Engineering

Both Mid-IR and Raman molecular fingerprint spectroscopies have been shown to be powerful bio-diagnostic tools for specific biomarkers. Enhancing the sensitivity and improving the detection limit of current Mid-IR and Raman spectroscopic platforms are most important to exploit them for early diagnosis of disease biomarkers in point of care setting.

This project aims to fully characterise energy amplification methods in turbulent flows. You will do this using direct numerical simulations of wall-bounded turbulence coupled to optimisation techniques. Using newly developed dynamical systems theory methods, you'll get a fresh understanding of instability mechanisms in wall-bounded flows across scales. You'll also work towards a better understanding of the evolution of coherent structures.

Advance understanding on the control of sound scattering with the aim of developing devices for the control of acoustic scattering.

This project aims to develop active metamaterials and multi-functional composites for the next generation of aerospace structures and mechanical systems. Metamaterials are artificially engineered materials that have unique geometries and microstructures, giving rise to unprecedented effective physical properties. This project will focus on developing mechanical metamaterials computationally through active composite designs involving multi-material lattices along with additive manufacturing and testing.

This PhD project has the potential of significantly improving the fatigue design and maintenance of an aircraft. It is funded by Airbus Operations Ltd through an EPSRC Industrial CASE Award. Fatigue design and fatigue damage estimates are based on many factors such as design and performance assumptions, manufacturing, component material, stress cycle calculations and service conditions.

Studying mechanical properties of large, complex structures such as a space launch vehicles or Earth’s crust relies on a large array of sophisticated and often, expensive sensors. Due to budget constraints, the number of sensing nodes deployed in such projects are limited to a few hundred which limits the scale and scope of these studies.

Join our world-leading Signal processing, audio and hearing group research team.

This PhD project will study the development and use of state-of-the-art hollow core optical fibres for both telecom and datacom applications. The research will include work concerned with 5G back-haul and datacentres as well as long-haul transmission and will look to exploit the many distinctive and enabling characteristics of these new fibres

The aim of this project is to use computational modelling in combination with experimental data to improve our understanding of placental antibody transfer, in close collaboration between Engineering and Medicine.

A fully funded industrial studentship is available for research in the area of decentralised and distributed active noise and vibration control. Although active noise and vibration control is now a relatively mature technology, with commercial systems in headphones, cars and aircrafts, it is not straightforward to apply to large-scale applications with widely distributed control sources and error sensors.

Advances in lasers now allow the laser-based processing of almost any material. Innovation in this field is therefore becoming heavily focussed on making existing processing techniques more precise and efficient.

Our team specialises in the development and manufacturing of novel optoelectronic devices for applications in quantum technology, integrated optical sensors and laser optics.

Explore the impact of heavy axle weight (HAW) traffic on historic railway bridges. You will have the opportunity to provide a scientific basis for the determination of permitted axle loads and develop a HAW deterioration and residual capacity model.

We are currently looking for a motivated and passionate PhD student to join our maritime engineering research team at the University of Southampton. We are developing a collision avoidance model for autonomous surface ships operating in restricted waters.

This PhD project aims to develop a high-performance version of ALPS (ALl-printed Propulsion System to maintain attitude of VLEO (Very Low Earth Orbit).

Fibre lasers that are increasingly becoming the light source of choice for a wide range of industrial and scientific applications, have spurred the development of new types of rare-earth (i.e., Yb, Er, Tm, and Ho) doped fibres, each with a unique set of properties to match with the specific applications. Since the fibre design and material properties of the fibre core have become critical to the performance of the fibre laser, a more powerful fibre fabrication process is required than the current industry standard process, which is MCVD (Modified Chemical Vapour Deposition) - solution doping technique.

This PhD project aims to develop the reduced state-to-state (StS) model for high-fidelity hypersonic aerothermodynamic simulations using machine learning methods.

Electronic textiles, or e-textiles, refers to the addition of electronics, sensors, actuators, energy harvesters and energy storage within fabric materials. Textiles are the most common material humans come into physical contact with, so e-textiles provide a ubiquitous platform for a new class of wearable technology where the electronics are hidden and undetectable within otherwise standard items of clothing.

Electronic textiles, or e-textiles, refers to the addition of electronics, sensors, actuators, energy harvesters and energy storage within fabric materials. Textiles are the most common material humans come into physical contact with, so e-textiles provide a ubiquitous platform for a new class of wearable technology where the electronics are hidden and undetectable within otherwise standard items of clothing.

