PhD Studentship: Interactive Semi-automatic Generation And Assessment Of Design Alternatives In Engineering

The passenger aircraft industry is heading into an era of rapid innovation, with environmental impact constraints demanding massive technological departures from the status quo. Working with engineers from AIRBUS, as a holder of this fully funded PhD studentship, you will help develop new computational tools required to accomplish this leap towards decarbonising aviation.

The current generation of design tools was conceived to facilitate incremental improvements on systems with a largely frozen layout. Your PhD will focus on using the latest geometry modelling/machine learning/AI techniques to develop approaches that automate the exploration of large design spaces, thus enabling radical, new solutions. This will be especially important in application areas where there is limited legacy design knowledge to rely on to steer optimisation processes, such as liquid Hydrogen (LH2) fuel systems and electric propulsion systems.

The underlying research questions have multiple facets and you will thus have some flexibility, working with your supervisors, in choosing a line of enquiry that best suits your interests, spanning geometry modelling, numerical optimization, AI algorithms, physics-based form finding techniques, and designer/computer interface development. We are thus open to considering applicants from a variety of backgrounds, but we expect you to be a strong coder and to have some experience in geometry modelling. We also expect you to be a good communicator and have an excellent command of the English language, with a proven ability to write high quality technical reports. An engineering background and experience in CAD and visual programming are advantages.

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. Your supervisory team will also include researchers from both the University and AIRBUS.

If you’d like an informal chat about this opportunity, please feel free to contact Professor András Sóbester (a.sobester@soton.ac.uk). 

Entry Requirements

A very good undergraduate degree (at least a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent).

Closing date: applications should be received no later than 31 August 2023 for standard admissions, but later applications may be considered depending on the funds remaining in place. Applications will be considered in the order they are received and the position may be considered filled at any time if an excellent applicant is found, so do not delay applying!

Funding: For UK students, Tuition Fees and a stipend of £17,668 tax-free per annum for up to 3.5 years.

Applications should include:

Research Proposal

Curriculum Vitae

Two reference letters

Degree Transcripts/Certificates to date

For further information please contact: feps-pgr-apply@soton.ac.uk

Advert information