Analysis of student project opportunities

Project Project Lead Project Title Duration Project This project would be suitable for
Ref Type students studying:

R01 Adam Thompson Comprehensive analysis of dry textile 6 Weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Mathematics;
materials in-plane shear behaviour Mechanical;
R02 Aisling O'Kane/ Hacking a Diabetes Data onto a 6 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering Design;
Eddie Wilson Smartwatch Electronic and Electrical; Engineering
Mathematics;
R03 Alberto Gambaruto Computational Fluid Dynamics using high- 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Civil; Computer Science;
order methods (mesh-free or compact FD Electronic and Electrical; Engineering
methods) Mathematics; Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
R04 Alberto Gambaruto Computational Fluid Dynamics in 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Civil; Computer Science;
biology/medicine Electronic and Electrical; Engineering
Mathematics; Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
R05 Alicia Gonzalez- Experimental testing of a Tuned Inerter 6 weeks Research Civil; Mechanical;
Buelga Damper
R06 Andrew Calway Image Stitching for Wind Turbine 6-8 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering
Inspection Using Drones Mathematics;
R07 Anne Roudaut Creating Low Fidelity Displays Everywhere 8 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering Design;
Electronic and Electrical;
R08 Anne Roudaut Helping to set up a Maker Material Lab in 6-8 weeks Research Aerospace; Civil; Computer Science;
the Merchant Venturer Building Engineering Design; Electronic and
Electrical; Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
R09 Anne Roudaut Making interactive paper with a simple 6-8 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering Design;
Inkjet printer Electronic and Electrical; Mech/Elec;
R10 Anne Roudaut A shape-changing T-shirt to help user with 6-8 weeks Research Aerospace; Computer Science;
their postures Engineering Design; Electronic and
Electrical; Mech/Elec;
O01 Anne Roudaut/ Actuated-Pin Based Modular Interface as 6 weeks Outreach Computer Science; Electronic and
Hyunyoung Kim an Inclusive Technology Electrical; Mechanical;
R11 Antonio Melro Investigating model variability in 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Civil; Engineering
microscale finite element analysis of Mathematics; Mechanical;
composites
R12 Bernard Stark Design the world’s lowest power sensors Up to 12 Research Aerospace; Computer Science;
to protect people weeks Engineering Design; Electronic and
R13 Bernard Stark Program the world’s lowest power Up to 12 Research Computer Science; Electronic and
sensors to protect people weeks Electrical;
R14 Bernard Stark Design a GHz bandwidth current sensor Up to 12 Research Electronic and Electrical;
for emerging SiC and GaN power weeks
converters
R15 Bing Zhang Delamination Detection of Through- 8 weeks Research Aerospace; Electronic and Electrical;
Thickness Reinforced Laminated Mech/Elec;
Composites
R16 Brano Titurus Novel damper for aerospace applications 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design;
Mechanical;
R17 Chris Snider Anarchic manufacturing systems, 6 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering
investigating distributed manufacturing Mathematics; Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
management systems against complexity
R18 Chris Snider Engineering with Lego 6 weeks Research Civil; Computer Science; Engineering
Design; Engineering Mathematics;
Mechanical;
R19 Chris Snider Prototypes that evolve themselves 6 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering Design;
Engineering Mathematics; Mechanical;
R20 Cian O'Donnell Molecular mechanisms of brain learning 6 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering
Mathematics;
T01 Dan Schien Æthel RED - Are we ready ? 6 Weeks Education Computer Science;
R21 Dan Schien iBEM - Intelligent building energy 4 months Research Computer Science; Electronic and
management Electrical; Engineering Mathematics;
T02 Dan Schien CAT - Cloud Application Template 8 weeks Education Computer Science;
R22 Dan Schien MEDIC GUI - Modelling Environment for 8 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering Design;
Digital Infrastructure energy Consumption Electronic and Electrical; Engineering
GUI Mathematics;
R23 Dan Schien Footprint of Things 4 months Research Computer Science;
T03 David Bernhard A system for curriculum development and 4-8 weeks Education Computer Science;
mapping of learning outcomes
R24 Dimitris Karamitros Earthquake-induced Liquefaction Effects 6-8 weeks Research Civil;
on Buried Pipelines
R25 Dorian Jones Designing for Stability in Aerospace 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Mathematics;
Systems
R26 Flavia De Luca A new methodology for analysis and 8 weeks Research Civil;
design of steel Concentric Braced Frames
against horizontal loads
R27 Flavia De Luca Natural disasters and satellite imagery - 8 weeks Research Civil; Engineering Mathematics;
Can we predict/calibrate/model how long
it takes to recover?
R28 James Kratz The effect of voids on the thermal 10 weeks Research Aerospace;
conductivity of composites during
manufacture
R29 James Kratz Investigation of aerodynamic imaging 10 weeks Research Aerospace; Computer Science;
techniques applied to advanced Engineering Mathematics; Mechanical;
composite materials
R30 Jonathan Belnoue Co-bonding: a viable option for composite 6 weeks Research Engineering Design; Mechanical;
manufacturing?
R31 Jonathan Rossiter A new soft tactile interface for digital 10 weeks Research Aerospace; Civil; Computer Science;
devices (flexible) Engineering Design; Electronic and
Electrical; Engineering Mathematics;
Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
R32 Jonathan Variable-stiffness Muscle Fibres Using Flexible Research Engineering Mathematics; Mechanical;
Rossiter/Tim Helps Twisted Rubber
R33 Jonathan Rossiter/ Bringing Disney's Baymax to reality: Flexible Research Engineering Mathematics; Mechanical;
Majid Taghavi blowing up robots with air amplification Mech/Elec;
R34 Jose Nunez-Yanez Ultrasonic levitation with FPGA-based 6 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering Design;
phased arrays Electronic and Electrical; Mech/Elec;
R35 Katarzyna Stawarz Punchable interfaces: Building an 6 weeks Research Computer Science;
interactive glove for martial arts training
R36 Kieran Wood/ Tom A comparison of geo-referencing 6-8 weeks Research Aerospace; Civil; Computer Science;
Richardson/ Tom techniques for Unmanned Aerial System Engineering Design; Electronic and
Scott (UAS) photogrammetry Electrical; Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
T04 Lucy Berthoud YouTubing a satellite to teach principles 6 weeks Education Aerospace; Engineering Design;
of spacecraft design
R37 Lucy Berthoud and University of Bristol Ground Station 4 weeks Research Aerospace; Computer Science;
Mark Schenk Commissioning max Engineering Design; Electronic and
R38 Lucy Berthoud and Designing a Thermal Imaging Module for 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design; Electronic
Mark Schenk University of Bristol Satellite Programme and Electrical; Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
R39 Lucy Berthoud and Designing a Thermal Imaging Module for 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design; Electronic
Mark Schenk University of Bristol Satellite Programme and Electrical; Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
R40 Ludovic Renson Data-driven identification for control of 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Civil; Engineering Design;
linear-time periodic systems: application Electronic and Electrical; Engineering
to a simplified wind turbine model Mathematics; Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
R41 Ludovic Renson Design of a benchmark structure for 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design;
nonlinear model reduction algorithms Engineering Mathematics; Mechanical;
Mech/Elec;
T05 Ludovic Renson Demonstration experiments for teaching 6 weeks Education Computer Science; Electronic and
and research in nonlinear dynamics Electrical; Engineering Mathematics;
Mech/Elec;
R42 Mahmoud Integrity of thin section boiler tubes in 8 weeks Research Mechanical;
Mostafavi Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors
R43 Mark Lowenberg Design of wind tunnel model for airliner 6-10 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design;
upset testing Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
T06 Mark Schenk UoB Satellite Ground Station: Signal 6 weeks Education Aerospace; Computer Science; Electronic
Processing and Decoding and Electrical;
T07 Mark Schenk Experimental Design for Validation of 8 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design;
Nonlinear Structures Mechanical;
R44 Martin Homer Autonomous energy harvesting using 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Civil; Computer Science;
biodegradable materials Engineering Design; Electronic and
R45 Michael Wisnom/ Notch sensitivity of quasi-isotropic hybrid 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Mechanical;
Alessia Prato/ thin laminates in compression
Mohammad
Fotouhi
R46 Mike Fraser Vibes: Detecting Resonant Visual 6-8 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering Design;
Attention Cues through Smartphone Electronic and Electrical; Engineering
Vibration Mathematics;
R47 Mike Fraser Integrated PCB design for Ultrasonic 6-8 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering Design;
Aerosol Focusing Electronic and Electrical; Mech/Elec;
R48 Mike Fraser A low cost submicron stage for 6-8 weeks Research Aerospace; Computer Science;
Ultrasound-Focused Aerosol Printing Engineering Design; Electronic and
based on the Openstage design Electrical; Engineering Mathematics;
R49 Miranda Mowbray Fake News Susceptibility Tool 6-7 weeks Research Computer Science;
/ Luis Vaquero
R50 Miranda Mowbray Robot swarm security: assistance with 6 weeks Research Computer Science;
MSc research project
R51 Nathan Lepora TacWhisker: Biomimetic, 3D-printed 6 weeks Research Engineering Mathematics; Mechanical;
tactile whiskered robots Mech/Elec;
R52 Nathan Lepora TacHand: 3D-printed robotic hand with a 6 weeks Research Engineering Mathematics; Mechanical;
sense of touch Mech/Elec;
R53 Nick Simpson An E-Bike Concept Demonstrator 8-12 Research Engineering Design; Electronic and
Weeks Electrical; Mech/Elec;
T08 Nicolas Wu Functional Programming Coursework 8 weeks Education Computer Science;
(flexible)
T09 Nicolas Wu Language Engineering Materials 8 weeks Education Computer Science;
(flexible)
R54 Nicolas Wu Dependently-Typed Language Compiler 8 weeks Research Computer Science;
Development (flexible)
R55 Oussama Metatla Making with the Makers: A Toolkit for 6 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering Design;
Multisensory Transformation of Everyday Electronic and Electrical;
Things
R56 Oussama Metatla The Multisensory Cube: a physical device 6 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering Design;
to augment chabots with audio, visual Electronic and Electrical;
and haptic feedback
R57 Paul Harper Innovative Technologies for Wave Energy 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design;
Devices Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
R58 Paul Harper & Dan Calibration of Engineering Models of 6 Weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design;
Poole Wind Farm Wakes using CFD Engineering Mathematics; Mechanical;
R59 Paul Marshall Mobile sensing of data relevant to Type 2 6 weeks Research Computer Science; Engineering
diabetes Mathematics;
T10 Peter Flach Online AI teaching tools 10 weeks Education Computer Science;
(flexible).
Scope for
more than
one
student.
T11 Peter Flach Online AI teaching tools 10 weeks Education Computer Science;
(flexible).
Scope for
more than
one
student.
T12 Richard Grafton Big Hex Machine: Visitor Interaction 6 weeks Education Computer Science;
Development
T13 Richard Grafton Design and construct an Enigma Machine 6 weeks Education Computer Science;
R60 Robert Piechocki/ Wearable Embedded Sensing Systems for 6 weeks Research Computer Science; Electronic and
Xenofon Fafoutis Digital Health: Firmware Development Electrical; Mech/Elec;
and Prototyping
R61 Robert Piechocki Anomaly Detection for Fleets of 6 weeks Research Computer Science; Electronic and
Autonomous Vehicles Electrical; Engineering Mathematics;
R62 Robin Neville Developing algorithms for unstable 8 weeks Research Aerospace; Computer Science;
structures experiments Mechanical;
R63 Ruzanna Chitchyan An Application for Assessing the Effects of 6 weeks or Research Computer Science; Engineering
Renewable-Based Electricity Generation 12 weeks Mathematics;
on a Distribution Substation
R64 Sabine Hauert/ Jumping swarm robots 6 weeks Research Engineering Design; Electronic and
Simon Jones Electrical; Engineering Mathematics;
R65 Sabine Hauert/ Automatic trigger of wave instabilities in a 8 weeks Research Aerospace; Computer Science; Electronic
Daniel Carrillo- linear reaction-diffusion model for shape and Electrical; Engineering Mathematics;
Zapata formation in a large swarm of real robots
R66 Shane Windsor Development of a wind tunnel gust 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design; Electronic
generator for testing bio-inspired and Electrical; Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
unmanned air vehicles
T14 Simon Lock Pattern Catalogue for Sharing Teaching 6 weeks Education Computer Science;
and Learning Best Practice
R67 Souheil Ben Smida Mixer-less homodyne 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design; Electronic
modulator/demodulator for wireless and Electrical;
communications
R68 Steve Bullock MATLAB based UAV control to implement 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Computer Science;
path planning algorithms onto a wireless Engineering Design; Electronic and
platform Electrical; Engineering Mathematics;
R69 Steve Bullock Solar Tree parametrisation and 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Civil; Computer Science;
optimisation Engineering Design; Electronic and
R70 Steve Burrow / The electrically quiet drone 6-8 weeks Research Aerospace; Computer Science;
Tom Richardson / Engineering Design; Electronic and
Kieran Wood Electrical; Engineering Mathematics;
R71 Steven Rae Developing and Testing an Acoustically 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Electronic and Electrical;
Triggered Ultra High-Speed Camera Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
System for Composites Failure Imaging
R72 Thomas Pozegic High performance polymers for carbon 6 weeks Research Aerospace;
fibre composites
R73 Tom Hill Reduced-order modelling of nonlinear 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Mechanical;
dynamic structures
R74 Tom Rendall Smoothed particle hydrodynamics for 3 months Research Aerospace;
modelling composites manufacturing
R75 Tom Richardson Scaled Skylon Test Vehicle Development 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Engineering Design; Electronic
and Electrical; Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
R76 Tom Richardson High Altitude Meteorology Drone 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Mechanical;
Optimsation
T15 Tom Richardson Flight Simulator Development 6 weeks Education Aerospace;
