Self-funded PhD project ideas

The projects listed below are interdisciplinary. Candidates are invited to discuss the project they are interested in with the proposed First Supervisor.

Aerospace and Aircraft Engineering

Title: Modelling of buoyancy control for new generation aircraft
First Supervisor: Professor Andy Augousti

Title: Design Optimisation of Innovative Lightweight Stiffened Thin-walled Lower Helicopter Fuselage Panel with Discrete Source Damage Subjected to Combined In-plane Compression and Shear Loads
First Supervisor: Dr Odeh Dababneh

Title: Fabrication, testing and lifetime prediction of bio-based biodegradable composites for aircraft interior panels 
First Supervisor: Dr Doni J. Daniel

Title: Performance Evaluation and Failure Analysis of Preventive Corrosion/Erosion Coatings Used in Power Plant and Refinery
First Supervisor: Dr Doni J. Daniel

Title: Modelling and simulation of degradation of ultra high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) under hypersonic flow
First Supervisor: Dr Doni J. Daniel

Title: Thermal Protection System For Rocket Nozzle
First Supervisor: Dr Doni J. Daniel

Title: Multi-fidelity Optimisation of the eVTOL Wing for the Air-taxi concept
First Supervisor: Dr Yujing Lin

Title: Design and performance optimisation of Proton exchange membrane fuel cell for aviation application
First Supervisor: Dr Yujing Lin

Title: Aerodynamic and aeroelastic design and analysis of a bat-inspired morphing wing for micro air vehicles (MAVs)
First Supervisor: Dr Yujing Lin

Title: Computational investigation of aerodynamic characteristics of a morphing wing configuration
First Supervisor: Dr Yujing Lin

Title: Design and performance optimisation of Proton exchange membrane fuel cell for aviation application
First Supervisor: Dr Yujing Lin

Title: Aerothermal investigation on the effect of in-service burnout on the leakage flows over high-pressure turbine blade tip
First Supervisor: Dr Zainab Saleh

Title: Demonstration and optimisation of a Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) plasmoid for injection into a High-Energy Density Electromechanical Thruster based on Stabilized Liner Compression for a UK Fusion Rocket propulsion program
First Supervisor: Dr Peter Shaw

Title: The use of deep learning and machine learning for the optimisation of space propulsion technologies
First Supervisor: Dr Peter Shaw

Title: Thermal effects and anti-icing efficiency of an icing protection system for large wind turbines
First Supervisor: Professor Jian Wang

Civil Engineering and Construction

Title: Development of framework to promote model-drive practice that would enhance "collaborative costing" approach across value chain in construction
First Supervisor: Dr Sa'id Ahmed

Title: Integrated design approaches of thermo-active building envelope for near zero carbon buildings and environmental sustainability
First Supervisor: Dr Jie Deng

Title: Mapping solar PV potential for existing building stocks in the UK by deep learning of satellite and aerial images data
First Supervisor: Dr Jie Deng

Title: Improving the behaviour of plate girders via modification with additional FRP layers
First Supervisor: Dr Ted Donchev

Title: Hydrological controls on the Vaiont landslide
First Supervisor: Dr Alan Dykes

Title: Climate change influences on landsliding in the British Isles
First Supervisor: Maia Ibsen

Title: Investigation of the behaviour of high strength concrete (HCS) at elevated temperature
First Supervisor: Dr Hsein Kew

Title: Low Carbon Concrete Modular Pavement Design
First Supervisor: Dr Hsein Kew

Title: Optimising reinforced concrete elements containing recycled aggregate of equal compressive strength to conventional concrete
First Supervisor: Dr Hsein Kew

Title: CNT/cement nanocomposite materials for structural applications for buildings
First Supervisor: Professor Mukesh Limbachiya

Title: Assessing and improving the productivity of construction labour through resilient interventions against stagnation (in respect of the evolving perspectives of the impacts of pandemics like the coronavirus)
First Supervisor: Dr Paul Missa