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD studentship (UK fees and International) to work on triboelectric energy harvesting within garments.  

This PhD offers you the opportunity to tackle the urgent real-world challenge of developing efficient deep water anchoring systems for offshore floating renewable energy infrastructure. You will also have the opportunity to work as part of a vibrant research group focussed on a range of offshore engineering challenges and engage with a range of industry partners.

This PhD project explores the electrical, thermal and economic modelling of a range of electrical energy storage types. For example, lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries, flow cells and fuel cells. We also investigate the potential to operate and manage direct parallel hybrids of combinations of these energy storage types.

The aim of this PhD project is to apply novel laboratory techniques to simulate environmental wind patterns and air pollution around buildings. Our researchers in the experimental fluid mechanics research laboratory use advanced diagnostics to understand the physics of turbulent flows.

Hollow core fibres (HCFs) are an exciting, novel optical fibre technology where light is guided in an air-filled core. We are a world-leading group, which designs, characterises and fabricates state-of-the-art HCFs in our specialist facilities. Recently we reported a new world record low loss for this type of optical fibre, making HCFs contenders for a diverse range of interesting applications, including telecommunications, high power laser delivery and novel medical diagnostics.

Join our Aerodynamics and flight mechanics research group and guide your career through a diverse set of novel, open-ended problems with multidisciplinary teams.

Generation of femtosecond and attosecond X-ray pulses using intense laser pulses has transformed ultrafast science. The ability to produce coherent ultrafast X-ray pulses has applications in many areas, from the investigation of ultrafast molecular dynamics to biomedical imaging.

Recent years have seen remarkable progress in the development of hollow core fibres (HCFs). Not only can HCFs transmit extreme laser power levels beyond the fundamental damage threshold of glass, but they can also achieve even lower propagation loss than traditional glass fibres, as demonstrated by researchers at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC). This progress has led to the demonstration of record kilowatt laser power transmission over a kilometre-range HCF, well beyond the capability of standard glass fibres.

You will investigate a route to high-power visible sources through cladding pumping of RE-doped silica fibres using GaN-LDs. You will be involved in the fabrication of RE (such as Pr3+, Dy3+ and Tb3+) - doped fibres in modified silica glass hosts offering low phonon energy while maintaining the other characteristics of silica fibres. Additionally, you will perform a detailed spectroscopic characterisation of the fabricated fibres and will be involved in the development of visible fibres. You will have access to the the state-of-the-art fibre fabrication facilities and laboratories at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) in the Zepler Institute.

Laser modes with a doughnut-shaped beam profile can have many unique properties, including axially-symmetric polarisation (azimuthal or radial) or orbital angular momentum. As a result, these beams have found use in a diverse range of applications from ‘laser tweezers’ to laser processing of materials. In spite of their attractive properties, generating these beams with the required purity and at high power levels is very challenging.

We are inviting applications for a PhD studentship in Human Factors within the Transportation Research Group as part of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) project.

Would you like to help the UK eliminate leakage-related water loss? We’re offering a 3.5-year fully funded PhD to investigate the dynamics of hydrants to enhance acoustic-based water leak detection.

In this project, you will develop methods for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to navigate precisely without external support for indefinite periods of time using sensor information and map matching techniques.

Consider the development of planar integrated photonic devices and systems for microwave/RF signal processing in the optical domain. Undertake this PhD on the combination of directional couplers, Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZI) and Bragg gratings for use in microwave photonic systems.

With this PhD you will have the rare opportunity to join two vibrant teams working at the cutting edge of design and design tool development: the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at the University of Southampton and, as part of a secondment of at least six months, an engineering team at AIRBUS, Filton.

This project will help you achieve a unique set of skills and expertise to become a world’s leading specialist in the lubrication of efficient technologies.

Two-micron fibre laser technology has the potential to yield a wealth of new applications in areas such as industrial laser processing, medicine, defence and optical communications. Moreover, significant power scaling advantages can be gained by moving from traditional ytterbium-doped fibre lasers operating in the one-micron band to the two-micron band. The main focus of this project will be to investigate novel approaches for scaling output power from thulium doped fibre lasers operating in the two-micron wavelength band in both continuous-wave and pulsed regimes.

