Postgraduate ProsPectus - Aston University

School of Engineering & Applied Science
Nanoscience Research Group
School of Engineering & Applied Science
Non-linearity and Complexity Research Group
Group overview
The Nanoscience Research Group (NRG) is a recently
established research group in carbon-based materials
including diamond, diamond-like carbon, carbonnanotubes
and graphene.
Research interests
We would be interested in supervising projects in the
areas of:
Growth of diamond, carbon-nanotubes and
graphene using chemical vapour deposition
methods
Electrospun carbon fibres and nanocomposites
Electronic devices and strain sensors, femtosecond
laser inscription on diamond
Nanodiamond particles for drug delivery
Nanomaterials synthesis by laser ablation and
chemical routes
Nanomaterials surface functionalization
Optical Spectroscopy of nanomaterials
Nanomaterials for Photonic and Biological sensor
applications.
Current projects
EPSRC: Nanodiamond additives for Cold Water
Cleaning
EPSRC: Diamond based pressure sensors for high
temperature harsh environments
EPSRC Nanotechnology Knowledge Transfer
Network Industrial Case Studentship:
Nanodiamond Coatings for Advanced Engineering
Application
Nanodiamond Fibres for Biomedical Applications,
Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Electrospun Nanodiamond Fibres, British Council
Windsor Treaty Programme
Royal Academy of Engineering Distinguished
Visiting Fellowship Awards
Marie Curie IIF, CNTBUS Project
Marie Curie IIF, MPIS-FET Project
Marie Curie IRSES, CarbonNASA Project
Marie Curie IRSES, TeLaSens Project
The Science for Peace NATO Project: “Novel
Macromolecular Complexes for Rapid Detection of
Hazardous Agents”
JSPS London Furusato Award: “Functionalisation
Carbon Nanotubes for Biological Sensors”
The Royal Society Research Grant: “Functional
nanomaterials for photonic and sensor
applications”.
Specialist equipment
Chemical Vapour Deposition, Electrospin, Hall Effect
Measurement, Surface Contact Angle Measurement,
Photolithography, Sputtering, UV-Near IR absorption/
transmission Spectroscopy, Photoluminescence
Excitation- Emission Spectroscopy, Micro Raman
Spectroscopy, Laser Ablation System based on Cu
Vapour and Yt Fibre Lasers, Ultrasonic Processors,
Ultracentrifuge.
Funding sources
EPSRC, DBIS, Daiwa Foundation, EU FP7, British
Council, The Royal Society, JSPS, NATO, Advantage
West Midlands.
Collaboration
Warwick University, NIMS (Japan), Chinese Academy
of Sciences (China), Queen Mary University of
London, University of Aveiro (Portugal), Alfred
University (USA), Norfolk State University (USA),
Saga University (Japan), Max-Planck Institute
for Mathematic in Sciences (Germany), Tampere
University of Technology (Finland), University of Tokyo
(Japan), NAS (Ukraine), Novosibirsk State University
(Russia), Brno University of Technology (Czech
Republic).
Application and contact
Research Group Convenor
Dr. Haitao Ye and Dr. Alex Rozhin
T: +44 (0)121 204 3526/3494
F +44 (0)121 204 3682
E: h.ye@aston.ac.uk a.rozhin@aston.ac.uk
W: www.aston.ac.uk/eas/research/groups/nrg
Group overview
The main strength of the group is in the application of
principled mathematical and statistical approaches to
a broad range of problems, mostly related to the area
of complexity. Complementing activities in pattern
analysis, the group has a highly visible programme
in the application of statistical physics methods to
complex systems, and substantial activities in nonlinear
and stochastic partial differential equations
with applications ranging from photonics to financial
mathematics.
Research interests and current projects
Theoretical
Statistical physics of complex systems;
optimisation and emergent behaviour in
telecommunication, noisy circuits, routing and
coupled oscillator systems
Probabilistic and Bayesian networks, statistical
machine learning and advanced inference methods
Propagation of optical solitons in fibre transmission
Navier-Stokes equations applied to shear flow;
bifurcation theory
Theoretical immunology; agent based optimisation
Complex dynamics of molecular and biomolecular
systems.
Application orientated
Data fusion in biomedical data analysis
(EEG/ECG/fMRI)
Uncertainty modelling and visualisation of high
dimensional genomic data
Steganography for communications and medical
biopatterns
Statistical meteorological forecasting
Molecular dynamics of protein ligand interaction
Biomedical signal processing.
Industrially funded
Prediction of energy prices
Visualisation and analysis of biological screening
data
Design risk modelling in jet engines
Optimisation and management of smart-grids
Mixing in turbulent flow.
Specialist equipment
Local computing facilities include three dedicated
computer clusters and an Informatics Laboratory.
Funding sources
Research Councils, EU, the Royal Society, the Royal
Academy of Engineering and the Leverhulme Trust.
Industrial collaborations include Cardionetics, British
Gas, British Aerospace, E.ON, Pfizer, Key Traffic, Met
Office, Dow Corning, Alstom and Rolls-Royce.
Application and contact
Research Group Convenor
Professor David Saad
T: +44 (0)121 204 3685
F +44 (0)121 204 3676
E: ncrg@aston.ac.uk
W: www.aston.ac.uk/ncrg
58 To find out more: Telephone: +44 (0)121 204 3400 | Email: engineering@aston.ac.uk | www.aston.ac.uk/eas
www.aston.ac.uk
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