3D printing and 4D printing applications in medical engineering.

We are recruiting new Doctoral Researchers to our EPSRC funded Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) PhD studentships starting 1 October 2024. Applications are invited for the project title 3D printing and 4D printing applications in medical engineering.

Successful applicants will receive an annual stipend (bursary) of £21,237, including inner London weighting, plus payment of their full-time home tuition fees for a period of 42 months (3.5 years).

You should be eligible for home (UK) tuition fees there are a very limited number (no more than three) of studentships available to overseas applicants, including EU nationals, who meet the academic entry criteria including English Language proficiency.

You will join the internationally recognised researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering research and PhD programmes | Brunel University London

The Project

Three-dimensional (3D) printing, or additive manufacturing, combines layers of materials to construct an object from 3D data. This makes it possible to construct devices with intricate structures, internal cavities, and complex geometries that are difficult or impossible to construct using traditional manufacturing. 3D printing in medical engineering can provide many benefits, including customising and personalising medical products and drugs, flexible design, and decentralised fabrication. While 3D printing is rapidly infiltrating the fields of biomedical applications, 4D printing is a future technology capable of bringing 3D objects to life. Compared to creating static objects with 3D printing, 4D printing systems add time as the fourth dimension to 3D printing. 4D printing allows a 3D printed structure to change its configuration or function with time in response to external stimuli, e.g., magnetic stimuli. This project will explore the use of 4D printing to produce personalised medical devices. The project will be highly interdisciplinary and involve training in various material sciences and bioengineering techniques related to 3D and 4D printing.

Please contact Dr Bin Zhang at bin.zhang@brunel.ac.uk for an informal discussion about the studentships.

Eligibility

Applicants will have or be expected to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree in an Engineering, Computer Science, Design, Mathematics, Physics or a similar discipline. A Postgraduate Masters degree is not required but may be an advantage.

Skills and Experience

Applicants will be required to demonstrate the following skills;

Applicants will be required to demonstrate their experience in Mechanical engineering, Bioengineering, Medical engineering, or any related background;
Understanding of engineering design, design optimisation, and engineering materials;
Capable of using or willing to learn the commercial finite element software ANSYS or an alternative open-source package for solid mechanics simulation;
Knowledge of experimental methods of using 3D printing is desirable.

You should be highly motivated, able to work independently as well as in a team, collaborate with others and have good communication skills.

How to apply

There are two stages of the application:

1.Applicants must submit the pre-application form via the following link

https://brunel.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/epsrc-dtp-24-25-pre-application-form-brunel-university-lon

by 16.00 on Friday 5th April 2024.

2.If you are shortlisted for the interview, you will be asked to email the following documentation in a single PDF file to cedps-studentships@brunel.ac.uk within 72hrs.

Your up-to-date CV;
Your Undergraduate degree certificate(s) and transcript(s) essential;
Your Postgraduate Masters degree certificate(s) and transcript(s) if applicable;
Your valid English Language qualification of IELTS 6.5 overall (minimum 6.0 in each section) or equivalent, if applicable;
Contact details for TWO referees, one of which can be an academic member of staff in the College.

Applicants should therefore ensure that they have all of this information in case they are shortlisted.

Interviews will take place in April/May 2024.

Related Research Group(s)

Modelling and Simulation - Investigating how modelling and simulation can be supported by research into high-performance computing, e-infrastructures, cyberinfrastructures, cloud computing and web-based simulation.

Biomedical Engineering - Research in the growing multi-disciplinary field of advanced technology as devices, processes and modelling to advance health through improvements in therapy, diagnosis, screening, monitoring and rehabilitation.