R77 Yusuf Mahadik Developing a Software Control System for 6 weeks Research Aerospace; Electronic and Electrical;
a Novel Z-pinning Platform Mechanical; Mech/Elec;
Project Title Project Description
Creating Low You probably played, in your childhood, with a magna doodle? it is a magnetic drawing toy that consists of a drawing board and a
Fidelity Displays magnetic stylus. The key element of the toy is the magnetophoretic display panel, filled with a thick white liquid containing tiny dark
Everywhere magnetic particles. These particles can be drawn to the surface by a magnetic stylus or removed to the hidden backside by a sliding
eraser bar. The middle layer is divided into a honeycomb of cells, keeping the liquid static and the particles evenly distributed across
the panel.
The goal of this project is to hack a magna doodle in order to create a fast prototyping display. The idea is to build a small paintbrush
device consisting of a row of electromagnets that flash in a specific pattern while the user scans the magna doodle display. This will
produce a given image on the magna doodle display. A first version of this prototype has already been built. The goal is to create a
more robust version.
The objectives of this project are: 1) improve the current prototype, it could be for instance be built as a clip-on gadget for a phone;
2) implement a user interface so that the user can choose what image to display on the magna doodle. Additional/optional
objectives are 3) exploring other shapes of magna doodle such as Origamis.
The project will require doing some basics in electronic (e.g. Arduino) and use fabrication machine such as 3D printing and laser
cutter.
Smoothed The aim of this project is to study the mechanisms that control alignment of the discontinuous fibres within the HiPerDiF (High
particle Performance Discontinuous Fibre) process. The HiPerDiF technology allows the production of highly aligned discontinuous fibres
hydrodynamics composites by accelerating fibres, suspended in water, through a nozzle, which is directed at a gap between two parallel plates. The
for modelling HiPerDiF technology enables automated production whilst minimising in-process defects and delivering a route to closed loop
composites recycling.
manufacturing
Understanding the mechanisms that influence the fibre alignment would allow optimisation of geometric parameters of the
alignment head and flow control parameters of the fibre suspension to maximise the production rate and the fibre alignment, which
affects the mechanical properties.
This project combines the fields of fluid dynamics and composite materials and involves both experimental and computational work.
The experimental work will focus on the use of a high-speed camera to produce images depicting the fibre alignment. These images
will then be used to validate numerical results. In order to achieve this, familiarity with the current HiPerDiF technology will need to
be acquired. The computational modelling is accomplished using an in-house Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code. This will
require the student to be able to run the code, which is written using C, and change it as necessary. The information gathered from
the experimental work will be used to modify the code to increase its accuracy.
Ultrasonic A phased array is a grid of speakers emitting with the same amplitude and frequency. It is possible to steer and focalize the sound at
levitation with different positions by changing the phases of each channel. The objective of this project is to design a driver board for ultrasonic
FPGA-based phased arrays and deploy it in a levitation application. Driver boards are composed of two parts: the logic part and the amplification
phased arrays stage. The logic part will be implemented in a FPGA device and it will generate signals to the amplification stage. The amplification
stage will amplify these signals and drive each channel to the desired voltage level. The amplification stage will be based on a PCB
with MOSFETs. The logic part must synchronize the generation of the output signals (one per channel with at least 64 channels
available). The project will aim to demonstrate the correct functionality of the system levitating objects or performing haptic
feedback. Research will be conducted in a solution that uses a closed loop system so some of the transducers listen (i.e. microphone)
while others generate (i.e. speaker) the ultrasound signals. The information obtained from the captured ultrasound signals could be
used to interpret the location and speed of the objects and take corrective actions improving the accuracy and precision of the
system. This project requires circuit and PCB design skills in addition to digital system design and strong C programming.
Pattern Catalogue The aim of this project is the develop an online “Pattern Catalogue” to support sharing of teaching and learning best practice across
for Sharing the faculty (and beyond).
Teaching and
Learning Best Pattern catalogues have been used extensively across a variety of fields of engineering and design as a mechanism to share and
Practice promote known successful solutions to commonly encountered technical challenges.
The purpose of this project is to develop a web-based framework for the organisation, categorisation and presentation of
established patterns of teaching and learning practice. This framework will allow users to search for and explore solutions to specific
problems that they face. It will also allow them to share best-practice solutions that they themselves have devised.
Although general enough to support a wide range of T&L activities, this initial phase of the project will focus specifically on
techniques for efficient and effective assessment and feedback. The reason for this is primarily to scope the project to ensure the
likelihood of success in the available timeframe. This particular topic has been selected due to the fact that the generation of high-
quality and timely feedback has been identified as a key area for improvement as we move towards subject-level TEF.
Typical patterns within the catalogue might include “Whole Class Feedback”, “Feedback Recycling”, “Podcast Feedback” or “Fantasy
Coursework Submission”. The aim is to pre-populate the catalogue with a range of lesser-known, but potentially highly beneficial,
tools and techniques. As such, this project will incorporate a significant element of academic research into pedagogic publications in
order to elicit and document suitable approaches.
The system developed will be instrumented with suitable web analytics features to monitor usage of the pattern catalogue (both
within UoB and further afield) to help improve the service, as well as enabling us to determine the impact of the work.
Integrity of thin EDF Energy has classified the damage in boilers of their fleet of nuclear reactors to be one of the top three problems that can close
section boiler down the plants permanently. The boiler tubes are thin sectioned and unfortunately for the past 40 years the majority of research
tubes in has been focused on high integrity, thick section components such as reactor pressure vessel. As such, there is little knowledge
Advanced Gas- available on the integrity of thin section tubes. This issue is not limited to current reactors but is critical for the next generation of
cooled Reactors reactors to be built in 2050. University of Bristol in collaboration with Frazer Nash Consultancy and Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing
Research Centre have recently won a significant grant form department of Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
to tackle this issue. This student project will be running conjunction with the BEIS project to ensure a high quality of training for the
student as well as having direct industrial input and achieving a high impact. This has been fully agreed with the student who has
shown great enthusiasm and knowledge to carry out the project.
Experimental A tuned inerter damper (TID) will be experimentally tested to study its performance as a passive vibration suppression device. A TID
testing of a Tuned prototype has been already built, the student will be responsible for developing the necessary improvements in the design and also
Inerter Damper for performing real time dynamic substructuring testing to study its performance when connected to a flexible host structure.
Fake News This summer project is to build a tool for use by researchers investigating susceptibility to fake news. It is intended to be the
Susceptibility cornerstone of an ambitious, long-term, multidisciplinary research program on this topic. The tool will be a game which scores
Tool participants on their ability to distinguish between real and fake news posted on their Facebook wall. As part of the tool, there
should be a conduit by which the researchers can post news stories (some real, some fake) on the Facebook walls of volunteers
playing the game. The news stories and the volunteers will be classified into different types by the researchers, and the tool will
report the levels of susceptibility of different classes of volunteers to different classes of fake news story. It will be tested with
volunteer psychology students, around October.
Background: There has recently been increasing interest in analysing and counteracting the generation and spread of fake news, and
the effect of fake news on citizens. The fields of Psychology, the Social Sciences, Computer Science, and citizen education have all
developed insights or techniques that are likely to be part of a good solution. Unfortunately, the solutions proposed so far have not
proven to work in isolation, and most of them have only been tested for a very short time period (thus disregarding humans' ability
to adapt), or were analysed only retrospectively.
The tool built in the summer project is intended for use in a more ambitious program, aiming to combine insights from psychology,
computer sciences, social sciences and marketing to understand volunteers' susceptibility to fake news. The program would use the
tool in a trial over a long period of time, in controlled conditions, along the model of clinical trials in pharmacology.
Investigating Micromechanical analysis allows for the simulation of the mechanical behaviour of composites starting only from the mechanical
model variability properties of its constituents - matrix, fibre and interface. From an industrial point of view, micromechanics allows for the prediction
in microscale of the mechanical response of a composite under loading conditions for which experimental data is scarce, difficult or even
finite element impossible to obtain.
analysis of With the exponential growth of computational performance it became possible to use this technique to predict the elastic and
composites strength properties of a given composite under different loading conditions. A set of routines has been established which allow for
the automatic generation of Representative Volume Elements (RVEs) capable of capturing the interactions of the constituents and
their individual contribution to the behaviour of the composite.
The potential for micromechanics has been recently demonstrated in the development and validation of a novel set of failure criteria
for composite materials.
The analyses performed up to this point considers the material in a pristine condition, i.e. with no initial damage, flaw, fibre
misalignment, void or any other form of imperfection. Current manufacturing techniques will always introduce some form of
imperfection to the material, but its influence in the mechanical properties of the composite has not been studied up to today.
Currently, the presence of voids in composites has been of great interest for researchers and is the topic of ongoing PhD thesis in
ACCIS.
The internship will continue the work done up to today by perfecting in-house developed Matlab routines to generate RVEs of
composite materials with a certain amount of void content. Currently, the subroutines generate three-dimensional finite element
models with wedge-type finite elements. However, comparison of predicted elastic properties using this element type with previous
results and analytical methods suggest there could be a dependency of micromechanics results on the element type which is yet not
well understood. The objective of this internship will be to study whether or not micromechanics results are prone to depend on the
element type used in the mesh generation process and to provide recommendations for the future on the type of element to be
used.
The effect of A crucial part in the manufacturing process of a composite material is the curing process, heat is applied to the component which
voids on the causes chemical crosslinks to form in the matrix. If all parts of the component are to have the same mechanical properties they must
thermal all receive similar amounts of heat. To ensure this is the case it is possible to create analytical and numerical models of the process.
conductivity of However, due the vast number of variables involved, creating a model that is universally accurate has not yet been achieved.
composites Consequently, it is common practice to create simplified models that omit variables which are seen to have less of an effect on the
during transfer of heat through the material. One such variable is voids, these are trapped pockets of air which are randomly distributed
manufacture throughout the matrix. In this project the extent to which voids effect the heat flow through a composite material shall be assessed,
the goal being to establish the reduction in fidelity that results from their omission.
The objectives for this part of the project are as follows:
1. Perform a review of current analytical and numerical methods
2. Implement numerical methods to predict thermal conductivity of composite materials during processing
3. Determine the degree to which void volume fraction effects thermal conductivity
A new The design approach provided for Concentric Braced Frames (CBF) against horizontal dynamic loads in codes, such as Eurocode 8,
methodology for presents some challenges. In fact, the "tension-only" design approach for CBF in Eurocode 8 has some criticalities arising even when
analysis and a routine design is employed. The design process is rather smooth only in the case of regular, mid-rise structures. You will help the
design of steel validation of a new optimised design approach based on linear time-history analysis for this kind of structures that will overcome the
Concentric above limitations.
Braced Frames You will learn how model steel structures through an open-source software package in case of linear and non-linear behaviour!
against horizontal You will need to have some basic Matlab programming skills and a lot of enthusiasm to provide a contribution to a new design
loads method for this kind of structures.
Some background reading on the topic can be found in this open-access paper where the design methodology is explained:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705817340122
This work is suitable to any student in the Civil Engineering course who is excited about being empowered through some new
knowledge of structural modelling (linear and nonlinear!) through an open-source software package used in research and advanced
design application especially in the United States (OpenSees http://opensees.berkeley.edu/index.php)
More information on this software platform can be found at:

http://opensees.berkeley.edu/wiki/index.php/Getting_Started_with_OpenSees_--_Introduction
Natural disasters How long does it take for a region to recover after an earthquake, a flood, a hurricane? The time is evidently different and it depends
and satellite a lot on the kind of natural disaster and region you are looking at...
imagery - Can we Characterisation and modelling of recovery after natural disasters is a challenge for engineers, social scientists, economists. The
predict/calibrate/ endemic lack of data for this aspect of the disaster cycle makes every new disaster as new case-study completely independent from
model how long it any previous event.
takes to recover? You will try to assess if traffic data identified from free, low resolution satellite imagery, such as historical imagery available on
Google Earth, could be a possible indicator of business downtime after natural disasters. Business downtime is a crucial factor when
making loss estimations and it is also of great importance to insurance and reinsurance companies, particularly the downtime of
private businesses, for which limited data is available. Currently, indicators of business recovery after natural disaster events either
focus on damage or are costly and lengthy processes and so there is a need for both time and cost effective methods to quantify
business downtime that are not necessarily derived from physical damage and are able to describe both short-term and potentially
long-term business recovery.
To do so you will build upon the work of other research students in Civil Engineering and Computer Science. You will use a Python
routine to "count cars" in satellite images in areas recently affected by natural disasters, you will compare your results with data
available on the recovery process in a number of areas and you will try to see if there is a suitable way to model what you observe!
To work on this project you will need good Matlab/Python programming skills, a good background of statistics and some interest in
data modelling. Some interest on international development and interpretation of structural damage is a plus. An initial part of the
work (1.5 weeks) will be dedicated to documentation of research work done for similar problems.
On the basis of the background of the applicant (Civil Engineering or Engineering Mathematics) the project will have a slightly
different focus to be adapted to the skill of the research intern.
Delamination This project aims to conclude the feasibility study on a novel delamination detection method which was proposed by the project lead
Detection of for laminated composites through-thickness reinforced by Z-pins (small diameter rods). It is the first and only method that has been
Through- invented for delamination sensing using magnetic pins, thus this piece of work is quite novel. Based on the pilot study carried out on
Thickness plastics specimens in the last year, we have built up significant knowledge and devices for this piece of study, which is on real
Reinforced composites coupon. It also means that an intern should be able to carry out this piece of work under the guidance of the project
Laminated lead, who has many years of experience on multifunctional through-thickness reinforcement of composite laminates and sensing
Composites technology. This piece of study, in the combination of previous studies, will continue to pave the way of creating the new generation
of through-thickness reinforcement, i.e. multifunctional through-thickness reinforcement. This project aims to accomplish the
following objectives:
1) the first composites demonstrator for the magnetic pins based delamination sensing method will be created;
2) the first group of sensing data under mode I pin pull-out will be collected;
3) a numerical tool to optimise the sensing configuration will be built up based on the previous work.
This project is ideal for a student who wants to study composites manufacture, mechanical/sensing tests and signal acquisition and
analysis, using our world-class facilities at ACCIS. The intern is expected to carry out three aspects of technical tasks:
1) manufacture of Z-pinned composite laminate specimens;
2) mechanical/sensing tests of the Z-pinned laminate specimens;
3) signal acquisition, processing and analysis.
Mixer-less The demand for higher data rate capabilities in wireless transmitters has driven the technology to use the millimetre wave frequency
homodyne range. Among several design challenges in the RF front-end, the up/down conversion block has to perform a frequency translation
modulator/demo from a baseband signal of few hundred megahertz to carrier frequency of several tens of gigahertz. Classically super-heterodyne RF
dulator for chain composed of IQ modulators and mixers as well as the required IF filters are implemented at a detrimental cost and size. The
wireless proposed project aims to investigate innovative mixer-less and homodyne architectures that are cost effective and do not require IF
communications filtering. New controllable impedance dipoles must be developed to satisfy the wide frequency band of baseband signals of the used
modulation schemes in the millimetre wave range. The linearity of the developed controllable impedance dipoles could be ensured
with new behavioural modelling techniques. These techniques must be combined with homodyne modulator systems with the
associated calibration procedures to achieve high quality vector signal generation. The ultimate aim of this work is to provide a
design framework to deliver future proof up and down conversion RF systems that are flexible in terms of mode of operation and
frequency bands.
Vibes: Detecting This project will detect micromovements in the hand which resonate with flashing on-screen visual cues. The intern will develop an
Resonant Visual app which use accelerometer data, FFT and machine learning to calibrate and identify which frequencies are being observed or
Attention Cues experienced through hand vibration. If successful, we might also run an experiment which compares the efficiency of the approach
through to a comparable EEG visual cortex signal called SSVEP which could be used for brain-computer interaction.
Smartphone
Vibration
Investigation of Project in collaboration with Dr Raf Theunissen and Dr Yusuf Mahadik
aerodynamic
imaging Despite the widespread use of composite materials as lightweight alternatives, particularly in the aircraft and automotive industries,
techniques the physical processes underlying the formation and removal of voids during curing remain not well understood. This can lead to
applied to suboptimal material characteristics or complete rejection of the costly specimen. For these reasons the void behaviour must be
advanced better understood, such that it can be modelled and accounted for, prior to curing.
composite
materials The planned internship will consist of four well-defined workpackages, each with novel and highly informative outcomes. (1) To start
with the student will develop image processing algorithms under the guidance of Dr Theunissen, to identify voids in time-lapse CT
images of a curing processes obtained by Dr Kratz. This will provide temporal statistics relating to void shape, volume, etc.,
characterising the voids throughout the curing process. (2) In the second stage the student will adapt and apply particle tracking
algorithms to the voids to extract their motion and interaction throughout the resin. Such algorithms are more commonly used in
experimental flow measurements, and their application to the current problem can be considered a first, bridging experimental
aerodynamics with manufacturing. The tracking of the voids will initially be based on void volume. However, based on the outcome
of this workpackage, more specific and effective tracking criteria might have to be applied. (3) With so little known about the void
formation, in the third workpackage dedicated experiments are envisaged, elucidating particular aspects of void behaviour. Such an
experiment might involve injecting gas bubbles into a representative liquid and imaging the bubble behaviour to capture the correct
physics. These findings then serve to improve the tracking criteria, which constitutes the fourth package.
Integrated PCB A current research project is enabling aerosol-based focusing of polymers for printed electronics or printed biological systems. The
design for idea of this internship is to take bench-based components and design an integrated system which can drive the ultrasound
Ultrasonic transducers from a standard power supply, including a microcontroller, boost converter and transducer driver.
Aerosol Focusing
A low cost As part of a wider project on Ultrasound-focused aerosol printing, this internship will build a low cost sub-micron precision
submicron stage stage/platform for the printing substrate based on the OpenStage design
for Ultrasound- (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088977,
Focused Aerosol https://github.com/raacampbell/openstage/tree/master/OpenStage).
Printing based on
the Openstage The aim is to repeatably position the substrate into the aerosol beam with a precision sufficient to be able to print structures with
design electrical, electronic or biological functionality. If it is working, we could test whether its possible to print a simple functional multi-
material multi-structural component such as a capacitor or transitor.
Designing for Classical stability analysis for rotorcraft such as helicopters and tilt rotors uses quasi static aerodynamic analysis combined with
Stability in various assumptions on the nature of the instability to reduce the problem to a small matrix eigenvalue decomposition. This has
Aerospace served engineers well in terms of design, but with the maturation of reduced order modelling for aerospace systems over the last
Systems ten years other possibilities are now available and the differences they produce requires understanding.
Previous work has compared the classical analysis of the Lynx Helicopter main rotor in hover with analysis using a reduced order
model of the aerodynamics coupled to a 6 degree of freedom body model. Even though the classical approach was derived from the
reduced order model, the stability results were very different. Furthermore the classical results were very close to similar analysis of
the Lynx except for additional instabilities associated with the tail rotor which was not modelled. This project will look at the addition
of the tail rotor to both the classical and ROM based stability analysis. This project will produce understanding of the differences
between the methods in terms of both discretisation and flow physics. The preparatory work for this project is complete and it is
hoped that additional research will investigate the instabilities associated with fountain flows on a generic tilt rotors.
The results of the project will be submitted to the 2019 AIAA Aviation conference in the autumn term.
This project forms part of ongoing research to develop methods that allow stability problems to be reduced through airframe
modifications in early stage design rather than control law application. The interest comes from electric aircraft platforms, however
the methods developed are generic as they are based on local bifurcations from stationary points/cycles.
Developing a Improving the impact performance of composite fan blades is a major focus for current and future generations of jet engine design.
Software Control Through-thickness reinforcement (TTR) of composite preforms can be an effective method of improving fracture toughness and
System for a energy absorption in high-energy impact events such as bird strike, improving safety and efficiency.
Novel Z-pinning
Platform Z-pinning (the insertion of thin carbon rods through a laminate) is one method of increasing through-thickness properties. The
current state-of-the-art hardware enables the insertion of regular, orthogonal patterns of pins in flat laminates. It does not allow
more innovative and sophisticated arrangements on more complex geometries to be produced- limiting the true potential of the
reinforcement and closing down research directions.
To address this issue the development of a novel, lab-based z-pinning hardware platform is being conducted. This small-scale,
flexible and user-reconfigurable system will be able to extend the envelope of TTR to include variable pin angles, new materials and
the capability to cope with double curved surfaces.
The hardware requires a design for a sophisticated user software system that can control the insertion technique accurately and that
has the capability to cope with the more demanding requirements of research-level Z-pinning development.
The main goal of this internship is to scope out an initial pathway and design approach for the software system that controls the the
Z-pinning hardware. This would be based on current CNC\3D-printing techniques but would be extended and developed to be
specific for the insertions of z-pins.
Tasks include:
- Assess current CNC\CAM\G-code methods for controlling tool position on complex surfaces.
- Investigate how tool path simulation can generate an instruction list for the machine.
- Create a user script that can edit generic CNC instructions to include Z-pin specific parameters.
- Explore the potential integration of NI LabView as a control solution.
Big Hex Machine: Following the successful installation of the MVSE Big Hex Machine, we are looking to develop new interface technologies to allow
Visitor Interaction visitors, staff, students and open day candidates the opportunities to play with, and develop code for, the Big Hex Machine. The
Development technologies will be developed for a range of users, including:
-- General visitors to MVSE (internal + external)