Title: Developing a framework for optimising concrete demolition waste using circular economy principles
First Supervisor: Dr Bukunmi Ogunsanya

Title: Behaviour of under-reamed piles in sand under lateral and vertical loading
First Supervisor: Dr Joshua Omer

Title: Effects of installation methods and polymer support fluids on the lateral load capacity of piled foundations in low to medium permeability soils
First Supervisor: Dr Joshua Omer

Title: A Reliability based Design Method for Offshore Wind Turbine Tower Foundations
First Supervisor: Dr Joshua Omer

Title: Effects of installation and use of polymer support fluids on the load capacity of piles formed in low to medium permeability soils
First supervisor: Dr Joshua Omer

Title: Behaviour of FRP reinforced columns
First Supervisor: Dr Diana Petkova

Title: Composite timber/FRP elements
First Supervisor: Dr Diana Petkova

Title: Building sustainability and occupant wellbeing: data-driven design optimisation
First Supervisor: Dr Yanyi Sun

Computing and Information Systems

Title: Automated protein structure annotation with advanced language models
First Supervisor: Dr Jab Abbass

Title: Revolutionising connectivity of medical wearable devices: harnessing deep learning to enhance network performance and sustainability
First Supervisor:
 Dr Neda Ahmadi

Title: AI-Enhanced Iris Recognition: Transforming Biometric Security for a Safer World
First Supervisor: Dr Neda Ahmadi

Title: Advanced behaviour and face analytics in XR
First Supervisor: Professor Vasileios Argyriou

Title: Cybersecurity Risk Assessment and Mitigation in Artificial Intelligence Life Cycle
First Supervisor: Dr Razi Arshad

Title: Post-quantum cryptographic systems for securing communication in IoT systems
First Supervisor: Dr Razi Arshad

Title: Computer vision techniques, including deep learning, applied to recognition of clinical abnormalities on retinal fundus images in large datasets
First Supervisor: Professor Sarah Barman

Title: Studies in acoustic interactions with liquid drops
First Supervisor: Mr Michal Bosy

Title: Machine learning and domain decomposition methods for fluid dynamics
First Supervisor: Mr Michal Bosy

Title: Security and privacy of energy-constraint Internet of Things communication using distributed AI
First Supervisor: Dr Deepak GC

Title: UAV-assisted Distributed Blockchain Technology to Secure the IoTs from DDos
First Supervisor: Dr Deepak GC

Title: Intelligent, Energy Efficient and Secure Tactile Communication using Federated Learning in 6G Network
First Supervisor: Dr Deepak GC

Title: Building full body illusion in immersive virtual reality with physically based avatars
First Supervisor: Dr Jarek Francik

Title: Machine learning-based cyber security in IoT appliances
First Supervisor: Dr Jay Kiruthika

Title: Sentiment Analysis in VoIP messages using machine learning
First Supervisor: Dr Jay Kiruthika

Title: Multi-Instance Communication/Interaction in virtual reality
First Supervisor: Dr Jay Kiruthika

Title: Utilising NLP integrated with microservices architecture to analyse longitudinal medical records to reconstruct comprehensive patient journeys
First Supervisor: Dr Pushpa Kumarapeli

Title: From Walls to Worlds: Exploring Individual and Collaborative Virtual Sketching for Neurodivergent Creators
First Supervisor: Makayla Lewis

Title: AI-Driven Cloud Security: Advancing Sustainable and Zero Trust Frameworks through Automation
First Supervisor: Dr Xing Liang

Title: Automatic Deepfakes Detection
First Supervisor: Dr Xing Liang

Title: Simulation-based Quantum Machine Learning for Advancing AI
First Supervisor: Dr Xing Liang

Title: Medical Image Analysis using Artificial Intelligence
First Supervisor:
Professor Dimitrios Makris

