EPSRC CDT MRes + PhD in Future Propulsion and Power

The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Propulsion and Power offers a four-year PhD course in collaboration with the Universities of Oxford and Loughborough; at the end of the first year, successful students are awarded an MRes degree in Future Propulsion and Power before proceeding to the doctoral programme.

The course benefits from the team of universities (Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Loughborough) and companies (Rolls-Royce, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Siemens, Dyson) that are collaborating to deliver the CDT. This team enables the course to provide students with an advanced course in the aero-thermal engineering of propulsion and power devices, particularly the gas turbine (compressors, combustors, and turbines), as well as the skills (experimental, computational, and transferable) required to become an expert practitioner and future leader in the field.

The programme aims to:

• produce research and design leaders of the future, in academia and industry, in the field of future propulsion and power systems;
• provide comprehensive research preparation training;
• equip students with a specialised technical understanding of the aerodynamics of each of the three major gas turbine components (compressor, combustor and turbine) and knowledge of the experimental and computational tools used in their design;
• introduce students to the utility of data science in the design and analysis of propulsion and power devices;
• expose students to the compromises and trade-offs that are inherent in the design of a real machine, including the limitations imposed by mechanical constraints, the interactions between components when they are integrated together to form the complete product, and the challenges of system-level optimisation;
• foster the development of non-technical research skills such as leadership, personal effectiveness, report writing, oral communication and presentations; and
• expose students to different research groups and industry environments.

Applicants for this course should have achieved a UK 2.1 Honours Degree. Students on the programme are expected to have developed technical skills in aspects of fluid mechanics and thermodynamics during their first degree.