nottingham university research projects

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December 18, 2020, by Rob Ounsworth

New Horizons awards for seven transformative research projects

Seven research teams led by University of Nottingham academics have been awarded prestigious New Horizons grants by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The grants support exciting, transformative research ideas focused on advancing knowledge and securing the pipeline of next-generation innovations.

Of the 126 projects awarded funding in the highly competitive national scheme, seven are from our University. The £25.5m awards allocate up to £200,000 per project over two years.

Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange, said:  “This is a stunning result for all the research teams involved.

“Thanks to the creativity and diligence of colleagues in schools, faculties and Research and Innovation, we have done exceptionally well in securing new funding during the pandemic. In this case, I am delighted to thank and congratulate Research Development Manager Maria Arruda and her Research and Innovation colleagues including Joe Shearring for coordinating this outstanding achievement.”

Science Minister Amanda Solloway said: “It is critical we give the UK’s best researchers the resources to drive forward their revolutionary ideas so they can focus on identifying solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges, such as climate change.

“This government funding will allow some of our brightest mathematicians and physicists to channel all their creative ingenuity into achieving potentially life-changing scientific breakthroughs – from mathematics informing how we save our rainforests to robotics that will help track cancer faster.”

The seven successful projects from Nottingham are:

Integrated quantum and electron microscopy for imaging and sensing at the nanoscale,   led by Professor Melissa Mather of the Faculty of Engineering

Professor Melissa Mather and the School of Chemistry’s Professor Andrei Khlobystov will pioneer a new form of microscopy. Quantum effects in diamond sensors linked up with experimental platforms of electron microscopy will enable correlation of nanoscale structure and chemical composition with magnetic and electronic states of matter, directly at the single-particle level. Integration of two local probes –  spin-active sites in diamond and an electron beam – is at the core of this method.

This new measurement tool will tackle characterisation challenges at the frontier of materials science, opening the door for rational design of complex materials and enable the targeted design of quantum, spintronic, magnetic, and electronic materials and devices. Time-resolved measurements will enable the study of chemical reactions at the single-molecule level, and discovery new ways of breaking and making chemical bonds.

Object Illusion in Complex Electromagnetic Wave Environments (OBLICUE) led by Dr Gabriele Gradoni of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and School of Mathematical Sciences

We intend to design a system of electromagnetic mirrors that can be used to protect electronic devices from threats such as attack by electromagnetic pulse or data theft.

Cloaking technologies, which wrap wireless sensors, smartphones, or computers with a metamaterial mantle, are unreliable in closed environments, where multiple electromagnetic waves are trapped and by interacting with the object unveil its presence and exact location.

Our transformative idea is to use illusion mirrors. By manipulating electromagnetic waves interacting with an object, a system of these mirrors creates the illusion of object displacement – a reflection mask.

Our research will soon form the basis of radically new protection technology for wireless communications, with the telecommunications and defence industries.

Making way for 5G and beyond – discover more about Dr Gradoni’s research

A New Spin on Atomic Logic, led by Professor Philip Moriarty  of the School of Physics and Astronomy 

Our New Horizons project will exploit the remarkable advances recently made worldwide in developing circuitry at the single electron limit. We will develop strategies to turn silicon, a non-magnetic material, into a magnet, by trapping and tuning individual electrons. This has the potential to make power-hungry ‘classical’ information processing significantly more energy efficient and sustainable.

This funding will enhance our collaboration with King’s College London, where Professor Lev Kantorovich’s group is providing the theoretical analysis to inform and guide our experimental work at Nottingham. We will also strenghten ties with Professor Bob Wolkow’s world-leading spintronics team at the University of Alberta, whose work on atomic logic gates inspired our project.

Expanding the Horizons of Imaging: Real-time Tracking of Drugs in the Brain, led by Anne McLaren Fellow Dr Rian Griffiths  of the School of Pharmacy

Many drugs showing promise in preclinical analysis fail in clinical trials, due to the challenge of measuring whether it is reaching the right tissue at the correct time and for the required duration.

We will use a known brain tumour targeting drug and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for real-time imaging of drug distributions in mice, supported by optical imaging via microscopy and validated via mass spectrometry imaging of tissue samples from the same animal. Combining these techniques will, for the first time, comprehensively showcase drug distribution in real time.

