Available Projects

Micro-organisms such as C. elegans (sub-millimetre worms) or drosophila (fruit fly) are interesting model organisms to biologists working on understanding conditions that affect humans (such as Parkinsons disease) and how drugs can be developed to treat such conditions. Such organisms are usually observed on a dish and their behaviour noted after the DNA is manipulated or they are influenced by drugs. This behaviour is used to learn about condition/ treatment.

C. elegans, a sub-millimetre nematode (worm), is a so-called model organism, that is used by biologists for a variety of use-cases - chief amongst them is to observe their behaviour changes under genetic modification and/or the effects of drugs. Changes in behaviour are used to assess the expected effects of drug(s) and/ or genetic modification(s) - and are usually manually observed and calculated. Automating this process is hugely beneficial to the community.

Our work lies at the interface between systems modelling, control and biotechnology with applications in sustainable chemicals manufacture and pharmaceutical production. Our goal is to understanding the biosynthetic constraints of cell based production systems and then use tools from systems and control to overcome these bottlenecks. Projects in the group can range from completely modelling based to completely experimental and everything in between. We urge interested candidates to get in touch!

In the current model of care, where people are living healthier and for longer, care is taken out of the clinics and into the home. There is a need for monitoring either healthy (or healthy but "vulnerable") people, or those managing one or more conditions, in the home and unobtrusively - this project concerns the development of algorithms to do just that.

The electroecephalogram (EEG) is a recording of the electrical activity of the brain. It is usually recorded from multiple recording sites over the scalp - from a few channels to, sometimes, hundred of channels of recordings. Recording robust EEG in the home (away from the clinic) presents unique challenges - this project attempts top address these through robust data analysis techniques.

Blind source separation (BSS) is a mathematical technique that allows one to "unmix" a set of mixed signals in such a way that makes minimal (yet powerful) assumptions and yet results in outputs where the unmixed signals represent signals of interest which are (usually) buried deep in noisy signals. Brain signals are no different - successfully de-noising brain electric signals is an ongoing challenge in research.

Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are - to varying levels - resistant to examination, most certainly in the clinic but equally in the home. Getting a glimpse into the mind of children with ASD would be most useful for clinicians charge with their treatment. This project concerns the development of handheld toy, to be used to engage with, and extract data from, children with ASD in the home.

This project will investigate methods to support dual functions - communications and sensing - using the same spectrum, and therefore offering improved efficiency and new services.

This is a unique opportunity to join a cutting-edge PhD project in collaboration with leading energy materials researchers and industry partners. Ion-exchange membranes are key to electrochemical devices, yet balancing performance and stability remains a challenge. This project will develop humidity-controlled terahertz spectroscopy to probe water properties within membranes, advancing material insights to optimise trade-offs for next-generation energy technologies.