Title: Neuromorphic Computer Vision: Sensing and Neuromorphic Machine Learning for Vision Applications
First Supervisor:
Professor Dimitrios Makris

Title: Human Motion Analysis using Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence
First Supervisor:
Professor Dimitrios Makris

Title: Quality assessment for light-field imaging 
First Supervisor: Professor Maria Martini

Title: Machine learning for video quality evaluation 
First Supervisor: Professor Maria Martini

Title: Frame synchronization and access control in machine to machine communications 
First Supervisor: Professor Maria Martini

Title: Quality assessment and modelling for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming via HTTP (DASH) 
First Supervisor: Professor Maria Martini

Title: Neuromorphic sensing and computing 
First Supervisor: Professor Maria Martini

Title: Building trust with avatars in virtual reality
First Supervisor: Dr Gregory Mills

Title: Asynchronous virtual reality 
First Supervisor: Dr Gregory Mills

Title: Two-stream machine learning architecture based on deep learning and HMM for video-based Ambient Assisted Living 
First SupervisorProfessor Jean-Christophe Nebel

Title: A Bioinformatics and Machine Learning Approach to Characterise and Predict Cataract Formation 
First Supervisor: Professor Jean-Christophe Nebel

Title: Game Theory for Automatic Video Annotation 
First Supervisor: Professor Jean-Christophe Nebel

Title: Human Action Recognition using Machine Learning and Multimodal Data 
First Supervisor: Professor Jean-Christophe Nebel

Title: Deep Learning / Bioinformatics Approach for Protein-Protein Interaction Prediction 
First Supervisor: Professor Jean-Christophe Nebel

Title: Image-based recognition of unidentified featured objects (UFOs) 
First Supervisor: Professor Jean-Christophe Nebel

Title: Security Risk Analysis of the Blockchain: A Game Theoretical Approach 
First Supervisor: Dr Obinna Omego

Title: Development, Analysis, and AI-Augmentation of Steganographic Blockchain Protocols in Conjunction with Secure Multi-party Computation for Enhanced Privacy and Security 
First Supervisor: Dr Obinna Omego

Title: Design, Implementation and Evaluation of Non-Cooperative Game Theoretic Models for Cyber Security 
First supervisor: Dr Eckhard Pfluegel

Title: Big data analytics and visualization for personalized Type 2 Diabetes treatment and management support 
First Supervisor: Professor Nada Philip

Title: Remote Non-Contact Sensing for Physiological Signals
First Supervisor: Professor Nada Philip

Title: 5G-IoT in the fight against Auto-immune diseases 
First Supervisor: Professor Christos Politis

Title: Secure AI-enhanced policy framework for digital health data 
First Supervisor: Professor Christos Politis

Title: Advancing Deep Learning (DL) techniques for medical image analysis 
First Supervisor: Dr Tariq Rahim

Title: Using deep transfer models from natural language processing to predict drug resistance in communicable diseases in humans 
First Supervisor: Dr Farzana Rahman

Title: Deep learning enabled alternative drug design for cancer patients
First Supervisor: Dr Farzana Rahman

Title: Transforming the Future: AI-powered Sustainable solution to enable fast response to dangerous pollution levels for a breathable tomorrow 
First Supervisor: Dr Farzana Rahman

Title: Benchmarks for Data Clustering Algorithms in Data Science 
First Supervisor: Dr Ahmed Shihab

Title: Metadata-based Deep Learning to estimate the quality of Wikipedia Articles 
First supervisor: Dr Ahmed Shihab

Title: Improving the Predictive Capability of Type-Token Models
First Supervisor: Dr Martin Tunnicliffe

Title: Improving Throughput in a Wireless Mobile Network using Successive Interference Cancellation with Power Randomisation
First supervisor: Dr Martin Tunnicliffe

Title: Multi-Language Statistical Classification of Natural and Computer-Generated Texts
First supervisor: Dr Martin Tunnicliffe

