PhD Science, Engineering and Computing

Research students are a key and valued part of the activities of the Faculty: they help to build a strong research reputation, are vital members of the Research Centres of Excellence, assist in some of the labs, and occasionally help with teaching undergraduate students.

As a research student, you will be part of an ambitious Faculty that offers fantastic opportunities for inter-disciplinary research and experience, a great research student community, world-class facilities, and the opportunity to develop contacts with external organisations in close collaboration with the Faculty. You will also be able to take part in a broad programme of research training, present your work at conferences and poster days, and attend workshops, seminar series, lectures from external speakers, and other activities organised by the Faculty and the Research Centres.

All research degrees are programmes of independent study at the end of which you are expected to produce a dissertation or thesis and to defend this at a viva voce (oral) examination. The exact nature of this research will vary with the subject studied. Some may involve extensive fieldwork or laboratory testing, whilst others may be more theory-based.

The research areas covered by the Faculty include environmental change, geological and crustal processes, fire and explosion studies, computer vision and machine learning, molecular electronics and photonics, construction materials and sustainable technology, mobile information and network technologies, biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences research.