UCL Engineering PhD Students Research Festival - Programme

UCL Engineering is thrilled to invite all Engineering PhD students to the UCL Engineering PhD Students Research Festival. Please see the programme below.

• 09:10 - 09:30 Registration (with refreshments)
• 09:30 - 10:00 Welcome Prof Simon Banks, Director of Education and Faculty Tutor, Prof Peter Munro, Professor of Computational Optics, Lucy Todd, Andrea Franchini, and Matteo Errigo.
• 10:00 - 10:30 Talk: Interdisciplinary Collaboration In Engineering Prof Luiza Campos, Professor of Environmental Engineering
• 10:30 - 11:30 Session 1: Sustainability and safe infrastructures

Session 1 Speakers: 8

Chair: Prof Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials & Society

Speaker	Title	Summary	Department
Rishabh Tiwari	Micro mechanics in clay soil	Describes the findings and analysis tools of microstructural behavior of clay soils, helps to understand soil behavior and design sustainable structures.	Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Oliver Ward	Optimising the design of a nuclear fusion power plant	Nuclear fusion has the potential to provide clean and abundant energy in the future. It is held back by a number of engineering challenges however. STEP is a UK-based fusion project that aims to demonstrate energy generation from fusion. My work looks at how to incorporate the pulsed operation of the STEP reactor into the design of the thermal power plant attached to it.	Chemical Engineering
Chenbo Wang	Towards Bespoke Stakeholder-oriented Disaster Impact Metrics	Disaster impact metrics (DIMs) quantitatively summarise various estimated effects of modelled disasters. However, current DIMs primarily focus on physical damage and economic losses in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, often neglecting the well-being implications of natural-hazard disasters at different snapshots in time and the unique challenges that different social groups may face due to such events. Towards addressing this challenge, we propose a toolbox for characterising context-specific DIMs that meet relevant stakeholder needs. This work contributes to advancing the utility of natural-hazard risk assessments in critical decision-making efforts, e.g., policy design.	Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Prince Mondal	Investigating used nucelar fuels reprocessing options from a Life Cycle perspective	This PhD project explores the UK's strategies for managing used nuclear fuels (UNFs) and the present government policy regarding the disposal of higher nuclear activity wastes. The research will employ operational data from the Sellafield site and literature data on the Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). Utilizing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model, the environmental impacts of various scenarios are evaluated.	Chemical Engineering
Andrea Franchini	Changing the paradigm of fire safety design	Risk-based design and assessment methods are gaining popularity in performance-based structural fire engineering and usually begin by defining fire scenarios. This approach, proven highly effective for other hazards such as earthquakes, might not be optimal for fire safety design. Indeed, an ad-hoc design variable selection (and/or optimisation) to reduce - up to completely cancel - fire intensity is possible, making fire scenarios additional design outputs. Hence, this presentation describes a structural design methodology named consequence-oriented fire intensity optimisation that embraces such features.	Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Pornpanit Rasivisuth	Sustainability Starts Here: Empowering Startups through Venture Capital	In this session, we will explore how startups have emerged in response to the sustainability framework and their needs of funding through venture capital. Discover how venture capital could respond in market demand of sustainability. In addition, I will present the methodology for investors to access the sustainability of startup given limited of data.	Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Alex Sebastiani	Chemical recycling of waste material for bio-hydrogen production	The need of sustainable municipal solid waste management and the requirement of a reliable and constant source of renewable energy are the pillars of the current environmental agendas of many developing and developed countries. Recently, novel low-carbon bioenergy systems have garnered attention for the production of high-density energy vectors (such as bioH2 and bioCH4) with low greenhouse-gas production emissions and use. Waste gasification represent a valid alternative to the most predominant pathways for production of low carbon fuels and chemicals. The aim of this work is to investigate the challenges and opportunities associated with such process by means of a detailed process model and environmental assessment.	Chemical Engineering
Wulan Aisyah	Fire in historic buildings	Fire is not receiving the attention it deserves in structural engineering compared to other hazards. Especially in historic buildings, where the cultural aspect will be the most complicated challenge to address in addition to life-saving concerns. Ways need to be investigated to better understand how to deal with heritage structures under fire.	Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering

 

• 11:30 - 12:00  Activity 1 Bingo coffee (everyone is given a bingo card and goes around to find people who can sign each of the squares. The winner is the first person with a different signature in each square)
• 12:00 - 13:00 Session 2: AI and advanced technologies

Session 2 Speakers: 7

Chair: Prof Peter Munro, Vice-Dean (Research)  and Professor of Computational Optics at the Department of Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering

Speaker	Title	Summary	Department
Elias Galiounas	Battery monitoring and diagnosis using sound and AI	Batteries have become ubiquitous in the era of portable electronics and electric vehicles. To maximise their life, it is essential to monitor their behaviour. However, the simplest battery measurements are aggregate and external, such as temperature and voltage, and are often insufficient for the task. Ultrasound testing introduces an additional inspection modality - one which reaches the internal structures of a battery in a localised manner.  The resulting sensing signals are information-rich and lend themselves to processing and modelling using AI methods.	Chemical Engineering
Jean Kaddour	Efficient Training of Language Models	Language models are advancing rapidly, surpassing human-level performances in some experimental setups. These improvements are primarily due to model, data, and training budget scaling. Training a single state-of-the-art language model requires hundreds of thousands of GPU hours, costs millions of dollars, and consumes as much energy as multiple average US family households per year. My research studies ways to make it more efficient.	Computer Science
Matteo Errigo	Acoustic Emission Technique Combined with Machine Learning for Particle Size Distribution in Gas-Solid Fluidized Beds	Fluidized-bed reactors are extensively employed in energy applications, such as chemical recycling and nuclear spent fuel reprocessing. These applications, most of the time, involve an evolution in the particle size distribution due to attrition between particles and to the formation of agglomerates. As the particle size distribution plays a very important role in determining the hydrodynamics of gas-solid fluidized beds, its monitoring throughout reactor operation is fundamental. We propose a combination of acoustic emission and machine learning techniques as a cheap, sensitive and non-intrusive solution for real-time measurements of the particle size distribution in fluidized systems.	Chemical Engineering
Chen Jia En	3D printing phantoms on clinical application	I am doing the research how 3D printing can impact the medical field. Especially on neurosurgery a cardiac surgery. I am interested about the world health system and global network using 3D printing and digital fabrication system.	Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering
Wonbong Jang	Learning 3D scenes from Images	Understanding 3D from a set of images has been a long standing problem in the field of Computer Vision. Deep learning has revolutionized the image recognition / generation, however applying 3D has not been straightforward. Most of the existing 3D methods work on a single scene optimization rather than learning 3D. I will present my work on learning 3D from multiple scenes.	Computer Science
Andrea Friso	An optimisation free Fisher information driven approach for kinetic model identification	In this work I present a new optimisation free approach that can be used in online application for kinetic model identification. This approach is based on the Fisher Information Matrix that is a particular statistic that express the amount of information achievable form the experiments.	Chemical Engineering

 

• 13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
• 14:00 - 15:00 Session 3: Healthcare innovation

Session 3 Speakers: 7

Chair: Prof Andy Nisbet, Ph.D. Professor and Head of Department of Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering

Speaker	Title	Summary	Department
Adam Fitchett	Imaging Circuit Activity in the Brain with Fast Neural EIT	Fast neural EIT (fnEIT) is a novel imaging technique that has the potential to image mesoscopic circuit activity in the brain with high temporal (~1 ms) and spatial (~100 μm) resolution. Preliminary data with an optimised depth array in the rat brain shows the feasibility of fnEIT to image the thalamocortical loop at a high enough resolution to distinguish activity in different thalamic nuclei.	Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering
Noora Almarri	High Efficiency Power Management Unit for Implantable Optical-Electrical Stimulators	Battery-less active implantable devices are of interest because they offer longer life span and eliminate costly battery replacement surgical interventions. This is possible as a result of advances in inductive power transfer and development of power management circuits to maximize the overall power transfer and provide various voltage levels for multi-functional implantable devices.	Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Alissa Parmenter	Using X-rays to investigate the mechanics of the spine	My research uses in situ synchrotron X-ray imaging combined with digital volume correlation to measure microscale strains within the spine. I am particularly interested in the structure and mechanics of the intervertebral discs and vertebral endplates - degeneration of these structures is a common cause of back pain, which is a major global health burden. This research aims to improve our understanding of these structures, which could lead to better computational models and new treatment options in the future.	Mechanical Engineering
Lucy Todd	A Computational Pipeline to Optimize 3D Scaffolds for Cancer Immunotherapy	One of the most promising cancer immunotherapy treatments is Adoptive Cell Transfer (ACT). During this treatment, a patient’s own immune-cells (T-cells) are genetically engineered to attack the specific tumour cells, then re-infused back into the patient. One of the main challenges with this treatment are the large number of activated T-cells required to proliferate. By applying the Nature Inspired Solution (NIS), 12 000 bio-inspired 3D T-cell culturing scaffolds have been designed through a novel computational pipeline and are being tested with live cells in the wet lab. With this knowledge we aim to design improved T-cell culturing environments to make ACT a more affordable and efficient cancer treatment.	Chemical Engineering
Nonpawith Phoommanee	Objective nasal obstruction grading with anterior nasal endoscopy using deep learning	This study aims to develop an objective nasal obstruction grading method using information from nasal endoscopy, which taken from the anterior nasal cavity from 62 participants. The features from semantic segmentation results using modified DeepLabv3+ were used as support vector machine inputs to classify the degree of severity of nasal obstruction into three grades. Our objective grading system showed a moderate agreement with the validated subjective grading system currently used in hospitals, showing that the method could be used in general practices and remote locations where access to nasal expertise is limited.	Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering
Alessandro Rossi	Ultra-thick absorption gratings for High Energy X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging	X-ray phase contrast imaging is a quickly developing field aiming to overcome the intrinsic difficulties encountered in conventional X-ray absorption imaging, i.e. the low sensitivity for low-Z materials (soft tissues, organic compounds and powders, etc.). In industry application, non-invasive X-ray  imaging is often used at very high energies (160 kVp) to be able to penetrate through thick and heavy materials too. However, very high aspect ratio absorption gratings are needed to obtain contrast at such high energies, which prevented phase contrast imaging to be employed in industrial application. In this work, we close this gap by fabricating a 500 micron thick Au/Si absorption grating able to create >50% contrast at 160kVp.	Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Hyeong-Jin Kim	Digital Healthcare Engineering for Aging Ship Hull Structures	Engineering structures suffer from age-related degradation, such as corrosion wastage, fatigue cracking, and mechanical denting, in terms of structural integrity as they age. This research project aims to present and develop a novel digital healthcare engineering framework for the lifetime healthcare of ship hull structures.	Mechanical Engineering