This approach will potentially improve drug analysis options for a diverse array of diseases.

As an Anne McLaren Fellow and early career researcher, I am especially delighted to be recognised by such a prestigious scheme as New Horizons, and it is also a great reflection on the University’s fellowship schemes, as my co-investigator Dr Pete Harvey is a Nottingham Research Fellow based within the Precision Imaging Beacon , while another member of our team, Dr Ruman Rahman is a former Nottingham fellow and now Associate Professor of Molecular Neuro-Oncology.

Organic Magnet Mediated Spintronic Heat-Energy Exchange led  by Professor Simon Woodward of the School of Chemistry

At least 20% of all the power used globally is wasted. The heat generated by buildings, industrial processes and the environment is dissipated and recovery of even 1% of this unused energy could be provide the equivalent of all energy used in the UK over a year.

Thermoelectric (TE) devices, which allow the direct conversion of heat into electrical power without any moving parts, have the potential to transform how this waste heat is harvested and recovered. As global temperatures rise, the reverse application of this technology also offers more efficient cooling systems, further reducing energy usage and CO2 emissions.

Thermoelectric devices, however, traditionally, have poor efficiencies and are made from rare elements, which are both expensive and unsustainable.  Our multi-discipline Chemistry-Physics team proposes a new approach to extracting waste heat energy using sustainable materials, which will support real-world, commercially viable applications of thermoelectric technologies.

A New Class Of Hybrid Polyoxometalate Catalysts For C-H Functionalisation, led by Professor Hon Lam of the School of Chemistry.

A major goal of chemical synthesis is to manipulate the carbon-hydrogen bonds in organic compounds to make more complex products. However, this is a highly challenging. The goal of this research, with co-investigator Dr Graham Newton of the School of Chemistry, is to develop new types of hybrid inorganic-organic catalysts to promote chemical reactions more efficiently and precisely.

This could provide new tools to streamline the synthesis of important molecules required by society, such as new pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and new functional materials.

White Matter Networks, led by Professor Stephen Coombes of the School of Mathematical Sciences

Myelin is a fatty substance that protects nerve fibres in the brain, optic nerves and spinal cord. When it is damaged is causes neurological problems and is associated with diseases such as multiple sclerosis and more recently with psychiatric disorders including depression and schizophrenia. Yet this white matter, which comprises half of the human brain, has receive little attention in theoretical models of neural network function. Applied mathematics, and specifically the combination of nonlinear dynamics, network science, and computational learning theory, is a powerful tool that will be used to redress this imbalance.

The application of this mathematical work to the human brain will be accelerated by the use of white matter data direct from the Human Connectome Project.  In combination with the formulation of myelin plasticity rules, it will allow in silico network studies for the design of new transcranial magnetic stimulation protocols for the treatment of mental health conditions.

This funding will bring together researchers from Mathematical Sciences (Stephen Coombes, Professor of Applied Mathematics), the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre ( Stamatios Sotiropoulos, Associate Professor of Computational Neuroimaging), and Psychology ( Stephen Jackson, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience) to work with a post-doctoral fellow in a highly interdisciplinary setting to advance knowledge in the fields of network brain science and computational psychiatry.

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Co(l)laboratory: Linking Research to Our Place

Rebekah smith-mcgloin, director of ntu’s doctoral school and research operations and lead officer on the co(l)laboratory project, summarises why this project is so ground-breaking..

Research is what moves humanity forward. We are curious, we ask questions, and we work together to discover something new. Res earch has the potential to change the way we do things, to improve and to enrich lives.

In Nottingham, we have a large, talented research community across two universities where people – from PhD students to Professors – are already working together to explore issues and find solutions to the challenges that local people face. But we could do more to ensure that the skills and knowledge of our researchers are brought to bear on making the city and county a better place to live and work. We could do more to ensure our research communities are as diverse as our local populations. And we could do more to develop and support our PhD students to be the civic leaders that Nottingham needs for post-pandemic recovery and sustainable futures.

