Students will complete 1 Mini project of 8 weeks duration and one Midi project of 10 weeks duration during the first six months. The mini project are designed to help expand the research horizons of students, before they embark on their PhD topic. The Midi project is normally expected to continue on into a PhD.
Mini Project
The Mini project is 8 weeks in length (Oct – Dec) and run alongside other modules that students take during that time. This project gives students an exposure to day-to-day research environments, and also helps them explore new research areas that they have not worked in previously.
Midi Project
The Midi project is 10 weeks long (Jan – Mar) and helps students test the ground with their PhD topic, supervisor, and research group before committing to doing their PhD in that area. Most students tend to continue on from their Midi to PhD in the same group.
PhD Project Topics
Before joining the programme, and during the first term, students are introduced to potential PhD supervisors from around the University to help identify and explore a PhD project that fits their interests and NanoDTC research themes as well as other requirements. The NanoDTC facilitates this by organising informal chats with supervisors as well as soliciting potential PhD proposals from supervisors (students are able to provide their interest areas to supervisors so that they can be taken into account when designing proposals).
The choice of PhD projects will be made in early January. The PhD proposals are all vetted by the NanoDTC External Advisory Board for ambition, risk, and fit to NanoDTC themes before students choose one project in which they are most interested.
Brief descriptions of the PhD projects undertaken by our students are included below.
Singlet Fission Luminescent Solar Concentrators
Arrhenius, in 1896, was the first to use basic principles of physical chemistry to calculate estimates of the extent to which increases in atmospheric carbon
Generating electrical currents from light in graphene
Graphene is a two-dimensional material consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb structure. It is now at the centre of
Is your sample running a fever?
Using stiffness measurements as a biological indicator The first thing most people do if they are feeling unwell is to take their temperature. From a
Making superconductors more super
When you send electricity through a wire, it heats up and wastes energy – imagine your phone getting hot after watching videos or playing too
The power of soft connections: next-generation neural interfaces
Designing electrical components with mechanical softness in mind can move us closer to direct brain-machine communication. The ability to connect computer hardware with the human
Upgrading Biology: Building Better than Nature
Everything in Nature is made from just 20 different amino acid building blocks; imagine what you could do with 200. Proteins define Biology and set
Lighter than Feathers but Stronger than Steel
Control over the 3-D structure of 2-D materials such as graphene helps us to engineer super-materials with properties not usually found in nature. Two dimensional
Bacteria: Enemy or Hero?
The world is facing a global energy crisis as CO2 levels in the atmosphere continue to increase at an alarming rate. What if CO2 could be converted
3D printing going nano
Devices for printing 3 dimensional objects, called 3D printers, have received a lot of public and scientific attention in the past few decades. They are
Warning, may contain nuts!
Stone age, bronze age, steel age, silicon age… What next? I think this century will be the age of nanomaterials. Reducing the size of electronics
Single-atom flake laid on nanopillars produces quantum light
Carmen Palacios-Berraquero (c2013) was a key part of a team that designed a method for creating arrays of hundreds of quantum emitters. Carmen is the lead author
A new way for brain cancer treatment
While advances in cancer therapy in recent years have improved the prognosis of many forms of brain cancer, there are still types of brain tumours
Microfluidic bioelectronic interfaces at the cellular level
The interfaces between electronics and living organisms (known as Bioelectronics) enables monitoring and stimulation of biological processes. These can range from leveraging bio-electrochemical pathways in
Rubbing materials to power small devices
If you ever asked yourself why rubbing a balloon on your head makes your hair stand up, the reason is electrical; it is because of
The Adventures of Ellie the Electron
To mark the Cambridge Festival, Taylor Uekert (c2016) brings us The Great Escape of Ellie the Electron, a children’s book exploring photocatalysis on the nanoscale.
- All
- c2016
- c2017
- c2018
- c2019
From waste to fuel: quantifying sustainability
Nanorobots – not who you think they are
The coolest infrared sensor in the Universe
Treating cancer using surfaces, light and gold
Functional Nanoelectronics and Quantum Materials
Lipids: The Missing Key to the Parkinson’s Puzzle?
Controlling the uncontrollable
Using light to make chemistry more environmentally friendly
Solar cells through the Looking Glass of electrons
Low power memory devices
Watching what happens inside working batteries
The Adventures of Ellie the Electron
Navigating hyper-dimentional voltage space
Nano-structuring of battery electrode
Making quantum fly – with microwaves
Seeing is believing
Materials for motion
Making a sustainable future more colourful
Stacking a market stall with fruit with hands 10,000 times the size!
Radically different organic energy materials
Trapping liquids in a sponge
Batteries to power a sustainable future
Shining light on green hydrogen
Targeting the cure for Tuberculosis: Solid-state nanopore sensing
A new spin on electronics
A new way for brain cancer treatment
3D printing going nano
Jelly solar cells
The studies of battery degradation under the microscope
Trapping light to open up our universe
Capturing the Energy of Individual Electrons
Brain navigation: connecting the eyes to the brain
Photoswitches with ultra-fast response times
From waste to hydrogen
Quantum computers with industry-standard silicon technology
Spectroscopy and Electrocatalysis for a Sustainable Future
Catching sunbeams
Flipping spins to boost the efficiency of LEDs
Life from scratch
The future is bright for generating new light
What if you could see magnetism?
Smart surfaces for heating and cooling buildings using only sunlight
