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Start Date:

Between 1 August 2027 and 1 July 2028

Application Deadline:

23.59 on 4 January 2027 (UK time)

Introduction: 

This PhD puts you at the forefront of structural power composites (SPCs) — — materials that simultaneously store energy and carry load. SPC promise a step-change weight savings for electric aircraft, EVs and satellites. Transitioning from device- to component-level fabrication in a trustworthy fashion would give industry the first credible route from lab-scale to flight- or drive-relevant components, and the chance to help unveil an Electric Composites future set to shape everybody's lives.

Within EleComp, a five-year EPSRC Programme Grant spanning º£½ÇÉçÇø, Bristol and Durham, your computational focus will be building physics-informed surrogate models and process simulations within a Bayesian-optimisation loop. This loop jointly searches design and process parameters, using active learning to get maximum insight from a minimum number of costly physical builds.

You'll trace the thread from manufacturing process to defects to performance — mechanical (stiffness, damage tolerance) and electrochemical (capacity, impedance, cycle life) — across routes from partners' established hand lay-up through to more adventurous AFP and continuous-fibre 3D printing. You'll iterate continuously against mechanical/electrical testing and characterisation data: data you generate, and data partners at Bristol and Durham share, to keep your models grounded in reality. You'll start on flat and near-flat coupons, where you can iterate fast. Then you'll push into genuinely uncharted territory: curved and ultimately cylindrical geometry. You'll ask the question nobody has yet answered — where do flat-trained models hold, where do they break, and how little curved data do you actually need to adapt them? You'll finish with a validated, geometry-transferable design-to-manufacture pipeline that's never existed before.

If you want a PhD at the genuine cutting edge of where machine learning, composites manufacturing and energy storage intersect, this is it. You'll be supervised by Dr Ajit Panesar and Prof. Emile Greenhalgh, working alongside the SPC and lab teams and, more widely, with leading academics (at Chalmers and KTH besides the core EleComp team) and industrial partners — helping to shape the Electric Composites future of tomorrow.

Supervisors: 

and

Duration:

3.5 years

Funding:

Full coverage of tuition fees and an annual tax-free stipend of £23,805 for Home, EU and International students. Find out more about fee status on our Fees and Funding webpages.

Eligibility: 

Due to the competitive nature of our studentships, candidates will be expected to achieve/have achieved a First class honours MEng/MSci or higher degree (or international equivalent) in: Engineering, Materials or Chemistry

How to apply

Submit your application via our Apply webpages - you will need to upload the following:

• CV
• personal statement
• transcripts
• contact details for two references

When applying, you will need to complete the following fields:

• Search course/Programme: Aeronautics Research (PhD)
• Research Group: Aero
• Research Topic: Please use reference code AE0093
• Research Supervisor:  Dr Ajit Panesar and Prof. Emile Greenhalgh
• Entry term: Autumn 2027/8 or Spring 2027/8 

You can find out more general guidance on how to apply on our Admissions webpages.

Applying to two projects

You can apply for a maximum of two PhD projects in any academic year – this includes PhD projects in other departments at Imperiaand the Doctoral Programme in Sustainable Aviation (DPSA) within our Brahmal Vasudevan Institute for Sustainable Aviation.

If you are submitting two applications for different PhD Studentships in the same academic year, you will need to select different entry terms – one application must be for the entry term Autumn 2027/8 and one application must be for the entry term Spring 2027/8. If you are successful in receiving an offer, we can amend the entry term of the relevant PhD Studentship.

References

You will need to provide the contact details of two referees – we will then contact them directly to request the references after you have submitted your application. Find out more about the importance of references and how to check the status of your references on our application references webpage.

It is your responsibility to ensure that your referees respond to any reference requests. To ensure we do not delay the admissions process for our applicants, any incomplete applications without references by 23.59 on 5 February 2027 (UK time) will be rejected. 

Contact

For more information about this specific PhD project, please contact: Dr Ajit Panesar

For questions about the application process, please first read our Frequently Asked Questions. If your question has not been answered, please email the PhD Administrator (Admissions)

Frequently Asked Questions

 You can find answers to common application questions on our Frequently Asked Questions webpage.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Imperiais committed to equality and valuing diversity. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident Employer and are working in partnership with GIRES to promote respect for trans people.