-- Students (for learning and outreach activities)
-- Open Day Visitors (for formal computing demos)
-- Staff (for teaching opportunities)
A successful intern will develop a new suit of custom software, design PCBs for imaginative interfaces, and document the
technologies to maintain the upkeep of the machine in the long-term. The overall aim of the project is to enable the Big Hex
Machine to operate, 24/7, in a robust, accessible and interactive manner!
As part of the project the intern will receive 1 to 1 mentoring by the Teaching Technologist Team, and will have to opportunity to
learn new skills, manage a significant project and work autonomously to deliver creative solutions to interesting problems.
Design and The purpose of this internship is to design and construct a working Enigma Machine, a device used to encrypt messages in WWII,
construct an famously cracked by Alan Turing and the team at Bletchley Park. Once complete, the machine will be used as an interactive
Enigma Machine demonstration for teaching purposes and as a tool for outreach and open day visitors to engage potential students with
Cryptography.
The intern will be expected to thoroughly document the project and produce an open source guide on building an Enigma Machine
as part of the outcome.
The intern will develop skills in digital fabrication, electronic design and creative problem solving and acquire experience in 3D
printing and laser cutting techniques. They will receive 1 to 1 mentoring by the Teaching Technologist Team but will manage the
project individually and work autonomously to deliver a lasting resource for the department.
University of The University of Bristol Satellite programme has installed UHF and VHF antennas on the roof of the Queen’s Building and a mission
Bristol Ground control center in the Satellite Laboratory. This internship will consist of performing final assembly and testing of the ground station
Station hardware. More details on the use of amateur radio and satellites are given on the AMSAT UK website (https://amsat-uk.org/). The
Commissioning testing will include the use of power meters, signal generators and spectrum analysers, so some experience of these instruments
would be useful but is not essential. A familiarity with Radio frequency transmission and reception principles is desirable, as is an
RSGB radio licence (foundation level or above) more details are at: http://rsgb.org/.
Developing and High speed imaging has been successfully used to capture the deformation of composite structures allowing analysis of behaviour
Testing an and failure modes. However, to capture crack propagation and delamination in greater detail, frame acquisition must be pushed to
Acoustically higher and higher speeds. This presents several technical and practical difficulties, primarily stemming from hardware limitations.
Triggered Ultra
High Speed You will be working with an advanced, ultra-high speed camera, capable of recording up to 5 million frames per second (fps),
Camera System revealing detail in material behaviour not possible with ‘standard’ high speed cameras.
for Composites
Failure Imaging This project will continue previous work that laid the foundations of a functioning acoustic triggering system to further refine the
hardware then utilise the system to study intricate composite failure mechanisms. This will form a key piece of analysis hardware for
the Engineering Department to use in the course of its research.
• Evaluate the current system – determine ability to detect shock wave from specimen under load and use to calibrate the triggering
mechanism (thereby avoiding false recordings). Subsequently, use system to trigger instantaneous recording of failure event.
• Refine the electronics that have been designed to provide peak detection of acoustic emissions
• Evaluate the composite material behaviour - use the system you develop to record composite material failure mechanisms at
extreme frame rates and assess fracture/delamination.
Candidates suitable for this project should have an interest in composite materials, material evaluation, and electronic systems.
Experience of composite manufacture, mechanical testing, and programming knowledge would be advantageous but not necessary.
Punchable The advancements in Ubiquitous computing and Internet of Things open up new opportunities for supporting healthy lifestyles. The
interfaces: goal of the project is to build an interactive training set that supports martial arts training at home. The set should consist of two
Building an components: a glove and a target. In most martial arts, each punch uses a different tool, i.e. different set of knuckles or side of hand.
interactive glove By placing sensors on the hand and the target, it should be possible to distinguish between different types of punches (e.g. front
for martial arts punch that uses all knuckles vs. round punch that uses only the first two). This would allow the user to practice different punching
training techniques. For this project we would like to be able to recognise four different punches: front punch, round punch, palm strike and
knife strike – each uses a different shape or side of the hand, and moves in the straight line or from the side.
The project requires good programming skills, including familiarity with electronics (e.g. sensors, Arduino) and machine learning. It
would consist of two parts: developing a prototype of a punch recognition system that uses machine learning to recognise a type of
punch based on the sensor data, and a feedback mechanism (audio or visual) embedded into the target. A qualified martial arts
instructor (with a 2nd degree black belt in Choi Kwang Do) would be available to demonstrate the punches, test the prototype and
answer any questions.
Jumping swarm Imagine a thousand robots spreading out over a bridge and measuring vibrations in a distributed way to gauge the health of the
robots structure. Or a million biodegradable robots spreading out over a field and evenly spreading seeds. The kilobots [ref] demonstrate
what is possible - a very simple robot cheap enough to build a swarm of a thousand but still capable of sensing, movement, and
communication. Moving this paradigm out into the real world requires solving several problems: movement, energy source, and
communications.
Locomotion is probably the most interesting area where novel solutions can be applied. Conventional outdoor robots use expensive
and bulky wheel and track mechanisms. We feel that jumping robots are under investigated as a potentially cheap movement
method. By storing a low energy flux of 10s of milliwatts and transforming this rapidly into mechanical movement, a small, simple
and cheap robot could move over even rough terrain. Because we are thinking in terms of many hundreds or thousands of robots, it
doesn’t matter if the motion is essentially random.
The project consists of the following parts. Review existing work on jumping mechanisms in both nature and engineered. Examine
potential energy storage methods for rapid release (e.g springs, supercapacitors). Examine different means of converting stored
energy into mechanical impulse. Design and methodically evaluate prototype mechanisms. It is likely this will be an iterative process,
with many trials to find and follow promising new directions.
Computational Learn how to solve the Navier Stokes eqs using numerical methods of high accuracy. You can investigate either implicit finite
Fluid Dynamics difference methods which are based on a Cartesian mesh discretisation, or alternatively you can explore mesh-free approximations
using high-order using Radial Basis Functions. You will write your own software code.
methods (mesh-
free or compact
FD methods)
Computational Fluids in biology have several functions. I propose either of two topics in which you will make use of Computational Fluids Dynamics
Fluid Dynamics in analysis to answer complex and so far unanswered questions.
biology/medicine
1) We can explore the function of the nasal passages in different animals in relation to the habitat, providing information of the
evolutionary optimisation process which makes the animal adapted to its behaviour and environment: see
https://biofluids.blogs.ilrt.org/files/2018/01/RES26-1024x877.png.
2) We can explore the wetting behaviour of carnivorous pitcher plants, exploring how the effect of wet ribbed surfaces actually
function: see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHW-T0TeNzw.
Robot swarm The Bristol Robotics Lab has a swarm of hundreds of Kilobots, which are small robots which can be programmed with simple
security: behaviour, including communicating with nearby robots. Once programmed they operate autonomously. They can collectively carry
assistance with out tasks such as area coverage, in which a swarm of Kilobots spreads out to cover an area so that each point of the area is not far
MSc research from a Kilobot. Some of the interest in using robot swarms, rather than just individual robots, comes from the observation that
project swarms in nature (for example of fish or social insects) can in some circumstances be highly robust. The robustness of robot swarms
to faults has been investigated (see for instance the paper cited below.) However, there appears to have been less research on their
robustness to malicious attacks, for example by an attacker who introduces a small number of their own robots into a swarm in
order to subvert the swarm’s behaviour.
The internship student would join a research project, involving two conversion-course MSc students, that aims to simulate attacks
on a swarm of Kilobots carrying out an area coverage task, and investigate how varying different parameters changes the success of
the attack. The intention is to run the most successful/revealing simulation as an experiment on the Kilobots themselves.
The aims of the internship would be to simulate and investigate an attack on area coverage of a type different from that investigated
by the two MSc students, and to assist the MSc students with coding and/or conversion of simulation code to Kilobot code if they get
stuck.
References:
Kilobot simulator, https://bitbucket.org/siteks/kilobox
How to get started in programming Kilobots, https://www.kilobotics.com/documentation
Alan Winfield, “Safety in Numbers: fault tolerance in robot swarms”,
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/100088/files/WinNemIJMIC2005.pdf
A system for The university has information on units, programmes and learning outcomes stored in different places. The aim of this project is to
curriculum develop a new system to collect all this data in one place and work with it more easily. Parts of the system could also be used to help
development and students better understand the structure of the degree and pick their optional units, or to help other departments organise their
mapping of curricula.
learning
outcomes Every unit comes with a list of Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs): things that a student should know or be able to do at the end of
the unit (e.g. ToC has an ILO ‘convert non-deterministic finite automata to deterministic ones’). Separately, there are programme
level outcomes that describe what a student should be able to know or do when they graduate (e.g. ‘specify, design and construct
computer-based systems’). Every department needs to justify to the faculty that all programme ILOs are covered in their units – this
is basically a many-to-many mapping of programme and unit ILOs. To keep our degree’s accreditation with the BCS (British
Computing Society) we also need to map our own ILOs to theirs, and to get further accreditation for our degree, e.g. from GHCQ, we
need to show that our ILOs map onto theirs too. In theory, these are just many-to-many relationships in a database. The aim of this
project is to develop an application that lets us visualise and edit these relationships easily in practice.
This internship will make you familiar with techniques from the ‘enterprise’ side of software development and the result will
hopefully be a strong feature on your future CV and/or portfolio. The ideal candidate would have completed the second year
Software Project with a good mark and be familiar with the material from Databases and Cloud Concepts.
Design of wind As a result of research being carried out at the University of Bristol in the topic of airliner upset/loss-of-control (LOC), we have been
tunnel model for provided with the geometry definition of the T-tailed airliner configuration that NASA Langley is currently using for upset/LOC
airliner upset studies (following years of extensive investigations into LOC of a generic engine-under-wing configuration).
testing
At Bristol we have been pioneering a unique multi-degree-of-freedom wind tunnel test rig for such studies; NASA researchers have
expressed an interest in the potential for this ‘manoeuvre rig’ to complement more commonly used experimental techniques. To
this end, it is intended that a model of the NASA generic T-tailed airliner be constructed for testing on our rig. The difficulty is that
the model must match not only geometric but also mass and inertial scaling parameters in order to exhibit the same behaviour as a
full-scale equivalent; furthermore, the model must include actuated control surfaces. Given our wind tunnel size, this makes the
model design far more challenging than conventional wind tunnel models: previous attempts at fulfilling the design criteria have
resulted in a solution that would not achieve equivalent mass similitude and would entail control actuation difficulties.
Now that the manoeuvre rig has matured to a level where interesting upset-related behaviour can be observed and measured in
other aircraft models, a viable solution to the design of the T-tail model is being sought. The objective of this internship is to: study
previous work carried out on such a design; consult, where possible, experts in wind tunnel model design and manufacture;
research latest technologies in 3D printing and other manufacturing methods, and in model aircraft actuation, that may be
applicable; and ultimately define a design solution that facilitates the necessary model mounting and actuation requirements and
matches the similitude (scaling) criteria as closely as possible.
Image Stitching The aim of the project is to investigate techniques for stitching together close up images of a wind turbine captured from a drone.
for Wind Turbine Estimates of the 6-D pose of the camera drone for each image are available and the task is to use these estimates along with image
Inspection Using domain continuity measures, such as the alignment of boundaries, to produce an extended stitched image. The latter will provide a
Drones visualisation tool for characterising the state of the turbine surface. The research work will involve investigating and implementing
techniques from computer vision and mathematical optimisation. The project is part of a wider research collaboration with
Perceptual Robotics, a start-up company based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, on techniques for automatic surface inspection of
wind turbines using drones. Innovate UK are funding the collaboration between the company and the University and Dr Calway is
the PI. The University team are looking at automated detection of defects from images and also at advanced techniques for localising
the 6-D pose of the drone with respect to the turbine using image data. The proposed project is an offshoot of the latter work and
provides an ideal summer internship project. As well as providing experience of working within a research group on state of the art
computer vision techniques, it will also give the student experience of working with an industrial partner and observing the impact of
University research on commercial projects.
Notch sensitivity Composite materials are widely used in different engineering fields including aerospace (e.g. Airbus and Rolls Royce) and automotive
of quasi-isotropic (e.g. racing cars), but they are applied also to produce bikes, musical instruments, laptop and phone covers, fishing rods etc. In some
hybrid thin cases, the presence of cut-outs and holes is required, e.g. for assembly purposes, but this can affect the response of both the
laminates in material and the structure itself, greatly reducing the strength.
compression A major research activity has been carried out in the last few years at the Bristol Composite Institute (ACCIS) on novel hybrid
composites, successfully producing notch insensitivity under tension, but notched behaviour under compression has not yet been
investigated.
We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering student available to carry out a 6-weeks
research activity with us this summer.
We propose you to join a very strong research group working on High Performance Ductile Composites Technology, in our research
activity on quasi-isotropic carbon/glass hybrid materials for an exciting study on notch sensitivity. We would like you to help us to
manufacture the composites, prepare the specimens and run some experiments. Moreover, this may involve the use of instruments
like video gauges, microscopy and C-scan for the characterisation of the composite materials and their damage.
Considering all the above, why not embark on this interesting journey with us this summer?
Novel damper for This research aims to develop a new class of dampers suitable for passive and semi-active control of vibrations. The application of
aerospace reconfigurable fluid networks with novel fluid-structure interactions suitable for inverse dynamic damper design will be
applications experimentally and analytically studied. A small-scale bench-top experiment will be setup to prove the principle and to inform low
order modelling. The fluid mechanics principles will be used to propose a nonlinear dynamic model for further performance
exploration through parametric and sensitivity studies of the transfer characteristics. The vibration isolation application in the range
of aerospace applications will considered.
Scaled Skylon Reaction Engines are very interested in the low speed stability and control of the proposed Skylon Vehicle. They have provided the
Test Vehicle CAD design and initial stability control estimates for the vehicle, and the University of Bristol will be designing, building and testing a
Development small-scale model of the Skylon for free flight comparison. This will employ simple, rapid prototyping methods and will be flown via
an autopilot for the purposes of data collection. It is expected that the vehicle built this summer will be the first in a series of test
vehicles and will initiate a longer-term research programme with Reaction Engines. Ideally two students would be available to work
on this project together.
High Altitude The Met office has a significant interest in the realtime measurement of atmospheric conditions - something that is typically carried
Meteorology out today using radiosondes. The University of Bristol is developing two all-electric alternatives to the standard radiosondes, which
Drone between then will cover the required altitude range. This project will focus on the flight control and trajectory optimisation for
Optimsation these vehicles, using data provided by the Met office to optimise for different flight profiles.
Flight Simulator The Flight Simulators in the Aerospace Department are currently used by the first, second and fourth year students. As part of the
Development ongoing development of this facility - one/two summer students are needed to look at integrating them within the third-year course,
and to continue to refine the first and second year experience. This will include feedback on the existing assignments, and the
development of instructional videos for each academic year.
Co-bonding: a Manufacturing defects in composites materials are responsible for severe reductions in mechanical properties. Recent research has
viable option for shown how the consolidation of thick parts is one of the driving mechanisms leading to defect formation. In order to reduce the
composite occurrence of defects, it is sometimes chosen to replace the traditional co-curing process (i.e. all the different constituents of the
manufacturing? parts are simultaneously layered-up and cured) with co-bonding (i.e. one of the part's element is first manufactured separately and
the remaining part constituents are then layered-up and cured on this cured component). As it involves more manufacturing
processes, co-bonding is more expensive. Moreover, there is only little understanding of how the process affects the parts
mechanical performance. The main objective of this project is to quantify the reduction in mechanical performances induced by the
co-bonding process. Modelling tools for composites process modelling and failure prediction developed in Bristol Composites
Institute (ACCIS) will be used to assess the performance reduction purely due to geometrical effects (i.e. wrinkle severity).
Discrepancy between experimental results and model prediction will allow to assess the amount of performance reduction purely
due to the poor quality of the interface between the part's constituents manufactured separately.
Composites panels representative of a stringer foot have already been manufactured using both co-curing and co-bonding
processes. It was was proven that co-curing allows to considerably decrease wrinkle severity. The intern will have to cut-down
specimens from these panels, perform tensile test (until failure) of the obtained samples and carry finite element analysis of these
tests. If time allows, the intern will also be involved in the analysis of the results. The proposed project will provide results on the
advantages and disadvantages of co-bonding vs co-curing. It is anticipated that the outcomes from the project will be highly
publishable.
Automatic trigger A self-organised, adaptable and robust shape formation algorithm has been developed based on Alan Turing's reaction-diffusion
of wave model for morphogenesis and tested on a swarm of three hundred real robots (kilobots). Work now is focusing on providing
instabilities in a functionality to the shapes. The end goal is to adapt the algorithm to a search and rescue scenario where a swarm of robots has to
linear reaction- create a communication trail between sources, e.g. the entrance of a building on fire and the location of people who need to be
diffusion model rescued. Instability waves could potentially be used to disrupt a static pattern emerged from reaction-diffusion in order to
for shape dynamically reconfigure the swarm if more exploration is needed or there are obstacles in the environment. This summer internship
formation in a will focus on understanding the effect of the parameters in our model, when instability waves are produced and how to trigger them
large swarm of when needed. For that, mathematical analysis and computer simulations will potentially be the main tools. During the internship,
real robots the kilobot swarm at the Bristol Robotics Lab could be used if needed. At the end of the internship, the student will be able to test
the outcome on the kilobots. Background on differential equations and coding is highly advised due to the mathematical nature of
the project and its application in robotics. The student will be based at the Bristol Robotics Lab, where PhD Daniel Carrillo-Zapata will
be supervising, and Dr Sabine Hauert providing advice.
UoB Satellite As part of the University of Bristol CubeSat programme, a satellite ground station has been installed to communicate with satellites
Ground Station: in orbit. This internship will help us further develop the ground station, by creating tools to process and decode the data signals
Signal Processing received from satellites.
and Decoding
The project will involve writing software to demodulate and decode the signals and provide an interface to the user. The first step
would be to process recorded signals, before setting up a way to receive and decode the data in real time. The next step would be to
develop functionality to transmit data (format and code data into packets, modulate signal). A familiarity with RF signal processing
and computer programming is essential for this internship, and an amateur radio license is desirable.
Reduced-order Many engineering structures are nonlinear; however, engineers typically design structures to operate in the linear dynamic regime.
modelling of One reason for this is that the current state-of-the-art techniques for modelling nonlinear structures are restricted to a relatively low
nonlinear number of degrees-of-freedom. Reduced-order modelling provides a solution to this, by reducing the size and complexity of
dynamic nonlinear models, whilst still capturing their fundamental dynamic behaviour. This allows current modelling techniques to be applied
structures to large and complex systems.
Current approaches for nonlinear reduced-order modelling require careful “tuning”, due to uncertainties that are inherent in the
method. This tuning requires a detailed knowledge of the approach, the structure and its behaviour, thus restricting their application
to highly-experienced users and to cases where a good analysis of the structure’s behaviour has already been achieved.
The aim of this project is to implement and develop a novel method for nonlinear reduced-order modelling. It is believed that the
proposed method will provide numerous benefits, such as removing the need for tuning. Once the method has been implemented it
will be demonstrated and studied using a number of theoretical test cases.
This project will be based upon numerical analysis, rather than experimental, and will require a strong grasp of dynamics,
mathematics and good MATLAB programming skills.
Designing a This internship forms part of the proposed University of Bristol PROVE satellite mission, which aims to monitor volcanic ash clouds
Thermal Imaging from space. Volcanic ash can be detected using infrared (IR) cameras by measuring the attenuation of radiation by the ash cloud.
Module for Spectral filters are placed in front of an IR camera to find the attenuation of the radiation at different wavelengths. In addition, a
University of periodic black body calibration is required.
Bristol Satellite
Programme This task consists of designing a mechanism to mount the filters and calibration black body for the IR camera. Initially the mechanism
will be mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), as a prototyping exercise for the PROVE CubeSat. Requirements for the
mechanism shall be established, including minimising mass and size, alternative designs shall be proposed and traded off to select a
design. A prototype will be built to refine the design, before manufacturing the mechanism, and (time permitting) flying the
mechanism and camera on a UAV.
Anarchic How could manufacturing benefit from anarchy? What if, rather than following the rules of complex centralised structures, all jobs
manufacturing and resources in the factory were intelligent agents that organised themselves to make their own productive manufacturing society?
systems,
investigating This internship would investigate, alongside postgraduate researchers and academics, how distributed management and scheduling
distributed systems perform under increasingly complex and volatile environments. Managing the complexity of future smart factories (often
manufacturing called Industry 4.0), utilising autonomous resources and products over the Internet of Things, using centralised processes is
management increasingly difficult. The ongoing research in this area suggests that anarchy may be the solution. The intern, working directly with
systems against academic staff, will research the fundamental aspects of distributed manufacturing systems and help create a framework where
complexity removal of central control structures will lead to more flexible factories, capable of meeting the increasing demand for personalised
products quickly and reliably.
This is a cutting-edge and exciting research area, and it is expected that the intern's work will have very good potential to
contribute to a conference or journal publication.
Skills. Required: Problem-solving & critical thinking. Preferable: computer modelling experience, an interest in coding
Outcomes: Contribution to a conference / journal paper, working knowledge of agent-based simulation models with animated
visualisation, gaining knowledge of Industry 4.0 & digital manufacturing
Helping to set up We are creating a Maker Material Lab in the Merchant Venturer Building. What is it you might ask? It is a hackspace but focused on
a Maker Material making advanced materials. In particular this project allies two pillars of excellent in Bristol: the Bristol Interaction Group expert in
Lab in the making interactive prototypes, and the ACCIS expert in creating advance materials. The goal of the project will be to export some of
Merchant the fabrication methods from the ACCIS (e.g. bi-stable, auxetic structures) in an accessible way via tutorials (video, website) that can
Venturer Building be achieved within the Maker Material Lab. There is a full-time research assistant working on this project and the goal will be to
assist her by creating those tutorials / identifying equipments to buy for the new lab.
Inspiration:
http://openmaterials.org/
Please don’t hesitate to contact me at csxar@bristol.ac.uk