That’s why the news that NTU and UoN have recently received funding to support a brand-new doctoral training partnership, designed to push the boundaries in terms of collaboration, training and inclusion at doctoral level, is so important and so well-timed.

Funded by the Research England Development fund, the Co(l)laboratory Doctoral Training Partnership will be the first flagship project in the Universities for Nottingham initiative. Co(l)lab. will connect our world-leading research with the challenges our local communities face, and, over the next eight years, it will train 50 PhDs, deliver 30 community events, provide 25 paid ‘Citizen Scientist’ research placements, support 15 community projects, and produce a national blueprint for how to support PhD candidates to develop as future civic leaders.

Co(l)lab. begins this September with a series of events and a virtual crowdsourcing campaign to find out from local people and partner organisations the most pressing issues facing communities where research can really make a difference. These ideas will then be shaped by a team of researchers across both universities into PhD projects, Citizen Scientist eight-week paid placements or team-challenge community projects. Co(l)lab. will also pilot a new way to recruit PhD candidates, with a competency framework – designed by national consultation – that will measure suitability for research through skills and attributes rather than the educational opportunities that have shaped their career to date and the type of degree candidates have achieved therefore at undergraduate level.

Opportunities for local people to become part of the Co(l)laboratory Doctoral Training Partnership will be advertised from mid-October with Citizen Scientist placements taking place from January onwards and funded PhD projects beginning in April. This is a cycle of recruitment which will happen every year until 2028.

Building on the enthusiasm and engagement already shown by Universities for Nottingham ten civic partners, we are confident that Co(l)lab. will be a successful pilot for an experimental approach to public dialogue and community-led research and innovation which contributes effectively to the region’s levelling-up ambitions.

If you are interested in finding out more about this project please contact our project team by emailing [email protected].

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The Repository@Nottingham is intended to be an Open Access showcase for the published research output of the university. Whenever possible, refereed documents accepted for publication, or finished artistic compositions presented in public, will be made available here in full digital format, and hyperlinks to standard published versions will be provided. See our Policies for further information.

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Understanding Reputational Disaster During Economic Crises: Evaluating Aviation Sector Response Differentials (2024) Journal Article Akyildirim, E., Corbet, S., Nicolau, J. L., & Oxley, L. (2025). Understanding Reputational Disaster During Economic Crises: Evaluating Aviation Sector Response Differentials. Tourism Management, 106, Article 105028. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2024.105028 This research investigates the impact of reputational events on the financial performance of airlines , with a particular focus on differential behaviour regarding the types of events-environmental, social, and governance (ESG), and the economic cycl... Read More about Understanding Reputational Disaster During Economic Crises: Evaluating Aviation Sector Response Differentials.

Comparative judgement modeling to map forced marriage at local levels (2024) Journal Article Seymour, R., Nyarko-Agyei, A., Mccabe, H., Severn, K., Sirl, D., Kypraios, T., & Taylor, A. (in press). Comparative judgement modeling to map forced marriage at local levels. Annals of Applied Statistics, Forcing someone into marriage against their will is a violation of their human rights. In 2021, the county of Nottinghamshire, UK, launched a strategy to tackle forced marriage and violence against women and girls. We set out to map the risk of force... Read More about Comparative judgement modeling to map forced marriage at local levels.

A novel observation for adult Ataxia-Telangiectasia: Evaluating the lack of hypointensity of the dentate nuclei (2024) Journal Article Yung, T. M., Scoffings, D. J., Blanchard, C., Dineen, R. A., Horvath, R., & Hensiek, A. E. (in press). A novel observation for adult Ataxia-Telangiectasia: Evaluating the lack of hypointensity of the dentate nuclei. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry,