An emerging research trend in cardiovascular sciences focuses on discovering useful diagnostic information from the dynamic analysis of concurrent physiological measurements, such as the electrocardiogram (ECG), continuous blood pressure, cerebral blood velocity, CO2 levels (capnography) etc. The aim of this PhD project is to develop new methods for the analysis of time series cardiovascular measurements. This will lead to faster and better targeted treatments for conditions such as stroke and head injury, resulting in improved brain protection and better outcomes for patients.

This PhD project provides a unique opportunity to work on aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of landing gears at the Airbus Noise Technology Centre (ANTC), part of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.

Moore’s Law is currently being challenged with Nvidia CEO recently claiming it is dead. The scaling of transistors cannot continue due to physical limitations of silicon. 2D semiconductors offer the solution as they can be scaled to the molecular level and create excellent devices such as transistors, light emitters, and photodetectors.

This project is tackling major technological roadblocks associated with silicon photonics and aims to demonstrate the monolithic integration of III/V lasers with CMOS photonic waveguiding components. This breakthrough will enable the development of innovative photonic circuits to serve the requirements of a wide range of low cost optical interconnects and sensing technologies.  

This project will explore the unique capability of hollow core fibres (HFC) for kilowatt-class laser power transmission over kilometre-range distances, as recently demonstrated at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) [1]. The project will be mainly experimental but will also include some numerical modelling to support the work. The project work will take place across several research groups, covering state-of-the-art high-power laser facilities and world-leading hollow-core fibre fabrication, allowing the candidate to collaborate with experienced researchers in both fields to achieve the project objectives.

The project aims to develop and investigate learning-based and optimisation-based control strategies (for example, model predictive control, AI, adaptive dynamic programming) and their applications to the marine operations.

This PhD project explores machine learning techniques for affective computing that automates the process of recognising, interpreting and simulating human affects such as facial emotion generation. The current affective computing domain suffers from remarkable expenses and ambiguities on manual annotations.

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD position on machine learning (ML) applied to problems in hydraulics and fluid mechanics. The successful applicant will join a world-leading research team and environment at the University of Southampton, a Russell Group member ranked as one of the world’s top 100 universities. Of particular importance for this project is the access to Iridis 5, the University of Southampton’s recently upgraded supercomputer, considered one of the most powerful in the UK.

Modern society depends massively on the generation, processing and transmission of vast amounts of data. It is predicted that by 2025, 175 zettabytes (175 trillion gigabytes) of data will be generated around the globe. Processing such huge amounts of data demands ever increasing computational power, memory and communication bandwidth. These demands cannot be sustainably met by conventional digital electronic technologies. Indeed, CMOS-based von Neumann architectures are now approaching a widely accepted ‘efficiency-wall’, a fundamental limit on the number of operations per unit energy, while the number of operations required continues to grow at unprecedented rates.

Soil is one of the most complex and important self-assembling organo-mineral composites in the world. All human food supply, ecosystem and infrastructure services depend on soil. Movements of water into, within and out of soil are especially important.

The goal of this project is to create devices for the quantum internet. We are seeking excellent PhD candidates to use state-of-the-art fabrication facilities to develop core components for interfacing quantum computers and quantum networks.

The International Maritime Organisation aims to decarbonise the shipping industry, with ambitious targets of 40% reduction in CO2 emission by 2030 (based on 2008 levels), moving to a 70% reduction by 2050. To achieve these ambitions requires energy savings across all areas of the sector and a move towards non-carbon-based energy. Moving towards a cleaner ‘hydrogen economy’ offers great promise, although it is not without its challenges.

Acute hypoxic respiratory failure is a significant problem in the intensive care unit setting. Supplemental oxygen is essential for treatment of acute hypoxic respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), were impaired gas exchange results in severe hypoxaemia. While oxygen is a ubiquitous adjunct to mechanical ventilation, it is not without harm, and recent studies suggest adverse outcomes with overzealous use of oxygen.

This project relates to the development and applications of novel nonlinear waveguides. This is an opportunity to carry out a PhD at the Communications Systems Lab of the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC). The group has been at the forefront of optical fibre communications since the very earliest days of the field providing several critical contributions.

This research project aims to develop high-power nonlinear optical waveguides as sources of photons for use in quantum imaging, quantum secured Telecomms, and quantum computing. We specialise in the development and manufacturing of novel optoelectronic devices for applications in quantum technology, integrated optical sensors and laser optics.