We are looking to publish outcomes in major conference venues
We also have external fundings opportunities.
Making The goal of this project is to add touch to surfaces around us by using fast prototyping tools. In particular the project involves using a
interactive paper conventional inkjet printer and use conductive ink instead of normal ink in order to print capacitive touch sensor on paper. The end-
with a simple user would be able to print interactive buttons on a piece of paper and would be able to stick a board to it (e.g. arduino) to create
Inkjet printer paper with interactive properties. Many research have shown that it is possible (See references). This project will look into building a
prototype that can be used by researchers within the Bristol Interaction Group. This project requires some experience and wish to
work with basic electronics.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYofuygntWA
http://www.novalia.co.uk/
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7808915/
https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2493486
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sorsTBbCaM

We also have external funding opportunities.
A shape-changing Back pain is a condition affecting more than 15% of adults in the UK. It impacts people abilities to execute the most common tasks
T-shirt to help and cost taxpayers a substantial amount of money in sick days (nearly £1b in 2016). Although it can be due to underlying conditions,
user with their it is mostly the result of bad postures taken repeatedly throughout one’s life (e.g. sitting, sleeping, lifting heavy objects, exercising
postures without appropriate guidelines). In this project we offer a preventive solution in the form of actuated textile, embedding actuators
within the fabric itself. Such textile can allow creating cloths with haptic properties, able to reconfigure to nudge users (e.g.
stretching skin, limbs) and guide them into adopting correct postures. E.g.an actuated t-shirt could stretch on the back to encourage
users to sit straight. The project will involve creating stretchable patches that can be tested and embedded in a t-shirt to pull the
user’s back and help him/her adopting the corset posture. This project require some experience and wish to work with basic
electronics (e.g. arduino, pneumatic).
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKqzWVGcERE
https://www.hcii.cmu.edu/news/seminar/event/2017/09/morphing-matter-designing-bioinspired-transformative-materials-and-
interfaces

We also have external funding opportunities.
Hacking a This is a Digital Health research project. The Freestyle Libre is a glucose meter that provides retrospective readings via NFC to a
Diabetes Data bespoke handheld device or a mobile phone app. This project would involve hacking the technology to make a wearable scanning
onto a device and testing it with users of the Libre. This project would require software engineering and android development skills, and it
Smartwatch would be conducted using a user centred design approach. It would feed into a larger programme of research on user engagement
with diabetes health devices.
Development of a Current fixed wing unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) are limited in their ability to fly in the turbulent wind conditions often found in
wind tunnel gust close proximity to buildings and terrain. Operating at the same scale as small UAVs, birds offer inspiration for what flight
generator for performance is physically possible; with their complex sensory systems and morphing wings playing a key role in their success in
testing bio- these conditions. However, currently very little is known about the detail of how enhanced sensory abilities and wing morphing can
inspired be used to allow UAVs to fly in gusty conditions. Ongoing projects in the Bio-inspired Flight Lab are looking at understanding this,
unmanned air and as part of our work we need to develop a method for generating gusts inside a wind tunnel.
vehicles
This project will involve designing, building and testing a gust generator in the low turbulence wind tunnel. The gust generator will
be based around a pitching aerofoil driven by a servo-motor. During the project the aerofoil system will need to be designed, built
and integrated with an existing servo system. The flow disturbances generated will then need to be quantified using our high-speed
Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system and the performance of different aerofoils evaluated.
This project aligns closely with ongoing projects in the Bio-inspired Flight Lab involving the development of bio-inspired UAVs and it
is expected that the intern will also assist with testing of these vehicles. There will also be opportunities to gain exposure to other
projects in the lab, involving GPS tracking of gulls, high speed video reconstruction of bird wing shape, bat flight tracking, and
morphing wing UAVs. Please see lab website for details:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/aerodynamics-research/research-projects/bif/
Data-driven Rotating systems are ubiquitous in mechanical engineering. Take, for example, turbo engines and wind turbines. These systems have
identification for become incredibly complex. The rotor diameter of wind turbines can now easily exceed 150m. The development of effective and
control of linear- robust control systems for such rotating structures can be very challenging and often requires the knowledge of a mathematical
time periodic model of the system. Detailed models can be obtained from first principle using, for instance, the finite element techniques.
systems: However, such models may not be practical for designing a controller due, for instance, to their high-dimensionality and the
application to a unavoidable differences that exist between the mathematical model and the reality.
simplified wind
turbine model The alternative approach considered in this project is to directly obtain a model of the physical structure based on experimental
data. Due to the rotating nature of the system, identification techniques for linear time-periodic systems will be investigated. The
project will consist in a short review of the existing literature and the implementation of an existing identification technique. The
considered method will then be validated numerically on the simplified model of a wind turbine. Experimental validation on a rotor
system available in the dynamics lab will also be investigated.
The identification method will eventually be useful for the design of robust feedback controllers required in several existing
collaborations between the departments of Engineering Mathematics (Dr Renson, Dr Barton) and Mechanical Engineering (Prof
Neild).
An E-Bike This project is intended to be a group project of 3-4 people.
Concept
Demonstrator Many people believe that moving to the use of EVs and the like is not practical due to the relatively low range of the vehicles. We are
proposing that by increasing the range of E-bikes through the adoption of modern electrical system efficiency and real time safety
sensor techniques, more commuters will see E-bikes as a viable, sustainable method of transport and therefore will be encouraged
to invest.
Integrate modern safety features available in cars and EVs such as:
· Actuated Braking: Auto Emergency Braking (AEB)