The Structure of Massive Star-Forming Galaxies from JWST and ALMA: Dusty, High Redshift Disk Galaxies (2024) Journal Article Gillman, S., Smail, I., Gullberg, B., Swinbank, A., Vijayan, A. P., Lee, M., Brammer, G., Dudzeviciute, U., Greve, T. R., Almaini, O., Brinch, M., Chapman, S. C., Chen, C.-C., Ikarashi, S., Matsuda, Y., Wang, W.-H., Walter, F., & van der Werf, P. P. (in press). The Structure of Massive Star-Forming Galaxies from JWST and ALMA: Dusty, High Redshift Disk Galaxies. Astronomy and Astrophysics, We present an analysis of the JWST NIRCam and MIRI morphological and structural properties of 80 massive (log10(M∗[M]) = 11.2 ± 0.1) dusty star-forming galaxies at z = 2.7+1.2 −0.7 , identified as sub-millimetre galaxies (SMGs) by ALMA, that have bee... Read More about The Structure of Massive Star-Forming Galaxies from JWST and ALMA: Dusty, High Redshift Disk Galaxies.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists – new evidence of kidney and cardiovascular protection from the FLOW and SELECT trials (2024) Journal Article Taal, M. W., & Selby, N. M. (in press). Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists – new evidence of kidney and cardiovascular protection from the FLOW and SELECT trials. American Journal of Kidney Diseases,

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• Benjamin Towle, Xin Chen and Ke Zhou, "SimSAM: Zero-shot Medical Image Segmentation via Simulated Interaction". accepted by IEEE-ISBI, oral presentation, 2024.
• Zhendi Gong, Andrew French, Guoping Qiu and Xin Chen, "CTrans: A Multi-resolution Convolution-transformer Network for Medical Image Segmentation." accepted by IEEE-ISBI, oral presentation, 2024.
• Ruizhe Li, Dorothee Auer, Christian Wagner and Xin Chen, " MrRegNet: Multi-resolution Mask Guided Convolutional Neural Network for Medical Image Registration with Large Deformations", accepted by IEEE-ISBI, 2024.

- October, 2023: Huge congratulations to Qiao Lin, who successfully defended her PhD thesis: "Incorporating Fuzzy-based Methods to Deep Learning Models for Semantic Segmentation" subject to minor corrections! A few more upcoming papers from her thesis. - September, 2023: Many congratulations to Ruizhe Li who passed his PhD viva subject to minor corrections! The title of his thesis is "Semi-supervised Learning for Medical Image Segmentation". He has also been awarded the University Tri Campus Postgraduate Prize: Andrew Hendry Postgraduate Scholarship, as a recognition of the contributions he has made in his research. - August, 2023: Our new paper on out-of-distirbution detection has been published in Fuzz-IEEE conference. "Fuzzy Uncertainty-based Out-of-distribution Detection Algorithm for Semantic Segmentation", IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems 2023. - March, 2023: I am now Associate Professor of Computer Science - January, 2023: Now our grand challenge winner paper has been published "Motion-Related Artefact Classification Using Patch-Based Ensemble and Transfer Learning in Cardiac MRI" International Workshop on Statistical Atlases and Computational Models of the Heart, MICCAI 2022. ArXiv version

I am an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham, UK. My research interests are image processing, computer vision and machine learning, particularly applied to medical image analysis. My team and I develop algorithms for 2D/3D image segmentation, image registration, statistical shape/ motion modelling, classification/ regression models and CT & MRI image reconstruction, which have been successfully applied to different medical applications (e.g. breast cancer, diabetes care, wrist injury and radiotherapy). I am an active member in the computer vision and medical imaging community, regularly serve as reviewers for international conferences and prestigious journals (e.g. Medical Image Analysis, MICCAI, IEEE-ISBI, BMVC, IEEE-TMI, IEEE-TBME, Physics in Medicine and Biology, etc.).

Previous Projects

Inferring 3d kinematics of carpal bones from single view fluoroscopic sequences.

The wrist is one of the most complex and vulnerable joints in the body, consisting of eight carpal bones. Wrist pain is currently diagnosed by expert assessment of abnormal carpal bone movements in 2D fluoroscopy sequences. The overall aim of the current project is computer interpretation of these 2D sequences to recover the 3D motion of the carpal bones, and further leads to quantitative measurements of wrist diseases.

- Chen, X., et al., Automatic Inference and Measurement of 3D Carpal Bone Kinematics From Single View Fluoroscopic Sequences. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2013. 32(2): p. 317-328.

- Chen, X., et al., Automatic Generation of Statistical Pose and Shape Models for Articulated Joints. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2014. 33(2): p. 372 - 383.