Fibre optics has transformed telecommunications and profoundly impacted industrial manufacturing, medical endoscopy and structural sensing. In many applications however, solid fibres are operating close to fundamental physical limits imposed by the glass forming their core. A transformative new technology is emerging where light is guided in air or vacuum, in a Hollow Core Fibre (HCF). HCFs have the potential to become the best optical waveguide ever produced and to bring positive impacts in many application fields.

Hollow-core optical fibres (HCFs) offer a radically new solution for laser delivery as they guide light in a gas-filled core, as opposed to glass in conventional optical fibres. HCF-based mid-infrared laser delivery systems could open exciting possibilities for diverse and valuable applications, including surgical treatment, gas sensing, and materials processing.

We are working in collaboration with a large EU consortium to create a reprogrammable neuromorphic photonic platform for a variety of applications from telecommunications to biosensing. We use the latest generation of phase change materials to create highly efficient in-memory photonic functionality with novel materials that allow the upscaling of the technology.

Although our oceans contain 99% of the living space on the planet, less than 10% of this space has been explored. Ocean monitoring is essential to human survival - from understanding the long-term impacts of climate change to ensuring ocean resources are developed sustainably.

Would you like to help the UK eliminate leakage-related water loss? Explore the use of optical fibre sensing for the acoustic detection of leaks in a 3.5 year, fully-funded PhD.

At the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), we are leading the world in developing a new generation of optical fibres that promise a revolution in applications ranging from optical communications to ultraprecise optical sensors. Our hollow-core optical fibres harness some truly intriguing physics to guide light in an air-filled core region over tens of kilometres distance and are now rivalling and outperforming standard optical fibres in many aspects. However, their transformative potential in many areas remain largely unexplored.

Using additive manufacturing to produce magnesium (Mg) alloys can result in a significantly refined grain size. However, samples produced this way do not have the hardness, strength or ductility of samples produced by traditional extruding, forging or even casting processing.  This project aims to improve the mechanical properties of additive manufactured magnesium alloys by using 3 post-processing techniques: selective laser melting (SLM) additive friction stir deposition (AFSD) friction surfacing additive manufacturing (FSAM)  The resulting improvements are expected to lead to more industrial applications of light Mg alloys where lightweight, tough and corrosion-resistant components are needed. This should in turn lead to more efficient use of fuel and fewer carbon emissions.  Mg alloys produced by additive manufacturing can also be used as biomaterials with complex geometries – in medical implants, for instance. Additive manufacturing of these would be quicker and less expensive than conventional manufacturing, which involves multiple steps.

This project will investigate a new approach for generating very high output power from fibre lasers in the visible and ultraviolet wavelength regime with the ambition of demonstrating levels of performance in terms of power, efficiency and wavelength flexibility that go well beyond the capabilities of the current state-of-the-art. The work is motivated mainly by the growing demands of laser-based manufacturing, and particularly additive manufacturing (3D printing), for high power laser sources in the visible band due to significantly greater absorption in important metals, such as copper.

Investigate the response of the UK fishing fleet to systemic shocks. In this project, you will seek to quantify the influence of Brexit, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine on fishing activity, jobs and profits and fish populations.

Undertake a PhD on distributed Raman amplification, a topic at the intersection between optical telecommunications, optical amplification, and optical nonlinearity. Develop techniques for high accuracy link power profile symmetrisation using multi-pump, high order distributed Raman amplification.

In this project, you'll investigate how hybrid stainless steel/carbon steel joints can improve structural performance and resilience under extreme loading conditions.

Would you like to help the UK eliminate leakage-related water loss? We’re offering a 3.5-year fully funded PhD, developing contact underground sound guides to overcome the limitations of closely spaced access points.

Semiconductor photonics is fast becoming one of the most active areas of research, offering optoelectronic solutions for a wide range of applications not only in telecoms, but also in medicine, imaging, spectroscopy, and sensing. Within this field, a subdivision that is gaining increased momentum is semiconductor nonlinear photonics as the materials display a number of important nonlinear effects that can be used to generate and process signals at ultrafast speeds.

Photonic integration is becoming a key solution for next-generation information technologies. Compared with the existing technologies in the near-infrared wavelength band, UV/blue light integration is emerging as an attractive subdivision in integrated photonics. With the advantages of a smaller footprint and a larger bandwidth, UV/blue integrated systems hold the promise in vast applications. This includes, but is not limit to, visible light communications, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) systems, inter-satellite communications, light detection and ranging (Lidar), high-density data storage, quantum photonic chips, chemical/biological photonic chips, and non-Von Neumann photonics.

