3.5 year PhD scholarship (International/Home) on Programming languages for Design Computation

One view of programming languages research is as an open-ended exploration into the way people and computers can express and comprehend logic and reasoning in an executable form. The goal of this PhD project is to apply this research theme to another equally open-ended process of exploration, that of advanced physical architecture and building engineering via Design Computation.

Design Computation (DC) is an approach in architecture, engineering, and construction that leverages computation to generate building designs, manage the associated data, and evaluate decision decisions [1]. DC differs to CAD-based design modelling, where the designer uses interactive geometry applications to manually create the finished building design. With this form of direct modelling there are no opportunities to record the rationale for the design and any subsequent design exploration requires further arduous manual edits. In Design Computation however, programs are written to generate the designs themselves as their output, explicitly programming the logic and method of its realisation, and enabling design intent to be more easily captured. The modification and re-execution of the program allows the designer to efficiently explore a larger solution space of alternatives or other forms of optimisation.

At the heart of DC is programming, which must then be expressed in some programming language or languages. Both textual programming languages and visual programming languages are widely deployed in this space; some of these are general purpose and others are specialised, used only in these domains.

This PhD project responds to the challenge: how can the unique ways of collaborative thinking and reasoning, which characterise the multi-disciplinary design of physical architecture and building engineering, be supported by new forms of programming languages, programming systems, and programming tools?

The funding for this international scholarship is kindly provided with the support of Buro Happold who will act as an industrial partner throughout this PhD project. To help answer the particular challenges addressed in this PhD, the candidate will be supported by collaboration with the advanced industrial practice within the sponsoring organisation. This will provide both the opportunity to gain insight from engineers in industry, and to consider the route to impact and deployment.

This is an opportunity for some original language research; the potential exists for the ideas and methods developed in this specific domain to evolve into more general-purpose programming paradigms (following in the path of important historical precedents).

A recent position paper [2] by the primary supervisor, external partner, and industrial sponsor sets out a vision of problems faced in DC and possible areas for exploration, including to:

• Better support the pathway from visual programming to textual programming through bidirectional translations and explanations between the two forms, potentially leveraging LLMs to aid exploratory and translational activities;

• Develop flexible interactive programming patterns via bidirectional transformations between code and visual outputs (e.g., modifying a 3D design and having the code update correspondingly);

• Explore program verification techniques that give machine-checkable assurances about design-computation logic and constraints;

• Augment design-computational languages with domain-specific concepts in their type system, e.g., to better express domain meaning and enforce constraints statically. This could include, e.g., units-of-measure analysis, tolerances, precision, and error;

• Build collaborative programming support, suited to multi-representations across distributed, multidisciplinary architecture and engineering teams, embedding provenance and auditability;

• Develop approaches for codifying design, project, and institutional knowledge that integrates different, potentially hybrid, forms of computation, analysis, and reasoning (human and artificial intelligence), across different skill levels.

• Build upon existing open-source knowledge representation systems (e.g., the Buildings and Habitats object Model https://bhom.xyz/) to aid interoperation across a variety of stakeholders.

This is a non-exhaustive list and other related topics could also be considered.

[1] Aish, Robert & Bredella, Nathalie. (2017). The evolution of architectural computing: from Building Modelling to Design Computation. Architectural Research Quarterly. 21. 65-73. 10.1017/S1359135517000185. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320926142_The_evolution_of_architectural_computing_from_Building_Modelling_to_Design_Computation

[2] Aish, Robert, et al. “Programming languages for the future of design computation.” Proceedings of the 2024 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software. 2024. https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3689492.3689812

Fund criteria

Successful candidates will demonstrate academic excellence, outstanding research potential. Applicants should have, or expect to obtain, a first or upper second-class honours degree in a relevant subject, and ideally a Master’s degree or equivalent. The studentships are open to Home and Overseas (including EU) students.

Appropriate candidates should have:

• interest, knowledge, and experience in programming language design;
• a desire to work on inter-disciplinary projects;
• a strong mathematical background/training.

The University of Kent requires all non-native speakers of English to hold a minimum standard of proficiency in written and spoken English before beginning a postgraduate degree. For more information on English language requirements, please visit this page.

How to apply

When applying, students should follow the University of Kent’s online application process. As part of the process, students should include the following:

• make it clear the applicant wants to be considered for the PL4DC PhD studentship on the application;
• explain reasons for including a research proposal (of roughly 4-5 pages), setting forward a vision of what the PhD might look like (though students should not feel beholden to the proposal). The research proposal should articulate the candidate’s vision for the PhD, including concrete ideas, related literature, and how they plan to analyse and evaluate such ideas.
• provide details/evidence of qualifications;
• provide two academic references;
• provide other personal information and supporting documentation;
• Applicants may contact the supervisor, Dr. Dominic Orchard, before applying if they wish to discuss, particular around research proposal ideas.

Deadline

The deadline for this scholarship for a 2027 April start is Tuesday 22nd of December 2026 23:59 GMT.