- Chen, X., et al., Inferring 3D kinematics of carpal bones from single view fluoroscopic sequences, MICCAI 2011, Springer. p. 680-687.

- Chen, X., et al., Integrated frameworkfor simultaneous segmentation and registration of carpal bones, ICIP 2011, p. 433-436.

Quantification of diabetic peripheral neuropathy using corneal confocal microscopy image

Corneal confocal microscopy is a novel in-vivo imaging modality that has the potential to be a non-invasive and objective image biomarker for peripheral neuropathy. Automatic quantification of nerve morphology is a major step forward in the early diagnosis and assessment of progression, and, in particular, for use in clinical trials to establish therapeutic benefit in diabetic and other peripheral neuropathies.

- Chen, X., et al., An Automatic Tool for Quantification of Nerve Fibers in Corneal Confocal Microscopy Images. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 2017. 64(4): p. 786-794.

- Chen, X., et al., Small Nerve Fiber Quantification in the Diagnosis of Diabetic Sensorimotor Polyneuropathy: Comparing Corneal Confocal Microscopy With Intraepidermal Nerve Fiber Density. Diabetes Care, 2015. 38(6): p. 1138-1144.

Adapting breast cancer screening strategy using personalised risk estimation

Currently, breast screening is almost exclusively performed with mammography. However, for women with dense breasts the sensitivity of mammography for detecting breast cancer is low. The aim of the project is to develop methods to personalise breast cancer screening, based on risk and breast density markers. We have deleloped method to estimated volumetric breast density from single view mammography.

- Chen, X., et al., Improving Mammographic Density Estimation in the Breast Periphery, IWDM 2016, p. 469-477

- Chen, X., et al., A Novel Framework for Fat, Glandular Tissue, Pectoral Muscle and Nipple Segmentation in Full Field Digital Mammograms, IWDM 2014. p. 201-208

- Chen, X., et al., Breast Cancer Risk Analysis Based on a Novel Segmentation Framework for Digital Mammograms, MICCAI 2014. p. 536-543.

High Temporal and Spatial Resolution Dynamic MRI Reconstruction

Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) involves imaging a region of interest with high temporal resolution, and is useful in many applications in which knowledge of motion is of interest. We present a novel retrospective self-gating method based on manifold alignment (MA), which enables reconstruction of free breathing, high spatial, and temporal resolution abdominal magnetic resonance imaging sequences.

- Chen, X., et al., High-Resolution Self-Gated Dynamic Abdominal MRI Using Manifold Alignment. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2017. 36(4): p. 960 - 971.

- Chen, X., et al., Efficient deformable motion correction for 3-D abdominal MRI using manifold regression, MICCAI 2017, p. 270-278.

- Chen, X., et al., Dynamic Volume Reconstruction from Multi-slice Abdominal MRI Using Manifold Alignment, MICCAI 2016, p. 493-501.

Computer Vision

Machine learning, ug/pgt projects, software tools, 2d/3d interactive image segmentation v1.0..

Image segmentation is a crucial step in many medical image analysis processes. Manual or semi-automatic image segmentation is often necessary to provide accurate annotations for supervised machine learning algorithms or to be directly used for clinical feature quantification. Our software aims to enable rapid interactive image segmentation for both 2D and 3D medical images based on full-connected conditional random field method. It supports up to 10 foreground labels and various image format (Matlab, Nifty, DICOM, etc.). The software was developed in Matlab, hence the Matlab runtime library will be automatically installed. Please make sure you have internet connections during the installation process. The software is freely available for research purposes, please cite our paper if it is useful to your project.

Software download

Video instruction of the software.

Automatic Nerve Fibre Quantification in Corneal Confocal Microscopic Images

Corneal confocal microscopy is a novel in-vivo imaging modality that has the potential to be a non-invasive and objective image biomarker for peripheral neuropathy. Automatic quantification of nerve morphology is a major step forward in the early diagnosis and assessment of progression, and, in particular, for use in clinical trials to establish therapeutic benefit in diabetic and other peripheral neuropathies. The software has been recently updated using deep learning method. Simply download the tool from the link below, unzip it to your local drive, click "CCMAnalysis.exe" to run (no installation needed). It currently only support Windows machines. If you find it useful, please cite our paper: N. Zhang et al., A spatially constrained deep convolutional neural network for nerve fiber segmentation in corneal confocal microscopic images using inaccurate annotations. IEEE-ISBI, 2020

Research Grants

- 2022-2026 Wellcome Leap funded, Co-investigator, “Maternal venous return from the placenta and the effect of placental and uterine contractions as potential markers of stillbirth risk”.