· Spatial Sensitivity: Lane keeping Assist, forward collision warning, Blindspot Warning System
· Being Seen: Day lights, indicators, rear light & braking light (brighter with braking)
Integrate modern electrical system efficiency features available in EVs such as:
· KERS (Regenerative braking)
· Main and auxiliary power source switching. Depending on the environment and terrain, the load can vary through sudden
acceleration, deceleration and uphill climbs. Having a good management between a main and auxiliary source will improve efficiency
and mean that the E-bike can remain energy efficient in various situations and areas.
Must comply with UK laws regarding E-bikes such as Max EPA Speed and Max output power to avoid needing the user to register
with the DVLA which would reduce public consumer interest.
Learning Outcomes – What we intend to achieve through doing the internship
· Utilise a large amount of course material learnt thus far to solve a real-world problem.
· Core electronics units, electrical systems, industrial electronics, control, DCS as well as embedded system and software design.
· Understand the technical effectiveness of implementing modern efficiency and safety systems in other applications of transport.
Why will this be useful & who will use this? e.g. display and demonstration at open days, UCAS events etc. Shows how UoB Elec
Dept. is invested in its students and industry related research.
This project can be seen as an industry driver to push further research and development into improving E-bikes to be safer for both
road user and commuter and more energy efficient.
Design of a With the constant drive to improve performance, structures become increasingly lighter and more flexible. Take, for example, the
benchmark blades of modern wind turbines which can reach 150m rotor diameter or the high aspect ratio wings of new aircraft concepts such
structure for as the Boeing Sugar Volt. Flexible structures often exhibit large displacements and rotations, leading to so-called nonlinear geometric
nonlinear model effects. Analysing the nonlinear dynamics of systems with geometric nonlinearity is time consuming such that one has no choice but
reduction to attempt to reduce the complexity (dimensionality) of the model while preserving its essential dynamic features.
algorithms
The development of nonlinear model reduction techniques is a very active research field and several methods have already been
proposed in the literature. However, each method was demonstrated on a different structure, which does not allow a direct
comparison of their performances. The considered demonstrators also showed very simple nonlinear dynamic behaviours such that
the use of nonlinear analysis tools is hardly justifiable.
The objective of this project is to propose a new benchmark structure for nonlinear model reduction. The proposed structure will be
reminiscent of new aircraft concepts and will have to feature clear nonlinear dynamic behaviours. The model of the structure will be
developed in Matlab using an existing finite element code for geometrically nonlinear systems. Implementation of new elements will
be considered as appropriate. The developed benchmark will then be shared worldwide with research groups working on nonlinear
model reduction, e.g. Dr Cammarano (Glasgow), Dr Tiso (ETH Zurich), Prof. Rixen (Munich), Prof. Mignolet (Arizona).
Demonstration With the constant drive to improve performance and push the limits of operating conditions, engineering systems become
experiments for increasingly nonlinear. In this context, industry has a pressing need for engineers educated to the basics of nonlinear dynamical
teaching and systems, which most practicing engineers are not. If nonlinear dynamic courses exist, they are traditionally rather theoretical and
research in abstract; very little (if no) attention is paid to physical, engineered systems and practical experiments.
nonlinear
dynamics This project aims to offer to students bench-top experiments on a series of nonlinear systems; allowing them to learn nonlinear
system dynamics in a more practical way and with very little mathematical prerequisites. Specifically, this project will develop an
electronic board that gathers existing nonlinear circuits inspired from several fundamental nonlinear systems such as the Duffing,
Lorenz, Chua, or Mathieu systems. The first task of this project will be to modify these nonlinear circuits such that their input and
outputs voltages/currents are compatible with an existing data acquisition board developed at Bristol. The board will then be fitted
on to a Raspberry Pi in order to benefit from its available interface with Matlab. This will allow to easily conduct experiments by
modifying inputs, outputs and parameters directly from the Matlab environment.
Developments will be open source and the board will be made of cheap components such that it can be reproduced at low cost,
included in existing/new course units and used for final year projects. Several Academics including Prof. Neild and Dr Hill from
Mechanical Engineering have already mentioned their interest. The different nonlinear circuits could also be used to
demonstrate/benchmark nonlinear system identification and nonlinear control techniques, thereby benefiting the great number of
researchers working in this area in and outside Bristol.
Design the Many environmental dangers cannot be sensed using today’s electronics, as it is not commercially viable to replace batteries, and
world’s lowest the sensors are too large to embed. Think of landslides, floods, or people tampering with train tracks; all should be detected to save
people’s lives. At Bristol we are trialling new sub-threshold electronic devices that can be powered for decades from a watch
power sensors to battery!
protect people We are offering an internship in the Electrical Energy Management Group (bit.ly/BristolEnergy), to work on designing a new sensor
using our latest sub-threshold devices, testing the sensor, and, if successful, demonstrating it to companies. You will be fully
immersed in a research environment with full-time researchers (see bit.ly/UB20Mnews, bit.ly/VoltageDetector for descriptions of
our relevant work) and you will be able to collaborate with the start-up company www.sensordriven.com. You will learn about
designing printed circuit boards, microcontroller hardware, and ultra-low-power embedded electronics. This is a unique opportunity
to carry out system development from concept to product and be able to visit and work with partner organisations if desired.
Program the Many environmental dangers cannot be sensed using today’s electronics, as it is not commercially viable to replace batteries, and
world’s lowest the sensors are too large to embed. Think of landslides, floods, or people tampering with train tracks; all should be detected to save
power sensors to people’s lives. At Bristol we are trialling new sub-threshold electronic devices that can be powered for decades from a watch battery,
protect people see for example bit.ly/UB20Mnews.
We are offering an internship in the Electrical Energy Management Group (bit.ly/BristolEnergy), to work on programming new
sensors using our latest sub-threshold devices, and the supporting system (phone app, cloud server etc), testing the system, and, if
successful, demonstrating it to companies. You will be fully immersed in a research environment with full-time researchers (see
bit.ly/UB20Mnews, bit.ly/VoltageDetector for descriptions of our relevant work) and you will be able to collaborate with the start-up
company www.sensordriven.com. You will learn about firmware and application development, microcontrollers, and ultra-low-
power embedded electronics. This is a unique opportunity to carry out system development from concept to product and be able to
visit and work with partner organisations if desired.
Design a GHz Current is not sensed in the latest and fastest power electronic circuits, as the emerging GaN and SiC power devices switch too fast
bandwidth (bandwidth problem) and the circuits needs to be very small (space problem). At Bristol we are trialling a new GHz-bandwidth
current sensor for current sensor that measures 3x10mm, that around 30 companies and external research groups are actively using. It appears to beat
emerging SiC and all existing current sensors for their applications. Feedback from companies includes many new ideas on how to improve the sensor.
GaN power We are offering an internship in the Electrical Energy Management Group (bit.ly/BristolEnergy), to work on designing a new
converters improved variant of our current sensor, testing the sensor, and, if successful, demonstrating it to companies and research groups.
You will be fully immersed in a research environment with full-time researchers (see bit.ly/GaNdriver, bit.ly/ActiveDriver for
descriptions of their work). You will learn about designing printed circuit boards, test equipment, and power electronics, great
practice for your 4th year research project. This is a unique opportunity to carry out hardware development from concept to product
and be able to visit and work with partner organisations if desired.
TacWhisker: The development of robust and accurate artificial touch is needed for autonomous robotic systems to interact with and explore
Biomimetic, 3D- complex environments, underlying the future robotization of broad areas of manufacturing, food production, healthcare and
printed tactile assisted living.
whiskered robots
There are two main paradigms for artificial tactile sensing, based on the animal systems they mimic:
1. Tactile fingertips (cutaneous touch). Bristol Robotics Laboratory leads in this area with the design and fabrication of 3d-printed
tactile fingertips – the TacTip family of sensors. Members of the Tactile Robotics Theme in BRL have a large amount of experience in
this area, including expertise in the design, and standardized software and testing methods (using a robot arm to gather data).
2. Tactile whiskers (vibrissal touch). Bristol Robotics Laboratory has developed the world-leading shrewbot and whiskerbot robots,
based around the BIOTACT sensor, an actuated 3d-printed whisker mounted in a sensorized base. Members of the Biomimetic and
Neurorobotics Theme have a large amount of experience in designing, building and applications of whisker sensors.
This project will bring together work in these two areas by developing and testing a novel 3D-printed tactile sensor: the TacWhisker
array. This will consist of the TacTip base with a customized 3D-printed tip that is covered in whiskers. The sensor performance will
be tested and applications of the novel device explored.
Activities
1) Design and 3D-printing of a novel tactile sensor: the TacWhisker
2) Robot experiments using an industrial arm with TacWhisker mounted as end effector.
Methods
Standardized techniques for building tactile and testing tactile sensors.
Resources
1) Existing designs and a highly experienced team in designing/building tactile sensors.
2) ABB and UR5 robot arms.
3) State-of-the art 3D-printing facilities.
TacHand: 3D- Robust manipulation with prosthetic/robotic hands would have revolutionary implications across many areas of high-impact in
printed robotic robotics, including the factories-of-the-future and autonomous healthcare. One of the main reasons robotic hands are poor is that
hand with a sense they lack any sense of tactile feedback, which has been demonstrated as necessary for the most basic manipulation tasks in humans.
of touch
This project will fabricate a tactile robotic hand by combining two technologies:
1. Tactile fingertips (cutaneous touch). Bristol Robotics Laboratory leads in this area with the design and fabrication of 3d-printed
tactile fingertips – the TacTip family of sensors. Members of the Tactile Robotics Theme in BRL have a large amount of experience in
this area, including expertise in the design, and standardized software and testing methods (using a robot arm to gather data).
2. Yale Grablab openhand (model-O). This 3-fingered robot hand was the winner of the 2013 DARPA autonomous robot
manipulation competition and the designs are available to customize and 3D-print.
We have already fabricated one version of this tactile hand within our group. The focus of this project is to improve on those designs
to fabricate Version 2 of the hand. The project could also encompass building more advanced hand-designs with a collaborator
involved in the original design of the openhand.
Activities
1) Design and 3D-printing of a novel tactile robot hand
2) Robot experiments using an industrial arm with the tactile hand mounted as end effector.
Methods
Standardized techniques for building tactile and testing tactile sensors.
Resources
1) Existing designs and a highly experienced team in designing/building tactile sensors.
2) ABB and UR5 robot arms.
3) State-of-the art 3D-printing facilities.
Mobile sensing of As obesity levels increase, the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is rising fast in the UK, causing both serious health problems and
data relevant to increasing financial strain on the NHS. Approximately £11 billion per year is spent on diabetes care – around 10% of the total NHS
Type 2 diabetes budget - and it is estimated that one in six NHS beds are occupied by someone with diabetes. In the UK, over 4.5 million people have
been diagnosed with diabetes and 90% of people with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes (T2D), which involves a reduced sensitivity to
the hormone insulin and is associated with increased levels of glucose in the blood.
This proposed programme of research will provide a data set and potentially the opportunity for the right student to carry out data
mining and/or data visualisation work. The goal is to use a mobile sensing framework such as AWARE
(http://www.awareframework.com/) along with a Freestyle Libre blood glucose monitor (www.freestylelibre.co.uk) to collect data
relevant to the development of Type 2 diabetes.
This work will help to frame an EPSRC proposal currently being developed as a collaboration between researchers in Computer
Science and Engineering Maths and with a researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge. The goal is to co-design an end-user
customisable mobile AI toolkit that will provide personalised information to people with Type 2 diabetes to help them manage their
condition through human-AI partnership. On top of this proposal we plan to submit a Microsoft Research studentship funding
application for 2019, so there is a possibility of this work extending into a PhD project.
Æthel RED - Are The aim of this proposed internship project is to develop a tool to help monitor the progress of group projects on the SPE (Software
we ready? Product Engineering) unit.
The purpose of this tool is to provide transparency into the Agile development processes being undertaken by development teams.
Without suitable support, it is extremely difficult for commercial clients, supervising academics and even the individual members of
the team to assess their progress against stages of the development process, in-roads into backlogs and achievement against various
delivery milestones.
We envisage the creation of a simple and ease-to-use monitoring dashboard, providing both graphical and textual reporting on
teams’ development progress.
It is essential the analytical tools and processes developed by insightful, but also light-touch - limiting as much as possible the
additional workload placed on the teams.
The outcomes of this project will provide a number of benefits to various stakeholders of SPE:
• Team members: Allowing them to gain feedback on the extent of their contribution to the project.
• Team leader: Allowing them to gain feedback the state of the project & contribution of individuals
• Lecturing staff: Allowing them to monitor group progress and identify possible problems.
• Clients: Allowing them to monitor iterative development and progress of releases.
This project would particularly suit a student interested in project management of software development and will incorporated both
the research of the state-of-the-art in process monitoring tools as well as significant tool development work. This project will give
the chosen student detailed insight into agile project management processes and will enhance both their Software Engineering and
technical development skills.
An Application for As renewables-based generation of energy grows, the effect that in has upon the present energy distribution infrastructure must be
Assessing the better understood.
Effects of The OpenLV (https://openlv.net/) project will, for the first time ever, provide open access to the data on the state of several low
Renewable-Based voltage distribution sub-stations to enable application development and research. This internship will contribute to this
Electricity development and research effort by developing an application that:
Generation on a 1. Visualises the substation as a dynamic system at runtime. This will help the sub-station operators see which aspects of the system
Distribution affect (improve or degrade) the substation performance and how (e.g., increased consumption leading to dropping of the voltage
Substation and degradation of the supplied electricity quality).
2. Allows simulations-based assessment of the effects that various renewables-based generation scenarios would have on the
runtime and performance of the sub-station. This will enable the distribution sub-stations to better plan for and support increased
uptake of the renewables-based generation by the households and small businesses.
Experience gained with:
1. A software development project in a company environment;
2. Analysis and modelling of a real cyber-physical system;
3. Use of big data analytics and visualisation;
4. As an extension, agent-based modelling and simulation.
Deliverables:
1. A cause-effect model for the distribution sub-station
2. Full systems dynamics model of the distribution sub-station;
3. An application that visualises the current state of the sub-station (as per the system dynamics model and the run-time OpenLV
data)
(Note: The project can be further scoped up or down, depending on time availability. In the event of discontinuity with the OpenLV
project, the current internship will be implemented within the UoB’s own energy infrastructure).
Making with the The majority of children who are blind or live with a visual impairment in the UK are educated in mainstream rather than special
Makers: A Toolkit schools. They usually have teaching assistants (TAs) assigned to them who support them in a variety of ways, including making sure
for Multisensory the curriculum is accessible to these children. They often do this either through transcription of textbooks and teaching materials,
Transformation of and/or by making tactile representations of educational content, for example, printing a map using heat-raised paper so that it can
Everyday Things be felt and traced through touch.
This project sits at the intersection of accessibility, multisensory interaction, maker-culture, physical computing and fabrication. The
aim is to create a basic toolkit to help TAs produce more engaging and richer educational content for visually impaired and blind
children, exploiting existing resources and expertise already available in mainstream schools. The main idea is to enable TAs - who
are non-technical people but highly competent in “making things” - to use micro controllers and embed basic low cost electronics,
such as motion sensors, conductive ink and audio output, into everyday artefacts; turning these into interactive objects capable of
multisensory input and output; e.g. a map that you speak to and it speaks back to you upon touch, or a globe that vibrates to
indicate tectonic plate movements. Technically, this would involve the ability to respond to touch and to translate it into audio or
tactile feedback through surfaces actuators.
The challenge in this project is to make physical computing accessible to non-technical people by producing a toolkit that combines
off-the-shelf micro-controllers, low cost electronics and sensors with an easy to use interface to embed and program multisensory
feedback into everyday objects. The project is therefore best suited for a student with strong programming skills and experience in
prototyping and working with electronics.
The Multisensory While most technologies for habit change depend on smartphone apps and reminders, current research shows the importance of
Cube: a physical environment in which people are trying to complete their habits. This opens up new opportunities for novel interfaces, including
device to bots, voice assistants and tangible devices.
augment chabots
with audio, visual The aim of the internship would be to build a physical device that is able to communicate with a bot or a voice assistant in order to
and haptic help people remember healthy behaviours and start new habits. The device should provide different modalities of reminders: audio,
feedback visual, haptic, and a combination of those. In addition, the device should be able to react to messages from the bot/voice assistant,
and the bot/voice assistant should be able to record user’s interactions with the device. It would also be nice if there was a web
interface to program the device and specify modalities it should use.
The project would be best suited for a student with strong programming skills and experience in prototyping and working with
electronics.
Developing In engineering, the stability of structures is of paramount importance. A characteristic of structural stability is that simple structures
algorithms for can give rise to unexpectedly complex behaviour---a credit card bent between finger and thumb can exhibit negative stiffness and
unstable bistability---and this makes the phenomena both fascinating and dangerous. Traditionally, the focus in engineering has been on
structures preventing buckling due to its potentially catastrophic effects. However, engineering has recently begun to embrace buckling and
experiments other nonlinear structural phenomena as useful ways for adding extra functionality. This offers many new exciting possibilities for
structural design of morphing, deployable, and multifunctional structures.
Numerical methods for modelling unstable structural behaviour are very well-developed, but there are no experimental methods
which can verify these simulations. We are currently aiming to tackle this problem, and we have recently developed a method by
which we can probe a structure to search for unstable equilibria. This works for a simple case, but more complex structures will
require additional probes, which in turn will require a more sophisticated control algorithm.
The student will use a Finite Element model of the experimental set-up as a sandbox with which to develop these algorithms;
exploring the effect of probe location and number of probes. This project has the potential to make a real impact on ongoing
research --- results of the work can support existing experimental results, and successful algorithms will be used to control the next
iteration of the experimental set-up, which will be used to generate future publications.
The ideal candidate for this project should have a good grasp of structures, and some experience in Finite Element Analysis and
programming (e.g. Matlab or Python).
Engineering with We all played with Lego as kids, but can we use it to create as engineers? Can we use it to interact with and explore design
Lego opportunities, embed information within bricks to run computer simulations, or even use it as a tangible physical interface that lets
us interact with the digital world?
Based on previous PhD work and supported by the Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab
team, this internship will use a digital/physical Lego-based interface to explore the
opportunities of using physical media as an interface for design and simulation of
engineering artefacts. By embedding design rules within Lego bricks that are then used for
prototyping, the intern will explore how different rules influence the design options
available, whether designs can be constrained to find the best solutions quickly, and the
possibility of using Lego to directly interface with and explore the results of design
simulations.
This work connects with an active research area core to the future of engineering; bringing
the power of computation, combined digital/physical working environments, and artificial
intelligence to the design of real-world engineering artefacts and systems.
Working in this exciting area, it is expected that the intern will (with support from
academics) have potential to publish their work in an international conference or journal.
Skills. Required: Problem-solving and critical thinking; strong interest in coding (python preferred). Preferable: Familiarity with Lego.
Prototypes that In the future the gap between the digital and physical worlds will be near seamless. We’ll be able to choose to work in either one or
evolve both, taking advantage of the tangibility of the real world and flexibility of the digital simultaneously.
themselves One key area of benefit for this vision is in prototyping, where active research in the Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab is
attempting to fully integrate the process between the two realms by making digital and physical prototype twins; where engineers
can work with either one and the other will update automatically.
The intern for this project will work towards this goal through exploring the capabilities of newly acquired equipment – a highly
accurate measurement system called the Renishaw Equator. Working with research
staff and academics, they will investigate the potential to use the Equator to measure
3D printed prototypes, detect changes that have been made by engineers, and re-work
these changes directly into the digital model. This internship will be targeted at the
hardware end of this tool chain.
This work forms a core part of the process of integrating the virtual and physical worlds
in engineering and has very good scope to produce an international conference or
journal publication.
Skills. Required: Problem-solving and critical thinking. Preferable: interest in
manufacture, interest in coding
Experimental Traditionally, structural nonlinearity has been associated with buckling and instability, and consequently with failure of a structure.
Design for However, current research looks at using structural nonlinearities for enhanced performance and functionality, for example in
Validation of compliant and morphing structures. In order to fully exploit the potential of nonlinear structures in engineering applications, we
Nonlinear must not only develop appropriate design and analysis techniques, but also experimental methods to validate their performance.
Structures
This internship will assist ongoing research into developing novel experimental techniques for nonlinear structures, to help validate
theoretical models. In addition, it will look at developing demonstration models to incorporate state-of-the-art research on
nonlinear structures into undergraduate teaching. The student should have an interest in structures and designing and testing
experimental equipment.
Earthquake- Pipelines are critical lifeline systems, supporting multiple aspects of socio-economic activity through the transfer of gas, oil, water
induced and waste. In areas of high seismicity, buried pipelines are subject to the risk of earthquake-induced soil liquefaction, which can
Liquefaction result in substantial pipe uplift. This can lead to operational failure, affecting human activity in disproportionally larger areas,
Effects on Buried including non-seismic regions. Pipeline uplift can also result in extensive damage to road surfaces, thus also inhibiting earthquake
Pipelines disaster response, while the potential leak of hazardous materials can cause an irrecoverable environmental disaster.
Although the problem has attracted the interest of several researchers worldwide, the involved soil-pipe interaction effects remain
poorly understood. More specifically, the presence of the pipe and the shear strains developing in the soil during uplift prevent
complete liquefaction from happening in the soil above the pipe, hence resulting in a complicated highly non-linear dynamic soil-
structure interaction phenomenon.
In order to fully understand soil-pipe interaction effects in a liquefaction regime, this project will involve the conduction of shaking-
table tests at the University’s Earthquake Lab. The model will be set up and tested in a small laminar box available at the laboratory.
Accelerometers will be used to measure the dynamic response of the pipe and the surrounding soil, pore pressure transducers will
be employed to measure liquefaction ratios around the pipe, uplift will be determined using a wire potentiometer, while pressure
cells will also be installed on the pipe to quantify the developing soil-pipe interaction forces.
It is noted that the consumables required for these tests will be covered by a pump-priming fund awarded to the supervisor by the
UoB Faculty of Engineering.
Actuated-Pin Actuated-Pin Based Modular Interface as an Inclusive Technology
Based Modular
Interface as an The project aims to implement an actuated-pin* based modular interface that enriches interaction methods for visually impaired
Inclusive users.
Technology
The actuated pins will physicalize digital information, e.g., a table of content. With the current speech-to-text engine, the users need
to wait for a wanted item to appear during the engine goes through the whole table of content. The actuated-pin interface can
physicalize a table of content with different height, e.g., a higher pin represents the title of a section, and a smaller pin represents
the title of a subsection. The users can jump to any content by clicking buttons on the pins.
The modularity of the device will increase mobile usage. For instance, the device can be attached to back of a mobile phone and help
the users switch between apps and go through lists of chats or phone calls. The device can be connected to each other, creating
1D/2D/3D arrays of actuated pins. It will suggest new interaction methods for both visually impaired users and sighted users.
*Example of actuated-pin interface http://foresight.ifmo.ru/ict/shared/files/201312/1_192.pdf
During the internship, the student will design and build the working prototype and conduct a preliminary user study.
iBEM - Intelligent In the face of climate change driven mainly by burning of fossil fuels there is an imperative on reducing energy consumption and
building energy substituting fossil fuels through renewable energy.
management
The built environment is one of the sectors of the economy that is most contributing to energy consumption. Improvements of the
energy efficiency of buildings in the forms of heating rooms and water and the electricity consumption by devices are thus
necessary. One of the promising opportunities that presents itself by the development of sensing and control devices as part of the
Internet of Things is the intelligent control of buildings.
Such control includes, for example, intelligently heating rooms for exactly when people are using them and thus eliminating waste
without compromising comfort.
As part of the UKCRIC Integrated urban infrastructure labs (http://www.ukcric.com/about/facilities/integrated-urban-infrastructure-

