Current research degree projects
Explore our current postgraduate research degree and PhD opportunities.
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243 research degree projects
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Engineering
Development of a high-power electrodeless nuclear propulsion system for a rapid in-space transportation system
Launch the next era of space exploration. This project develops a revolutionary over 500kW electrodeless dual-stage thruster for high-power Nuclear Electric Propulsion. By replacing eroding electrodes with electromagnetic acceleration, you will design a long-life, high-efficiency system capable of faster, more sustainable, and secure human missions to Mars and beyond. -
Engineering | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering | Biological sciences
Microbial governed Biocomputing for Robots with Autonomy and Intelligence (MicroBRAIN)
The project is about a novel sensing-computing platform that (a) employs living cells, and (b) is energetically autonomous. The main target outcome is the creation of a radically new kind of information processing technology that is not simply inspired by biochemical processes in living systems, but actually uses living microbial cells, growing as biofilms on electrodes inside novel bioelectrochemical systems. -
Electronics and Computer Science
Ultra-low-power digital ASIC design for next-generation implantable brain-computer interfaces
Implantable BCIs are limited by a strict power budget to prevent thermal tissue damage. Wireless data transmission consumes most power, especially as channel counts scale. This project focuses on designing ultra-low-power ASICs that perform on-chip neural processing, drastically reducing bandwidth needs while maintaining decoding accuracy. -
Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Modelling artificial cells
We have long exploited the remarkable abilities of single-celled organisms like bacteria to produce chemicals and degrade environmental pollutants. In this project, we'll use modelling to program artificial cells with desired features, providing new efficient routes to high-value chemicals and materials. -
Engineering
Full-field experimental characterisation of hyperelastic polymers in extreme environments
Push hyperelastic materials to their limits and measure their response to harsh environmental conditions. This project develops non-contact, full-field experiments (DIC and infra-red thermography) to capture deformation and heating during extreme strain-rates and temperatures, creating gold-standard datasets to calibrate advanced hyperelastic/viscoelastic models and enable more reliable engineering simulations. -
Engineering
Development of a dual-stage MHD-enhanced plasma wind tunnel for high-fidelity hypersonic environment simulation and defensive signature characterisation
This project develops a dual-stage, contamination-free plasma wind tunnel to replicate Mach 12+ hypersonic conditions. By integrating Inductively Coupled Plasma and MHD acceleration with a high-fidelity Digital Twin, the research will advance the UK’s hypersonic technologies, characterise re-entry emissions, and provide a sovereign test capability for hypersonic defence resilience. -
Engineering
Active metamaterials for lightweight defence structures with mission-critical adaptive mechanical properties
Imagine a programmable material that can behave like a soft polymer one moment and a stiff metal the next. This project explores adaptive and active metamaterials for defence, combining smart actuation, lightweight architectures, AI-guided design, manufacturing, and testing to create structures that sense, respond, and protect in real time. -
Electronics and Computer Science
Rapid host response testing to predict infection severity during defence and humanitarian deployment
This project aims to develop next generation point of care diagnostic technologies capable of rapidly measuring panels of host response biomarkers to predict infection severity and guide treatment decisions. -
Engineering
Sports acoustics: Impact sound in cricket, golf, baseball and tennis
This project examines how impact sounds in cricket, golf, and tennis reveal the physics and performance quality of each strike. Through acoustic analysis, physics based models, and machine learning, it aims to reveal the information hidden in these acoustic signals. -
Engineering
Aerodynamics of rough surfaces: transition and heating
High speed boundary layer transition to turbulence over rough surfaces with heat transfer is an outstanding problem in fluid mechanics, with important technological applications. On this project you'll use scale-resolving numerical simulation to understand the flow physics and develop new prediction methods.