- 2021-2025 MRC funded, Co-investigator, “DEMISTIFI Multi Morbidity: DEfining MechanIsms Shared across mulTI-organ FIbrotic disease to prevent the development of long term multi-morbidity”.

- 2021-2025 ERC funded, Co-investigator, “Brain connectivity metrology for personalised neuroimaging in health and disease”.

- 2021-2022 NIHR/NHSx AI Award, Co-lead, “Personalised Preoperative Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy to Optimise Curative Treatment in Breast Cancer”.

- 2020-2022 Weston Brain Institute Award, Co-investigator, “Determining subtype-specific rates of brainstem depigmentation as progression marker in early Parkinson’s: A serial neuromelanin MRI study to inform stratified trial designs”.

- 2020-2022 British Heart Foundation Award, Co-investigator, “Assessment of artificial neural networks and conventional statistical regression techniques in diagnosis and prediction of outcome after stroke using big data”.

- 2019-2021 Precision Imaging Beacon Catalyst Award by Precision Imaging Beacon, University of Nottingham, Co-investigator, “Developing an artificial intelligence augmented diagnostic imaging strategy for patients with occult scaphoid fractures of the wrist”.

- 2018-2019 Research Accelerator Award by Precision Imaging Beacon, University of Nottingham, Principle investigator, “Automated blood vessel quantification for 7 Tesla magnetic resonance angiography”.

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Supporting Nottingham and Nottinghamshire through partnership, research and collaboration

Co(l)laboratory is a pioneering 8 year, £5.1m project supported by Research England, Nottingham Trent University, the University of Nottingham and the Universities for Nottingham partnership.

Co(l)laboratory brings together researchers, community organisations and local people to deliver meaningful change for the people of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire through research.

Find out more about our work here .

Co(l)laboratory is all about breaking open the research process to enable local citizens and community organisations with real-world experience to collaborate with us in shaping new research.

Notts Voice in Research : Do live and/or work in Notts? Join the conversation and share your ideas on what local challenges we should try and address through our research.

Placements : Each year we fund 5, part-time, paid research placements, which are open to all Notts residents. Learn more .

PhD studentships : We offer fully funded PhD scholarships to talented individuals with strong potential who want to make a difference to Notts communities through research: Learn more .

Collaborate : We are always keen to hear from local community-focused organisations to talk about ways we might be able to work together. Get in touch now .

Through collaborations between university researchers, citizens and local community-focused organisations, Co(l)laboratory aims to make a positive impact on our communities in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Over the next eight years, we will train 50 PhD candidates and 25 Research Placement candidates in a unique programme of locally relevant, challenge-based research that will support development within local communities, broadening prospects and facilitating change, driving growth and improving well-being.

Find out more about our current research projects

Project Co-Creation for 2024-25 is LIVE!

Co(l)laboratory’s next round of research project co-creation is now live. We are now accepting proposals from academic and community teams for PhD and Placement research projects to be considered for funding. Co(l)laboratory will be funding 10 PhD and 5 Placement projects to begin in April 2025.

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The Co(l)laboratory Impact Report 2024

Friday 30 August 2024 During August, while most university colleagues take a well deserved break for the Summer, the Co(l)laboratory team have been preparing for the start of the programme’s&hel…

Event Report: Research Summer Retreat for Co(l)laboratory PhD Cohort 2

Wednesday 17 July 2024 A few months into their research programmes, our second cohort of Co(l)laboratory PhD students gathered at Antenna, at the heart of Nottingham for a 2-day summer… Re…

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Monday 29 April 2024 Setting the research agenda through community partnership The next round of research project co-creation will begin in May 2024 and run through to September 2024. This…&nbs…

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Research strategy and research culture – invitation to find out more

June 24th, 2022

An update from Professor Dame Jessica Corner

Colleagues are invited to find out more about progress towards renewing the university’s research strategy for 2022-27 and transforming our research culture.  