Our aim is to develop the next generation of integrated photonics materials that will offer low optical losses over various wavelength windows spanning from the ultraviolet (UV ~400nm) to the visible (VIS~900nm) regime. These materials will enable the realisation of photonic integrated circuits that will underpin emerging industrial applications in quantum photonics, metrology, spectroscopy, sensing, healthcare, and display technologies.

We are looking for a PhD student to work on the design and numerical simulation of the next generation of high-power fibre lasers. This project is part of a major new initiative funded by the UK Research Council at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton.

Ultra-precision machining of photonic components has revolutionised the production of optics, such as freeform lenses and mirrors. Modern ultra-precision stages and diamond tools allow bulk optics to be formed with nanometre surface roughness and tolerances.

Here in the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), at the University of Southampton, radically different, new generation optical fibres are being designed and manufactured. The unique properties of these hollow core optical fibres mean they surpass the traditional glass core fibres used today in virtually every aspect. However, their performance can be further improved or tailored to a specific application via their design. The core of the project lies in research work with such tailored hollow core fibres.

To help reduce the carbon emission of shipping, Silverstream Technologies have developed an air lubrication system shown to reduce fuel consumption by 5-8%. The system releases a carpet of bubbles along a ship’s hull, providing a separation between the hull and the water, reducing the frictional drag. The quality of the carpet determines the potential fuel savings.

Galaxies in the local Universe appear with a variety of morphologies from discs to massive spheroids (ellipticals). The origin of bulged galaxies is still a matter of debate, but even more intriguing is the question “why do some galaxies stop forming stars”?. This project aims at probing the formation and evolution of bulged galaxies and then to move on dissecting the origin of the halting of star formation in galaxies. A variety of models have been put forward in the literature to explain the origin of galaxies “quenching”, from the mass of the host dark matter halo, the mass of the central bulge, the structure of the galaxy, and last but not least the effect of the feedback from a central supermassive black hole.

Would you like to help the UK eliminate leakage-related water loss? We’re offering a 3.5-year fully funded PhD position to support water network prognostics through monitoring pipeline leak progression.

Hollow-core optical fibres guide light in a central hole inside a silica microstructure. These newly developed fibres exceed traditional solid fibres used in the past 40 years in every metric: lower attenuation, nonlinearity, latency, and better high-power laser transmission. However, the central hole where light is transmitted is typically filled with air and for several applications even air limits the fibre performance.

Two dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are emerging as revolutionary components in nanophotonics. Recently, defects and strains in these vdW materials have attracted considerable interest as they can be engineered to realise quantum light emission, such as single-photon emitters, a crucial element for the development of quantum information technologies.

Fibre lasers have seen a rapid development in output power and performance over the past three decades and have revolutionised the application space for photonics. However the development of fibre lasers with wavelength-flexible single-frequency sources is lagging other areas of fibre lasers research.

Wearable technologies are revolutionising our daily lives, integrating everyday objects into our clothes, accessories and even our bodies. How can we power these without using rigid batteries that require overnight charging?  Using our body’s heat, thermoelectric generators can provide uninterrupted renewable energy for wearable devices.

Porous materials perform a range of functions including lightweight load bearing, impact protection, energy absorption and thermal or acoustic insulation. They have a range of applications such as aerospace and transport structures, protective panelling, cargo packaging, and insulation.

The aim of this studentship is to interweave the multi-disciplinary strands of X-ray physics, ptychographic image analysis and neuroscience to observe neuronal structures at resolutions of 50nm and below. This will allow us to study fundamental functions and uncover pathological mechanisms and early morphological changes, including those that can cause neurodegenerative diseases.  

A new area of imaging has opened up, using coherent light to illuminate objects, and computer algorithms to analyse the scattered light and generate images. Developments in ultrafast lasers have made sources of coherent soft X-rays possible in the lab, rather than relying on large-scale installations like synchrotrons. The combination of these two techniques has been successful in producing a new generation of X-ray microscopes, and at Southampton we have been at the forefront of this development. In particular, we have chosen areas of biology where imaging below the 100nm length scale can provide new information about processes occurring within cells.