Title: AI-Driven Personalised Healthcare through 6G Mobile Edge Computing
First supervisor: M Arslan Usman

Title: Enhancing Video Quality Assessment for 6G Networks: Leveraging Low Latency, High Data Rates and Massive Connectivity for Improved User Experience
First supervisor:
M Arslan Usman

Title: AI-Driven Adaptive Beamforming and Resource Allocation for Interference Management in Cell-Free massive MIMO 6G Networks
First supervisor: Dr Muhammad Rehan Usman

Title: Securing AI-Enhanced Health Data Management Systems Against Adversarial Attacks Over 6G Networks
First supervisor: Dr Muhammad Rehan Usman

Title: Development of biomedical image and signal processing analysis methods
First supervisor: Professor David Wertheim

Title: Digital Twins in Cyber Security Analysis of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (DTCS-CAV)
First supervisor: Dr Hu Yuan

Title: Differential Privacy (DP) mechanisms for Large Language Models (LLMs)
First Supervisor: Dr Hu Yuan

Electrical, Electronic and Robotic Engineering

Title: Distributed and Network Control in Swarm Robotics
First Supervisor: Nadia Djaid

Title: MPIC for Cooperative Robots in Industry 5.0
First Supervisor: 
Nadia Djaid

Title: Solar Energy Harvesting and Delivery using Optical Fibres
First Supervisor: Dr Kevin J Munisami

Geography, Geology and Environment

Title: Investigating perceptions and barriers to climate adaptation and mitigation strategies in urban and peri-urban environments
First Supervisor: Dr Kerry A Brown

Title: Disasters and the role of community resilience
First Supervisor: Dr Tracey Coates

Title: What role for the voluntary and community sector in promoting community resilience?
First Supervisor: Dr Tracey Coates

Title: Alternative lifestyles: mobile home parks in the metropolitan fringe a UK/US comparison
First Supervisor: Dr Peter Garside

Title: Systems Change and Community Collective Impact Projects
First Supervisor: Dr Peter Garside

Title: Valuing green and blue urban landscapes
First Supervisor: Dr Peter Garside

Title: Bridging the gap between environment and health - exposure assessment of potentially harmful agents in soil
First Supervisor: Dr Peter Hooda

Title: Fate of microplastics in waste waters and sewage sludge used in agriculture – impacts on the terrestrial environment
First Supervisor: Dr Peter Hooda

Title: Evaluating the meaning and distribution of 'Tree Equity' in Surrey: an interdisciplinary approach
First Supervisor: Dr Mary Kelly

Title: Smart sustainable universities
First Supervisor: Dr David Kidd

Title: The influence of variations in sunlight associated with latitude and the annual solar cycle on driving, road traffic accidents and orientation transport infrastructure
First Supervisor: Dr Naru Shiode

Title: Near-real time and microscale crime prediction
First Supervisor: Dr Naru Shiode

Title: Local variations of biodiversity index
First Supervisor: Dr Naru Shiode

Title: Field scale reconstruction of nineteenth century rural land use using first County Series OS maps and parish area books
First Supervisor: Professor Nigel Walford

Mathematics

Mechanical and Automotive Engineering

Title: Investigation of optical properties of the cornea
First Supervisor: Professor Andy Augousti

Title: Robotic Wireless Sensor Network (RWSN) design to enhance the sensing capability of robotic systems via WSN for IoT robotic applications
First Supervisor: Professor Andy Augousti

Title: Feasibility studies for novel desalination plant designs
First Supervisor: Professor Andy Augousti

Title: Identification and characterisation of liquids using ultrasound and machine learning
First Supervisor: Professor Andy Augousti

Title: Robust perception, decision making and path prediction for autonomous vehicles
First Supervisor: Dr Redha Benhadj

Title: Robotic grasping using dynamic active-pixel vision sensor
First Supervisor: Dr Redha Benhadj