A series of research strategy town halls and research culture design clinics are taking place in July. Everyone who contributes to the delivery of research is invited to join one of the town halls as well as take part in a research culture clinic, which will explore how to build an inclusive, vibrant research environment.  

Research strategy town halls

A new virtual town hall will update on our research strategy .

This will take place on • Tuesday 26 July, from 3pm – 4pm

Please use this form to book your place .

This will be an opportunity to hear about progress towards the university’s renewed research strategy for 2022-27, which is due to be officially launched in the autumn.

Updates will include our  research culture projec t (please see more on this below) and there will be a Q&A session.

We encourage everyone who contributes to the delivery of research to join us and shape our vision.

Your input into our research strategy consultation and the ongoing research culture project has been invaluable as we explore how to build an inclusive, vibrant environment to support the delivery of world-class research. I look forward to your further support.

Research culture update and new opportunity to get involved

Our research culture survey closed at the end of May. We received 862 submissions, which represents more than 10% of our research community. Many thanks to everyone who completed the survey. We are now analysing data from the survey.

Reports and a video overview of findings for each faculty will be placed on the  Research Culture SharePoint  in early July.

You are now invited to get involved in the next stage of the project, a series of design clinics between 11 – 21 July that will explore emerging themes from the survey.

This is an opportunity to work with colleagues from across the university to develop a range of practical interventions and improvements that can positively influence our working environment.

In each of the six clinics we will respond to a theme/s raised by the survey and work together to develop possible options for engaging with these.

This will lead into our work in the autumn, when we will form working groups to prototype the best ideas.

The design clinics, to be held via Microsoft Teams, are for anyone working on or supporting research activity and will actively seek and promote cross-faculty exchange of ideas.

If you would like to attend and contribute further to improving our research culture,  please register your interest for one of the clinics .

Research Culture Conference

The Researcher Academy invites all staff involved in or supporting research,  postgraduate research students, technicians, academics, senior leaders, and professional service staff to come together during Nottingham’s first Research Culture Conference and explore how we can transform our research culture.

The Research Culture Conference: Building a Healthy and High-Performing Research Ecosystem , takes place 7 July, 9.30am–4.30pm, East Midlands Conference Centre. Book your place

Read Dame Jessica’s full update

Tags: professor dame jessica corner , Professor Dame Jessica Corner update , research , research culture

June 29th, 2022 at 11:21 am

I think the MS Form link is wrong to register for the town halls to book your place. It seems like an editable version?

June 30th, 2022 at 1:56 pm

Hi Debra, thanks for letting us know. The article has now been updated with a link to a new form.

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By collaborating across different disciplines and subjects, our university researchers are taking on new projects to solve challenges in the modern world.

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8647 research projects, rational screening of carbocation scavengers to enhance lignocellulosic biomass valorisation, a personalised social and self-management intervention to support better living with multiple long-term conditions in the community., embedding healthcare analytics, universal platform components for safe fair interoperable data exchange, monetisation and trading (upcast), robust design with composite materials under uncertainty, deep-learning the mechanical properties of additively manufactured structures, modeling and synthesis of lightweight hybrid metamaterials towards multifunctionality: structural integrity and thermal efficiency for the reduction of carbon emissions in the transportation industry, a multiscale framework for piezoelectric composite material design, pneumococcal carriage and serotype distribution in children with otitis media in malaysia, design of next generation track systems, new horizons in computational structural biology with ccp4: multiple states, models and methods, use of ai and validation, providing improved information to rail passengers and understanding the value of data privacy, assisted vstp (very short term planning).