 

• 15:00 - 15:15 Refreshments break
• 15:15 - 16:00 Activity 2 Map Game
• 16:00 - 17:00 Session 4: Innovation in materials

Session 4 Speakers: 7

Chair: Prof Eva Sorensen, Professor and Head of Department of Chemical Engineering

Speaker	Title	Summary	Department
Inez Kesuma	Improving the safety of Li-ion batteries	The talk on improving Li-ion battery safety focuses on addressing the safety concerns associated with lithium-ion batteries, which are commonly used in various devices and electric vehicles. It explores advancements and strategies aimed at reducing the risk of battery failures, such as thermal runaway and explosions. This includes developments in battery management systems, improved electrode materials, enhanced safety features, and stricter manufacturing and testing standards. The objective is to enhance the overall safety and reliability of Li-ion batteries to prevent accidents and ensure user confidence in their widespread use.	Chemical Engineering
Irene Villar Rodriguez	Charge and spin of fractional conductance states in 1D In0.75Ga0.25As quantum wires	The exploration of novel quantum states for spintronic devices and quantum computers represents a highly pertinent subject of contemporary significance. Therefore, non-magnetic fractional conductance states in 1D InGaAs quantum wires are of great interest since they could be the basis of these devices due to the easy manipulation of the electron spins.	Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Christian Partik	Development of linkage fabric structures with variable stiffness as assistive materials	Animate materials that can respond to the input from their environment and dynamically change shape have seen increasing applications in recent years in the fields of soft robotics and assistive technology. Linkage fabrics propose a potential solution for the creation of these smart materials. This research aims to investigate the capabilities of these linkage structures to produce shape-shifting materials with capabilities of self-repair.	Mechanical Engineering
Aziz Hakimi	Contact mechanic of railway ballasts	The micromechanical behaviors of railway ballasts (basalt from Australia and granite from UK) were studied under varied loading conditions -- monotonic normal and tangential loading, cyclic tangential loading, dry and wet contacts. In the monotonic normal loading, the load-displacement response of the contact is initially soft (0.01-0.5 N/μm) and with increase in the load, response gets stiffer (5-10 N/μm). This behaviour is often attributed to increase in true area of contact; however, the experimental response does not follow existing models such as Hertz (1882), Modified Hertz (Yimsri and Soga, 2001). It is worth noting that observable deformation of the bulk is negligible in comparison to deformation of the contact asperities.	Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Gowan Whalley	Data driven design of nature inspired photocatalytic materials	Inspiration is taken from nature in the design of materials for more efficient photocatalytic materials for CO2 reduction. The goal is the efficient production of two carbon products, such as ethanol. Cucurbiturils (CB[n]) will be utilized to achieve these aims. These are barrel-shaped molecules with the larger members of the family having a cavity large enough to fit multiple guests with high binding affinities. This allows the tuning of the properties of the resulting binding cavity to stabilize intermediates in the CO2 reduction reaction though the formation of structures analogous to the active sites of enzymes.	Chemical Engineering
Philipp Schulz	The Effect of Hydrogen on Nickel-Base Superalloys in a Combustion Environment	In order to reach the initiatives put forward by governments around the world to make aviation carbon neutral, hydrogen-based fuel is proposed as one of the most prominent alternatives. While hydrogen fuels can in principle be burned with existing engine technology, not much is known about how this innovative and sustainable fuel might affect today's engine materials. As such, my project aims to investigate, what potentially detrimental or life-limiting factors might affect materials when changing from carbon- to hydrogen-based fuel. The overarching aim is to be able to gain insight into how new materials, which can be employed in near-future engines, might need to be developed.	Mechanical Engineering
Zhaotian Yang	Structural performance of FRP cellular bridge deck under tyre load	FRP, fiber reinforced polymer, is a novel construction material applied for bridge industry. The built FRP bridge can be a sustainable and innovative infrastructure for transportation. As an emerging application in civil engineering, the structural performance of FRP bridge especially for bearing with traffic loads should be carefully investigated to ensure its feasibility and safety.	Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering

 

• 17:00 - 17:30 Activity 3 Speed research exchange (PhD students are randomly paired and have 2 minutes to explain their research project. Afterwards, one line moves rightwards, and the activity is repeated. Five changes in total)
• 17:30 - 19:30 Drinks reception