PhD Positions in Advanced Virtual Prototyping at the University of Manchester

I am currently recruiting new PhD students to join my research group at The School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester. The core focus of the group is advanced computing for engineering simulation. My research interests centre on extreme scale parallel computing, cloud computing and virtual reality simulation platforms, applied to scientific and engineering problems involving complex processes. The PhD projects I supervise involve adapting the open source software ParaFEM to solve challenging research problems of interest to the PhD student and sponsor (where applicable).  Recent projects include:

• Novel design of components for fusion reactors
• Structural integrity assessment of nuclear reactor cores
• Simulation of surgical procedures
• Fluid-structure interaction for wind energy
• Multiscale modelling using cellular automata
• The study of dinosaurs  

The University will offer full studentships to outstanding home/EU PhD applicants in high impact research areas. Competition is high, so in practice, this really means holders of a first class degree and/or MSc with Distinction.  The University's priority areas include Advanced Materials, Energy, Cancer, Industrial Biotechnology and Addressing Global Inequality, so a PhD proposal in one of these areas will rank highly for the studentship. The closing date to apply is Friday 12th February 2016. Please send a CV, short research proposal and covering letter to lee.margetts@manchester.ac.uk. I am happy to receive enquiries before the deadline. Details of Award Award holders will be supported for 3 years by:

• A full RCUK stipend of approximately £14k per year.
• Home/EU fees of £4k per year for registration in September 2016.
• The stipend may be topped up with industrial sponsorship.

 Funding is available for students for September 2016 registration ONLY.