a different amount to 8100 EUR/9438 EUR). There are no tuition fees for full-time students studying in Slovak. Part-time students studying in Slovak pay a tuition fee of 2000 EUR per annum. A tuition fee of 3500 EUR is paid by both full-time and part-time students studying in English, but a waiver of this tuition fee might be possible for full-time students by the rector of the university if the tutor recommends it. The stipend is not taxed in Slovakia and it is not subject to any other deductions. Please discuss your specific situation with the faculty so that your options are confirmed exactly.

Email Contact:
Jan.Bohacik(at)fri.uniza.sk [change (at) for @].

Phone: +421-41-513 4187.

Electronic Application Form:
https://vzdelavanie.uniza.sk/prijimacky

Terms & Conditions of the Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, University of Zilina:
https://www.fri.uniza.sk/uploads/files/1554384222-TermsAndConditionsPhD-2019.pdf

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TERMS & CONDITIONS MAY DEPEND ON YOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS, PERMANENT RESIDENCE AND NATIONALITY. THEREFORE, IT IS RECOMMENDED TO CONTACT US SO THAT THE TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR YOUR SPECIFIC SITUATION COULD BE CONFIRMED.