labs/) the University of Bristol is setting up a state of the art environment in which sensors and controllers are deployed and
generating real-time, fine grained data about the campus.
This project has a wide scope. The activities will be defined together with the applicant researcher. The scope allows for modelling of
the electric energy system, user behaviour or economic aspects of operating the building and energy system. The modelling can be
supported by data analysis with the potential for machine learning for anomaly detection and automating building control. The
project might also include visualisation of data and insights.
This is a significant opportunity to enter an expanding area of applied research. The applicant will develop research experience and
essential research skills. He will learn and apply analysis techniques applicable to a wide set of problems. The work in this project will
contribute to more economical operation of the University and to publications.
CAT - Cloud In the unit COMSM0010 Cloud Computing students learn the theoretical and practical fundamentals of building software for the
Application cloud. This includes the construction of an end-to-end cloud application as their coursework.
Template
Taking inspiration from systems such as hackerrank.com the goal of this project is the construction of a cloud application template to
which students add their own code.
Specifically, the intention is to construct a framework that acts as a harness around software components written by the individual
students. Together, the harness and the components provided by the student form a distributed application that runs in the cloud.
The detailed design and scope of the system will be defined at the start of the project. Importantly, the system will need to support
some form of submission process that pseudonomises candidate IDs. It also requires some guarantees on the integrity of state of
submission/deployment of components, along the form of timestamps.
One of the design decisions to make is the preparation of code stubs that the students extend.
There are some extensions to the minimal viable product. These include - the construction of a series of test cases that students can
exercise to get instant feedback on the quality of their components - and automatic tools to perform performance and/or availability
tests
The system will be built on the Oracle cloud.
Some example system types that this project could develop are: - distributed machine learning (big data) cloud storage or cloud
compute (for example computer vision)
This project suits a student with good coding skills but does not require familiarity with cloud development. The student will be
supported by the lecturers and the tech team at Oracle.
Functional Functional Programming (COMS10006) is a 10-credit core unit taught in the first term of the first year of the undergraduate
Programming Computer Science curriculum, delivered to a cohort of 200 students. This proposal is for support of up to two students for up to 8 -
Coursework 10 weeks each to help improve the coursework material for that unit, and to develop assets that can be used for open day activities.
This year the course was piloted to use the New Wing in Queen's Building. While aspects of moving to a large laboratory were
successful, some of the teething problems concerning WiFi connectivity made the deployment of the web-based coding
environment difficult. As such, the course material requires some work so that it can be easily transfered to an offline computer if
required. It would also be beneficial to integrate the core practical material into the worksheets more closely, thus encouraging
students to engage with the coursework fully.
We propose taking on two internship students to help improve existing materials and help develop new coursework. This internship
is not solely for the purpose of improving the course; another motivation is to help train "advanced" TAs that will help with the
delivery of course materials in the new laboratory: with a cohort size of 200, such TAs proved to be an invaluable asset last term and
were able to help with difficult problems that require an in-depth knowledge of the material. It is envisaged that these interns will be
selected from students who currently show potential and for whom this internship will be most beneficial.
Language Language Engineering (COMS22201) is a 20-credit core unit taught throughout the second year of the undergraduate Computer
Engineering Science curriculum, and delivered to a cohort of 160 students. This proposal is for support of up to two students for up to 8 - 10
Materials weeks each to help improve the coursework material for that unit, and to develop assets that can be used for open day activities.
The current Language Engineering course focuses on worksheets as a formative means of providing exercises for students to engage
with the material. While this has been successful at conveying the key ideas of the course, it would be beneficial to create resources
that allow students to build compilers of their own. Traditionally this is achieved by a separate piece of coursework. The goal of this
internship is to consolidate the current worksheets so that students can build a compiler of their own, with motivation coming from
the worksheets themselves.
We propose taking on two internship students to help improve existing materials and help develop new coursework. This internship
is not solely for the purpose of improving the course; another motivation is to help train "advanced" TAs that will help with the
delivery of course materials. Such TAs proved to be an invaluable asset last term and were able to help with difficult problems that
require an in-depth knowledge of the material. It is envisaged that these interns will be selected from students who currently show
potential and for whom this internship will be most beneficial.
Dependently- The purpose of this internship is to help advance the state-of-the-art of dependently-typed language compilers. Idris is a
Typed Language programming language that supports pure functional programming in an environment with dependent types. The goal is to help
Compiler develop features in its open-source compiler.
Development
In physics and engineering, dimensional analysis plays a crucial role in calculations, where base quantities such as length and time
are given units of measure such as metres and seconds. Keeping track of these dimensions and ensuring that they are appropriately
combined provides a rudimentary form of sanity check that is accepted as common practice.
A type system is a feature of a programming language that allows programmers to rely on a compiler to perform an advanced form
of dimensional analysis on their programs. In turn, this helps programmers to produce robust and reliable software, since the
compiler will reject code that does not conform to the analysis.
The base quantities in this setting can encompass the usual quantities and metrics typically encountered in the physical world and
are usually captured by what is known as the type of a value. Modern advances in programming languages provide types that are far
more complex than the traditional dimensions for analysis. This encompasses computation effects such as exceptions, non-
determinism and state, but also data structures with complex invariances.
The type system of Idris is dependently-typed, which means that a type can depend on a value. This allows extremely fine-grained
types to be expressed, a simple example being lists whose type contains information about the length of the list in question.
While the key notions of dependent types have been established for some time, Idris is a recently developed language that offers
the paradigm for pragmatic programming. It has an active development community and the compiler would benefit from
contributions to help improve it. The compiler itself is written in Haskell, and this would be a perfect internship opportunity for a
student who wishes to learn more about modern compiler design, as well as develop an understanding of dependent types.
A new soft tactile Tablets and smart phones are amazing device, with stunning screens and clear audio. On the other hand, their touch interaction
interface for capabilities are terrible! You have to tap on a hard glass screen and you only get the most rudimentary tactile sensations back in the
digital devices form of coarse vibrations. This research project seeks to overcome the limitations of conventional touch interfaces by exploiting soft
touch. We will explore how an interface device can be designed and fabricated, and we hope to show the first proof-of-concept for
a tablet soft tactile interface and digital musical instrument. Over the last year the foundations of this work have been conducted in
the Bristol Soft Robotics Group at Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL). You will be working in BRL with Gabor Soter, researcher in soft
robotics, and Prof Jonathan Rossiter, head of research group. This is an unparalleled opportunity to undertake state-of-the-art
research with world leaders and generate impact through an expected publication, and potentially seeing your work contributing to
a spin-out product. This project involves a combination of hands-on training in soft systems, elements of programming to interface
the technologies, and required, above all, a high degree of imagination and enthusiasm.
MEDIC GUI - In the TEAPOT project with BBC research and development we are modelling the energy consumption from the delivery of video
Modelling services via the Internet. As part of this project we have developed a new modelling framework. Technology experts from the BBC
Environment for and other organisations can use this framework to assess the energy consumption from delivering media services via the Internet,
Digital cable, satellite or terrestrial broadcast.
Infrastructure
energy In order to simplify the use of the framework the goal of this project is the enhancement of the framework with graphical tools. The
Consumption GUI opportunity is to contribute to a system that might inform the way that digital services are designed.
Access to the system will be browser based. Thus, we are looking for a student with solid web development skills. Desirable
technologies to be familiar with are HTML/JavaScript for the front and python for the backend.
YouTubing a There are several excellent teaching models of satellites, but they are very expensive, so it is not possible to buy a full set for a
satellite to teach teaching laboratory. The University of Bristol has been sponsored to buy one teaching model. The aim of this project would be to
principles of make some short teaching videos of the use of various aspects of the satellite model (including attitude control, power systems,
spacecraft design onboard data handling and telecommunication). These videos could be used to explain basic principles of the hardware to help
students to understand and visualise the concepts. The student would need to be familiar with basic satellite design and to be
interested in education and YouTube filming.
Innovative This project will explore how new technologies can be implemented into Wave Energy Conversion (WEC) devices. The main focus will
Technologies for be on the conversion of kinetic and potential energy to electrical energy, but with a vast array of fields to be explored, there will be
Wave Energy solutions that affect different parts of the system. The project will be organised into 3 phases of work. Phase 1 is the identification of
Devices opportunities, involving a divergent thinking process and research across a number of innovative technologies. Participation in the
Annual PRIMaRE Conference (http://www.primare.org/), being held at the University on the 5-6th July and interviews with a range
of key stakeholders will play a key role in informing this stage of the project. Phase 2 is the more detailed understanding of ideas, the
theory behind the technologies and understanding how they can be best matched to the needs of WECs. Phase 3 is the creation of a
matrix tool that will marry up alternative technology ideas with the most appropriate systems of a WEC. Once this matrix is
complete, a series of systems engineering tools will be used to create system architectures that can be investigated in more detail.
The project will be conducted in close collaboration with Blackfish (https://blackfishengineering.com/) and IT Power
(http://www.itpower.co.in/), two Bristol based renewable energy consultancies.
Footprint of In a paper to shortly to be presented at the international conference of ICT4Sustainability we present the architecture of a novel
Things system to enable the real-time collection of energy and material flow data for the infrastructure used in digital services. The paper is
available upon request.
The goal of this research project is the design of a generic IoT protocol built on semantic web technologies to be used in a first
implementation of the IoT prototype system.
The applicant will develop experience in semantic technologies. He will be involved in the prototyping and publication.
Calibration of Engineering models of wind farm wakess rely on many assumptions and simplifications, often defined in terms of empirical
Engineering parameters and relationships which need to be calibrated with reference to full-scale field measurements, wind tunnel tests, or
Models of Wind higher-fidelity models; these range from vortex models through steady-state CFD (RANS, i.e. Reynolds Averaged solutions of the
Farm Wakes Navier Stokes equations) to unsteady RANS and Large Eddy Simulation (LES), which is very slow and computer-intensive. The intern
using CFD will work with an engineering model developed by DNV GL and a commercial CFD (RANS) code, helping to devise numerical
experiments to run with the CFD code aimed at resolving some of the main uncertainties in the engineering models. This may
include aspects such as wake superposition, interactions with atmospheric boundary layer, advection speed of changes in wake
properties, etc. for a range of different conditions. The CFD runs will be performed, and the results will be analysed with a view to
improving the empirical relationships used in the engineering model and estimating appropriate parameter values.
High performance The objective of this project is to utilise a high-performance thermoplastic as a matrix for carbon fibre composites. The motivation is
polymers for to exploit the impressive mechanical properties of the polymer to enhance the mechanical stability of the carbon fibres when
carbon fibre subjected to compressive loadings. The polymer that will be studied is polybenzimidazole (PBI) - the World’s highest performing
composites engineering thermoplastic – in part, down to its tensile and compressive properties, but also due to its high thermal stability -
leading to applications in NASA’s space program and in the protective clothing for firefighters.
This internship will build on previous work from the EPSRC HiPerDuCT funded project and will comprise of thermal characterisation
of the PBI, casting a PBI solution (PBI and solvent) on the carbon fibre and subsequent heat pressing to consolidate the laminate. The
resulting composite will be evaluated in compression and in-plane shear configuration and compared to standard epoxy thermoset
carbon fibre polymers.
The project will provide experience to the student of the polymer matrix in composites, fabrication of a thermoplastic pre-preg and
mechanical testing of the composite. Thus, skills in using tools such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric
analysis (TGA), basic chemistry apparatus and mechanical testing facilities will be developed.
MATLAB based Development of a MATLAB based ground station to wirelessly control a UAV. It will build on previous internship and project work to
UAV control to link together an existing MATLAB based piece of communication software (MAVLINK) for drone control to another MATLAB code
implement path which uses path planning algorithms to generate search patterns for UAV assisted search and rescue missions.
planning
algorithms onto a The aim of this project is to develop a set-up to test a single UAV performing various search strategies in a wilderness search and
wireless platform rescue application. This model will include various inputs such as terrain data, last known location, and possible destinations to form
a base probability distribution. The integration of MAVLINK will also allow a solution to be developed where the UAV can receive
wireless updates to the probability map from the ground control station and update its search strategy without compromising the
performance of the overall search.
Solar Tree Current Work is being conducted on solar modelling and polar output for a solar tree, in collaboration with the Bristol-based artist
parametrisation who designed and fabricated the Solar Tree in Millennium Square.
and optimisation
The tree is 'fractal-esque' in its design, i.e. constructed of repeating components leading to a finite number of permutations in its
structure. Minimising occlusion (shading) of panels by one another is desirable, as panel output drops at an outsized rate for a given
shading. A method of defining the structure and then calculating fractional panel shading for a given solar incidence is required.
Through the development of geometric modelling techniques, use of existing rendering tools, or otherwise, a method of calculating
occlusion of panels should be generated. It is also desirable to be able to generate attractive visual representations of the tree.
Variable-stiffness This project will focus on a new and exciting area of artificial muscle research in Soft Robotics, using twisted rubber muscle fibres.
Muscle Fibres
Using Twisted Variable-stiffness materials are those whose stiffness can be controllable altered. They can be used in many fields such as robotic
