About the project
This PhD is a sought after industrial Cooperative Award in Science and Technology (iCASE), with sponsorship from BAE Systems Ltd. This PhD will develop advanced materials and turn these into thermoelectric energy harvesters. These harvesters will be integrated into clothing as wearable tech, scavenging our very own body temperature as the energy source.
Waste heat surrounds us; from car exhausts to fridges, and even yourself. This otherwise untapped energy source can be harnessed to produce power and help us shift towards a greener and renewable future. Using thermoelectric energy harvesters, any temperature gradient can become a power source, ideal for powering internet-of-things type sensors such as body worn health monitors.
This is what this PhD will work towards using cutting-edge materials and technologies.
These will be integrated into a system level, powering internet-of-thing type sensors, ideal for health and sport monitoring of the human body. This proof-of-concept will also be adapted for hard-to-reach or complex heat sources such as engines or aeroplane wings. This project brings together creativity, innovation, and science to create a technology solution for real-life situations.
The PhD student will perform exotic material and device fabrication and characterisation in the state-of-the-art facilities including:
- cleanrooms and laboratories
- the Printed Electronic Materials (PEM) Lab
- the Advanced Material facilities
- have access to BAE Systems environmental testing facilities
The student will be supervised by a diverse and inter-disciplinary academic team, and an industrial supervisor.
The student will gain exposure to a rich collaborative network of companies and international universities.
You will be:
- part of the Smart Electronic Materials and Systems (SEMs) research group in the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS)
- a member of the Centre for Flexible Electronics and E-Textiles (C-FLEET)
- a member of the Sustainability and Resilience Institute (SRI) academy, joining a cohort of fellow PhD students
Watch our YouTube video about being an electronics and computer science researcher
We welcome applicants from a range of fields including but not restricted to physics, engineering, electronics and chemistry.