Title: CFD study of fires in mechanically-ventilated nuclear compartments
First Supervisor: Dr Siaka Dembele

Title: Chemical detection using intelligent UAV system
First Supervisor: Dr Olga Duran

Title: Investigating effects of environmental stressors on ecosystem function using hyperspectral leaf reflectance
First Supervisor: Dr Olga Duran

Title: Robust perception, decision making and path prediction for autonomous vehicles
First Supervisor: Dr Olga Duran

Title: SLAM for UAV navigation in GPS and vision denied environments using deep reinforcement learning
First Supervisor: Dr Olga Duran

Title: Enhancement of electrical conductivity of carbon fibre composite for resisting lightening strike on aircraft
First Supervisor: Dr Homayoun Hadavinia

Title: Numerical simulation of deflagration, detonation and DDT in large scale inhomogeneous reactive mixtures
First Supervisor: Dr Ali Heidari

Title: Development of Novel Thermochemical Heat Storage for Waste Heat Recovery
First Supervisor: Dr Sahand Hosouli

Title: Computational modelling and simulation of bio-inspired structures
First Supervisor: Dr Payam Khazaeinejad

Title: Shape optimisation for aesthetics/functional requirements in the context of additive manufacturing
First Supervisor: Dr Payam Khazaeinejad

Title: Hybrid-type finite elements for thermomechanical problems
First Supervisor: Dr Payam Khazaeinejad

Title: Multi-scale modelling and simulation of bio-inspired structures
First supervisor: Dr Payam Khazaeinejad

Title: Advanced composites structures FEA/CFD modelling design and manufacturing
First Supervisor: Dr Spiros Koutsonas

Title: Composite Materials with integrated ‘massless' energy storage for use in civil and mobile applications such as electric vehicles, sustainable buildings, drones, and composite planes
First Supervisor:
Dr Spiros Koutsonas

Title: Self-recovery/Self-healing of CdS/CdSe Nanocrystal Junctions
First Supervisor: Dr Spiros Koutsonas

Title: Realignment of resources optimisation techniques for different industrial sectors
First Supervisor: Dr Andy Lung

Title: Engineering Analysis and Modelling the Performance of Floatovoltaic Systems
First Supervisor: Professor Simon Philbin

Title: Investigating the technology pathways to enable AI adoption in project management
First Supervisor: Professor Simon Philbin

Title: Numerical investigation of developing laminar flames distorted by turbulence
First Supervisor: Dr Siva Prasad Reddy Muppala

Title: Numerical measurements of two-staged gas turbine combustion for hydrogen enrichment of hydrocarbons
First Supervisor: Dr Siva Prasad Reddy Muppala

Title: Biodegradation of inoculated substrate to generate green electricity using single and multi-stage Microbial fuel cell: an experimental study
First Supervisor: Dr Siva Prasad Reddy Muppala

Title: Green Energy and Wastewater Treatment Using Single-chamber Microbial Fuel Cells
First Supervisor: Dr Siva Prasad Reddy Muppala

Title: An investigation into transonic flows over high pressure gas turbine blade tip
First Supervisor: Dr Zainab Saleh

Title: Combustion and detonation of hydrogen with suspended particles and droplets
First Supervisor: Dr Konstantin Volkov

Title: Design and optimisation of wind farms built-in to existing buildings and civil objects
First Supervisor: Dr Konstantin Volkov

Title: Particulate systems in fire safety engineering
First Supervisor: Dr Konstantin Volkov

Title: Tap water treatment with a laser pulse
First Supervisor: Dr Konstantin Volkov

Title: Unmanned aerial vehicle thrust optimisation with ducted propeller in various flight modes
First Supervisor: Dr Konstantin Volkov

Title: Development of ignition systems for energy systems
First Supervisor: Dr Konstantin Volkov

Title: Modelling and simulation of heat exchanger with strong dependence of oil viscosity on temperature
First Supervisor: Dr Konstantin Volkov