Rubber control, locomotion robotics and prosthetics. Certain variable-stiffness materials can even be used as muscles, by stretching them
and increasing their stiffness resulting in an elastically powered return stroke, like a catapult. The non-linear elastic behaviour of
rubber provides the potential for it to be used as a variable-stiffness fibre: by twisting rubber fibres, the zero-point of their S-shaped
stress-strain curve is shifted resulting in a change in tensile stiffness. This can be used to do work, lifting or lowering a weight, or
exert force.
In this project, the variable-stiffness characteristics of twisted rubber will be assessed in a custom-made linear testing device.
Isometric force-length behaviour will be recorded at different levels of imparted twist, and isotonic contraction and extension will be
assessed. Finally, twisted rubber muscle fibres will be controlled to impart sinusoidal oscillation of a test mass, demonstrating their
potential as artificial muscles for use in running robots and prosthetics.
Research supervision will be undertaken by Jonathan Rossiter and his researchers Tim Helps and Majid Tahgavi, all from the field of
Soft Robotics.
Bringing Disney's This project will focus on a new and exciting area of research in Soft Robotics using air amplification. In contrast to conventional
Baymax to reality: robots, soft robots are compliant and intrinsically safe. The aim is to make a new class of robot which is inflated extremely quickly
blowing up and efficiently by air amplification. Air amplification is the mechanism used in aircraft escape slides. The slide employs a relatively
robots with air small compressed air tank which does not contain enough gas to fully inflate the slide. Instead, the high-speed gas from the tank is
amplification used to suck in air from the atmosphere and deliver a far greater volume of gas into the slide. This is called air amplification. It is also
the same principle used to regulate the amount of oxygen delivered in oxygen masks. By using this technique we will design and test
novel air-driven soft actuators that will lead to a new range of soft robots and wearable devices. Applications range from super-
lightweight deployable robots, personalised airbags to stop injuries in elderly people when they fall and rescue robots. Using air
amplification we can use a small tank to inflate a large robot, just like Baymax! But Baymax is fiction and we want to make this kind
of rapidly-deployed robots (and other robotics structures and soft-smart machines) a reality. This project will be carried out in the
Soft Robotics group at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, the largest robotics lab in the UK. You will receive training in fabrication and test
methods and will also be exposed to the other projects and researchers in the lab. Research supervision will be undertaken by
Jonathan Rossiter, Tim Helps and Majid Taghavi, researchers in soft robotic wearable devices.
Online AI The aim of this project is to further develop innovative online teaching tools for machine learning and AI. There is scope for two
teaching tools projects.
The first project is concerned with improving the existing codebase of the online edition of the "Simply Logical" AI textbook, and to
develop further interactive lecture material. The book was written to embody a "teaching by showing, learning by doing" philosophy
that we now want to fully exploit by means of modern technologies available today, in particular JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Prolog and
Python. The project is described in full detail at http://simply-logical.space/projects/ .
The second project is about developing further self-learning material for the "Machine Learning" textbook, building on an interactive
quiz engine that was developed as part of a previous Summer internship (see https://mlbook.cs.bris.ac.uk/ ). The goal now is to link
this engine with powerful machine learning and visualisation libraries to substantially enlarge the types of questions that can be
asked. The project will also investigate ways in which this material can be deployed as online tests on Blackboard.
These projects allow students to expand their knowledge of machine learning and AI, improve their skills in developing web-based
applications, and be involved in innovative online projects that have the potential of getting a lot of exposure.
Online AI The aim of this project is to further develop innovative online teaching tools for machine learning and AI. There is scope for two
teaching tools projects.
The first project is concerned with improving the existing codebase of the online edition of the "Simply Logical" AI textbook, and to
develop further interactive lecture material. The book was written to embody a "teaching by showing, learning by doing" philosophy
that we now want to fully exploit by means of modern technologies available today, in particular JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Prolog and
Python. The project is described in full detail at http://simply-logical.space/projects/ .
The second project is about developing further self-learning material for the "Machine Learning" textbook, building on an interactive
quiz engine that was developed as part of a previous Summer internship (see https://mlbook.cs.bris.ac.uk/ ). The goal now is to link
this engine with powerful machine learning and visualisation libraries to substantially enlarge the types of questions that can be
asked. The project will also investigate ways in which this material can be deployed as online tests on Blackboard.
These projects allow students to expand their knowledge of machine learning and AI, improve their skills in developing web-based
applications, and be involved in innovative online projects that have the potential of getting a lot of exposure.
The electrically The faculty has an active stream of research fitting cutting-edge sensors onto flying UAVs. These have been used to measure volcanic
quiet drone gases, glacial retreat and for high altitude atmospheric monitoring. The UAVs themselves are electrically noisy - the electronics and
motors radiate interference and a typical UAV is bristling with antennas for data, video and control links - whilst the sensors we fly
are often experimental and sensitive to interference. This project will explore the concept of the creating a quieter UAV platform,
exploring both reducing emissions and providing a shielded environment for sensitive electronics.
This project would suit students wishing to get involved in flying UAVs at our outdoor test site at Long Ashton and who have an
interest in electronics. The student would be expected to work as part of the team in the newly refurbished flight lab in Queens
building and testing flight electronics. The project could be successfully completed by any student, so long as they are happy to
learn about the underlying science.
A comparison of The university has a wide interest in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for aerial surveying purposes. A common mission
geo-referencing across many departments – aerospace, physics, earth sciences, geography – is a visual survey, whereby a set of images is collected
techniques for by a UAV and then processed into 3D models of the terrain or structures using photogrammetry software. One stage of the
Unmanned Aerial processing is to geo-reference the model, such that is it correctly aligned on a planetary scale. Typically this is performed by placing
System (UAS) markers in the scene and performing a ground survey, however in more extreme and remote environments (eg. volcanic or
photogrammetry radioactive) a manned survey is not always possible. This project would investigate using alternative methods for geo-referencing
making use of new high precision GPS sensors.
The student would be expected to: work in the newly refurbished flight lab to design and integrate new sensors onto UAVs; collect
example data sets by operating UAVs at the outdoor flight facility; and analyse and compare the accuracy of the various geo-
referring methods.
Wearable Ageing of the global population is unprecedented and the number of older people is expected to exceed the number of younger
Embedded people for the first time by 2050. The existing medical system will not be able to meet this continuously increasing demand, and
Sensing Systems therefore the use of emerging digital technologies for healthcare monitoring is essential. Moreover, our habits and daily activities
for Digital Health: affect our health status and proneness to life-long medical conditions. The vision of SPHERE is to use wireless sensing technology for
Firmware behavioural monitoring in a home environment as a means of supporting the elderly and people suffering from life-long medical
Development and conditions, effectively off-loading the NHS. To this end, SPHERE is designing fit-for-purpose sensing systems, such as the SPHERE
Prototyping Wristband and the SPHERE Environmental Sensor.
We are looking for intern to join the SPHERE's wireless embedded systems team and help us with the development of the firmware
of the new SPHERE Wearable Sensor, named Wearable 3. Experience with C programming is essential. Experience with IoT
platforms, such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, is desirable. Knowledge of low power wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth Low
Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.15.4, are also considered a plus.
Comprehensive A key component of composite manufacturing processes is the forming of a planar material into a three-dimensional shape.
analysis of dry Simulating this process is critical for predicting process induced defects in the material and for eliminating expensive manufacturing
textile materials trials. The models used for simulating this process are dependent on characterisation of the textile material. The in-plane shear
in-plane shear behaviour is integral for forming simulations, this can be found through picture frame shear and bias extension tests on the dry
behaviour textile material. Although these methods are frequently used they have been widely observed to under predict the shear stiffness of
the material at higher shear angles [1]. A virtual characterisation method has been developed at UoB to predict the in-plane shear
behaviour of the material however, compared with picture frame shear tests, the stiffness diverges at shear angles greater than 30
degrees. The main focus of this project is to perform a detailed analysis on a 2D textile during a bias extension test. Simulations of
this test will be performed with a macro-scale modelling approach, using the inputs gained through both the virtual characterisation
method and picture frame shear test. By comparing the simulation results with the experiment, the performance of the virtual
characterisation technique can be comprehensively evaluated.
The main tasks of this project will be a comprehensive study on the deformation behaviour of the textile material during the bias
extension test. Digital image correlation will be used to observe the in-plane shear of the material and occurrence of out-of-plane
wrinkles. Relating the different deformations observed to changes in load curve, during one loading cycle, will be a key outcome
from this work which would gain a greater understanding of the material behaviour. Presenting the data in a coherent manor will be
integral as the results gained from this work are planned for publication.
Anomaly It is widely accepted that self-driving cars will become common day reality in the not too distant future. Google has been researching
Detection for fully self-driving technology since 2009 (Inc., 2017), and today their vehicles have collectively self-driven over 2-million miles. Their
Fleets of self-driving car project is now known as WAYMO, an independent company focusing on this research. While Google's research is
Autonomous among the more famous examples, they are not the only company who has been conducting research in this field. Tesla is one of the
Vehicles more well-known car manufacturers who are also interested in self-driving vehicles and are one of the only manufacturers producing
cars with self-driving capabilities for public use. Other manufacturers such as BMW are also looking to produce cars with self-driving
capabilities in the near future (White, n.d.). These vehicles rely on data gathered from on board sensors, and new techniques for
interpreting this data, such as computer vision methods to identify road hazards. This allows the vehicles to drive themselves in an
"on-line" manner, however the safety and efficiency of these vehicles could be greatly improved if they communicated with each
other to engage in a co-operative driving tasks. It is believed that as more and more cars are equipped with self-driving capabilities,
communication between vehicles and the road side infrastructure will become a necessity. Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)
achieve exactly this by extending the traditional self-driving car with the ability to engage in vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-
infrastructure (V2I) communications. Collectively these are referred to as V2X communications. As with any connected device,
security is a major concern for CAVs, and to ensure that V2X communications are secure, any messages transmitted must be
cryptographically protected. This is achieved through the use of both symmetric key encryption algorithms such as Advanced
Encryption Standard (AES), and public key encryption schemes such as Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA). To be able to effectively utilize
public key encryption schemes, a trust relationship must be established between vehicles and this is done by issuing each vehicle
with a digital certificate, acting like a digital number plate, used for identifying the vehicle. CAVs can attach these certificates to any
messages they send to allow the recipient to perform cryptographic verification of the message's authenticity. However, if each
vehicle used only a single certificate it would be trivially easy to track a vehicle based on a transcript of its communications (all
outgoing messages are time and location stamped. This project will aim to develop an understanding of how to manage vehicle
credentials and ensure security and privacy in a large-scale vehicular network. Furthermore, the developed credential management
system, will be deployed in conjunction with the anomaly detection, response and recovery framework.
Autonomous The aim of this project is to develop of new energy harvesting devices that can be autonomously deployed and are non-hazardous
energy harvesting for the environment. Provision of power in remote regions (for, e.g. autonomous robots, environmental monitoring, or sensing) is
using already a significant challenge, but the need for such devices to be fully biodegradable (e.g., to not contribute further to the problem
biodegradable of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans) has scarcely been addressed.
materials
Toward this goal, in this project the student will join a research team to help develop a proof-of-concept fully biodegradable energy
harvesting device. This will be based on our existing dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs), which work by providing a boost to an
initial charge. We will emulate an already-developed prototype that balances charges between two associated DEGs working out of
phase, such that one rests while the other boosts the charge in the system. The dielectric elastomers themselves are flexible
capacitor-like structures, consisting of a layer of flexible dielectric film, covered on both sides by a deformable electrode. DEGs (both
the elastomers, and the associated electronics) can be designed from a wide range of materials, and we will explore how to make
them all biodegradable, using silicone, acrylic or natural rubber films for the dielectric layer, carbon-powder, carbon mixed silicone,
hydrogels, for example. Even wood has potential to be incorporated into the design!
The outcomes of the project will be a working device that demonstrates proof of concept, with the publication and public device
demonstration a possibility, if successful. Furthermore, the student will acquire hand-on expertise with innovative smart materials
and their hardware integration, as well as the chance to take part in ground breaking research in the Bristol Robotics Laboratory.
Molecular Brains learn by changing the strength of the connections (synapses) between their neurons. Computational neuroscientists aim to
mechanisms of understand how brains learn by learning the rules for synaptic strengthening and weakening. Paradoxically, both processes are
brain learning driven by the same chemical signal inside neurons: calcium. This project will employ cutting-edge nano-scale molecular simulations
of single synapses to understand how calcium might differentially trigger both synaptic strengthening and weakening.

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Project Project Lead Project Title Duration Project This project would be suitable for

Ref Type students studying:

More information on this software platform can be found at:

-- General visitors to MVSE (internal + external)

Please don’t hesitate to contact me at csxar@bristol.ac.uk

Please don’t hesitate to contact me at csxar@bristol.ac.uk

Please don’t hesitate to contact me at csxar@bristol.ac.uk

· Actuated Braking: Auto Emergency Braking (AEB)

· KERS (Regenerative braking)

Learning Outcomes – What we intend to achieve through doing the internship

*Example of actuated-pin interface http://foresight.ifmo.ru/ict/shared/files/201312/1_192.pdf

As part of the UKCRIC Integrated urban infrastructure labs (http://www.ukcric.com/about/facilities/integrated-urban-infrastructure-

The system will be built on the Oracle cloud.

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