Projects
The objective of the project is to present a research poster with your partner at a conference-style event at the end of the Work Experience Week.
Working with a partner, you will create a conference poster around one of the School’s five areas of research. You will be guided by a post-graduate researcher who will help you to create a poster that you will present at the end of the week in a seminar-style showcase event, to an audience of academic staff and current under- and postgraduate students.
At the end of the week, you will have gained skills in academic research, collaborative work, presenting at conferences and an exposure to working in an academic environment. This should provide a solid foundation for your entry into undergraduate studies at university, if that's the right option for you.
You will rank your project choices with your partner and be allocated one from this list on the first day of the programme.
Rank your projects
Use the link below to rank your project choice. We'll do our best to allocate your top choice.
A Nano-vortices for data storage and brain-computing with Gregory Andews
There are special 'vortex' states in magnets. Their tiny size and mobility is interesting for real-world applications. This project involves vacuum systems, cleanroom fabrication, magnetic microscopy, and black magic to get it all working.
B Can I get my ice cream back when it melts? Defying disorder and thermalisation in quantum physics with Aiden Daniel
Physical systems in our daily life are often prone to chaos. Consider an ice cream coupled to a thermal bath which, due to thermalisation, will inevitably melt with no memory of its initial form. Similar phenomena occur in interacting quantum systems with many particles and the need for stability in such systems is ever more essential with the rise of quantum computation. "Quantum many-body scarring" is a process to escape such chaos wherein special initial states evade thermalisation due to the imprint/"scar" of its past state. This leads to long-lived states in otherwise chaotic systems.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1711.03528.pdf
C How much energy can a liquid crystal elastomer really absorb? with Meg Coleman
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are superb at absorbing mechanical energy; but why? My research is to answer this question! By finding this out, I'll be able to make LCEs that exceed current capabilities and use them in crash helmets, body armour and other shock-absorbing gadgets!
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2015/ra/c5ra01039j
D Cancer Cell-Specific Delivery of RNA Therapies using Fusogenic Porous Silicon Nanoparticles with Isabelle Rogers
I am developing a silicon-based nanocarrier which delivers high concentrations of RNA therapies directly to cancer cells as a replacement for traditional chemotherapy. This project combines cellular biology, physics, and polymer chemistry to make a highly-specific therapy for cancer patients.
A key benefit of using RNA technology is that cancers that have traditionally not been treatable could now be defeated, with the right drug delivery mechanism and the right gene-editing tools. The nanocarrier (or drug delivery vehicle) itself is a main goal, however, as direct delivery to cancer cells has proven incredibly difficult to master for countless research groups.
Kim 2019 (2) (Fusogenic SiNPs for siRNA deliv_Isabelle Rogers.pdf
Bompard 2020 (Membrane fluidity & selectivity_Isabelle Rogers.pdf
E Giant planet formation around different kinds of host stars with Heather Johnston
Giant planets - like Jupiter - are only found around 1 in 5 stars, but they contain the majority of mass and angular momentum within a planetary system. In this project you will explore the conditions required to form these rare planets around different kinds of host stars.
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/what-is-an-exoplanet/planet-types/gas-giant/
F Metal-shell Microcapsules for Cancer Therapy with Daniel Williams
Chemotherapy has side effects as chemo drugs interact with healthy cells as well as tumour cells. Metal shell capsules can prevent drug interactions with healthy cells and can release the drug at the tumour when exposed to ultrasound.
1-s2.0-S0021979719314778-main_Daniel Williams.pdf
acsami.9b00087_Daniel Williams.pdf
G Teaching a machine to move atoms with Dylan Barker
With the constant miniaturisation of electronic devices and experiments, there is an increasing demand for an automated method to construct structures atom-by-atom. Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) allows us not only to visualise individual atoms and molecules on surfaces but also to manipulate them into precise arrangements for various experiments. However, the manual process of atom/molecule manipulation using STM is extremely slow and time-consuming. To address this problem, I aim to integrate machine learning with STM to automate the process.
(573) The Scanning Tunnelling Microscope : How it Works and Its Applications - YouTube
Autonomous Manipulation (not using machine learning):
Autonomous Manipulation (using machine learning):
Autonomous Scanning Probe Microscopy in Situ Tip Conditioning through Machine Learning | ACS Nano
Applications
H Can satellites see land subsidence from space? with Jessica Payne
In some areas of Iran, the land surface is moving down (subsiding) >30 cm/year because people are removing water from underground. You will learn why groundwater pumping causes subsidence, how subsidence damages cities, and how satellite data is used to map subsidence across Iran.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2024221118
Water Resources Research - 2015 - Gambolati -_Jessica Payne.pdf
Geophysical Research Letters - 2008 - Motagh_Jessica Payne.pdf
I Crossing into Chaos: How does this affect quantum properties? with Ryan Smith
In 2022, Google performed an experiment on their Sycamore quantum processor which showed that bound states could still be measured after they had crossed into the chaotic regime. This result contradicted the previous ideas on how quantum chaos affected properties of quantum states. We perform the classical simulations to prove that they were correct.