PhD Studentship in Aeronautics: Electric Composites (AE0093)

Start date: Between 1st August 2027 and 1st July 2028

Application deadline: 23:59 on 4th January 2027 (UK time)

Introduction: This PhD puts you at the forefront of structural power composites (SPCs) — a WEF Top 10 Emerging Technology of 2025 — materials that simultaneously store energy and carry load. SPC promise a step-change weight savings for electric aircraft, EVs and satellites. Transitioning from device- to component-level fabrication in a trustworthy fashion would give industry the first credible route from lab-scale to flight- or drive-relevant components, and the chance to help unveil an Electric Composites future set to shape everybody's lives.

Within EleComp, a five-year EPSRC Programme Grant spanning Imperial, Bristol and Durham, your computational focus will be building physics-informed surrogate models and process simulations within a Bayesian-optimisation loop. This loop jointly searches design and process parameters, using active learning to get maximum insight from a minimum number of costly physical builds.

You'll trace the thread from manufacturing process to defects to performance — mechanical (stiffness, damage tolerance) and electrochemical (capacity, impedance, cycle life) — across routes from partners' established hand lay-up through to more adventurous AFP and continuous-fibre 3D printing. You'll iterate continuously against mechanical/electrical testing and characterisation data: data you generate, and data partners at Bristol and Durham share, to keep your models grounded in reality. You'll start on flat and near-flat coupons, where you can iterate fast. Then you'll push into genuinely uncharted territory: curved and ultimately cylindrical geometry. You'll ask the question nobody has yet answered — where do flat-trained models hold, where do they break, and how little curved data do you actually need to adapt them? You'll finish with a validated, geometry-transferable design-to-manufacture pipeline that's never existed before.

If you want a PhD at the genuine cutting edge of where machine learning, composites manufacturing and energy storage intersect, this is it. You'll be supervised by Dr Ajit Panesar and Prof. Emile Greenhalgh, working alongside the SPC and IDEA lab teams and, more widely, with leading academics (at Chalmers and KTH besides the core EleComp team) and industrial partners — helping to shape the Electric Composites future of tomorrow.

Supervisors: Dr. Ajit Panesar and Prof. Emile Greenhalgh

Duration: 3.5 years.

Funding: Full coverage of tuition fees and an annual tax-free stipend of £23,805 for Home, EU and International students. Find out more about fee status.

Eligibility: Due to the competitive nature of our studentships, candidates will be expected to achieve/have achieved a First class honours MEng/MSci or higher degree (or international equivalent) in: Aeronautics or Mechanical Engineering.

How to apply: Visit Electric Composites for important instructions on how to apply for this specific project.

Contact: For more specific project information, email: Dr. Ajit Panesar

For questions about the application process, please first read our Frequently Asked Questions.. If your question has not been answered, please email the PhD Administrator (Admissions)

Frequently asked questions: You can also find answers to common application questions on our Frequently Asked Questions.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Imperial is committed to equality and valuing diversity. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident Employer and are working in partnership with GIRES to promote respect for trans people.