I am recruiting PhD students and looking for motivated interns and visitors to join my group at Imperial College London. If you are excited about teaching machines to perceive, reason, and act in the world from visual data — with little to no supervision — I would love to hear from you.
A PhD in my group is training for a research career: research scientist roles at leading labs, academic positions toward eventually leading your own group, and the depth to turn ambitious ideas into startups. I see part of my job as helping to grow you as an independent researcher.
Before submitting a formal application, please complete my short preliminary form. This is the best way to reach me — it helps me read your background and proposal carefully, and I prioritize candidates who go through it.
I aim to review and reply to every form submission.
My research centers on world models, self-supervised visual learning, and embodied AI — learning representations and predictive models of the world that enable perception, planning, and control. I am especially interested in students who want to work on:
Admission is competitive, and strong grades alone are not enough. The candidates who thrive tend to show clear evidence of research interest and ability — for example publications, substantial personal or open-source projects, or a thoughtful research idea you can articulate well. Most of all I look for curiosity, persistence, and the ability to identify the limitations of existing methods and propose ways to address them.
Your application should highlight past experience around these areas, emphasizing publications in top-tier venues like CVPR, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICCV, ECCV, CoRL, and ICML.
Formal applications are made through Imperial's Department of Computing online system. When applying, please:
The formal requirement is a Master's degree (or equivalent) at a level corresponding to a UK distinction, along with Imperial's English language requirements. In practice, admitted students typically have outstanding academic records together with the evidence of research interest described above.
The Department of Computing offers two PhD intakes a year, in April and October. Applications can be made at any time, and are reviewed at four deadlines through the year:
Overseas candidates who need funding are advised to apply by the 15 December deadline to maximise their chances. Please confirm the current year's exact dates and intakes on the Department of Computing PhD page.
Offers are conditional on securing funding for tuition and living costs. A PhD typically runs four years, with tuition fees due for the first three. Imperial maintains separate scholarship pools for Home students (UK nationals and those with settled status) and Overseas students, and additional external scholarships may be available depending on your nationality and background. I'm happy to discuss funding routes that fit your situation.
Useful links:
Your proposal is not a binding plan — it's a way to show how you think. I'm looking for curiosity, creativity, and technical depth rather than a polished, final roadmap. A few suggestions:
Proposals connected to my research interests — world models, self-supervised learning, and embodied AI — are especially welcome.
The fastest way to reach me is the preliminary form above. For administrative questions about the application process, please contact the PhD administrator, Dr. Amani El-Kholy, at a.o.el-kholy@imperial.ac.uk.
General enquiries: amirb4r@gmail.com.