• Course modules
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• Every day I’m completely immersed in an environment that’s creative in all aspects
• Everything I learn feels so relevant, even If it’s a subject rooted in the past
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• A missing link between continental shelves and the deep sea: Have we underestimated the importance of land-detached canyons?
• A seismic study of the continent-ocean transition southwest of the UK
• A study of rolling contact fatigue in electric vehicles (EVs)
• Acoustic monitoring of forest exploitation to establish community perspectives of sustainable hunting
• Acoustic sensing and characterisation of soil organic matter
• Advancing intersectional geographies of diaspora-led development in times of multiple crises
• Aero engine fan wake turbulence – Simulation and wind tunnel experiments
• Against Climate Change (DACC): improving the estimates of forest fire smoke emissions
• All-in-one Mars in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) system and life-supporting using non-thermal plasma
• An electromagnetic study of the continent-ocean transition southwest of the UK
• An investigation of the relationship between health, home and law in the context of poor and precarious housing, and complex and advanced illness
• Antibiotic resistance genes in chalk streams
• Being autistic in care: Understanding differences in care experiences including breakdowns in placements for autistic and non-autistic children
• Biogeochemical cycling in the critical coastal zone: Developing novel methods to make reliable measurements of geochemical fluxes in permeable sediments
• Bloom and bust: seasonal cycles of phytoplankton and carbon flux
• British Black Lives Matter: The emergence of a modern civil rights movement
• Building physics for low carbon comfort using artificial intelligence
• Building-resolved large-eddy simulations of wind and dispersion over a city scale urban area
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• Carbon storage in reactive rock systems: determining the coupling of geo-chemo-mechanical processes in reactive transport
• Cascading hazards from the largest volcanic eruption in over a century: What happened when Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai erupted in January 2022?
• Characterisation of cast austenitic stainless steels using ultrasonic backscatter and artificial intelligence
• Climate Change effects on the developmental physiology of the small-spotted catshark
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• Design and fabrication of next generation optical fibres
• Developing a practical application of unmanned aerial vehicle technologies for conservation research and monitoring of endangered wildlife
• Development and evolution of animal biomineral skeletons
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• Ecological role of offshore artificial structures
• Effect of embankment and subgrade weathering on railway track performance
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• Electrochemical sensing of the sea surface microlayer
• Engagement with nature among children from minority ethnic backgrounds
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• Environmental and genetic determinants of Brassica crop damage by the agricultural pest Diamondback moth
• Estimating marine mammal abundance and distribution from passive acoustic and biotelemetry data
• Evolution of symbiosis in a warmer world
• Examining evolutionary loss of calcification in coccolithophores
• Explainable AI (XAI) for health
• Explaining process, pattern and dynamics of marine predator hotspots in the Southern Ocean
• Exploring dynamics of natural capital in coastal barrier systems
• Exploring the mechanisms of microplastics incorporation and their influence on the functioning of coral holobionts
• Exploring the potential electrical activity of gut for healthcare and wellbeing
• Exploring the trans-local nature of cultural scene
• Facilitating forest restoration sustainability of tropical swidden agriculture
• Faulting, fluids and geohazards within subduction zone forearcs
• Faulting, magmatism and fluid flow during volcanic rifting in East Africa
• Fingerprinting environmental releases from nuclear facilities
• Flexible hybrid thermoelectric materials for wearable energy harvesting
• Floating hydrokinetic power converter
• Glacial sedimentology associated subglacial hydrology
• Green and sustainable Internet of Things
• How do antimicrobial peptides alter T cell cytokine production?
• How do calcifying marine organisms grow? Determining the role of non-classical precipitation processes in biogenic marine calcite formation
• How do neutrophils alter T cell metabolism?
• How well can we predict future changes in biodiversity using machine learning?
• Hydrant dynamics for acoustic leak detection in water pipes
• If ‘Black Lives Matter’, do ‘Asian Lives Matter’ too? Impact trajectories of organisation activism on wellbeing of ethnic minority communities
• Illuminating luciferin bioluminescence in dinoflagellates
• Imaging quantum materials with an XFEL
• Impact of neuromodulating drugs on gut microbiome homeostasis
• Impact of pharmaceuticals in the marine environment in a changing world
• Impacts of environmental change on coastal habitat restoration
• Improving subsea navigation using environment observations for long term autonomy
• Information theoretic methods for sensor management
• Installation effect on the noise of small high speed fans
• Integrated earth observation mapping change land sea
• Interconnections of past greenhouse climates
• Investigating IgG cell depletion mechanisms
• Is ocean mixing upside down? How mixing processes drive upwelling in a deep-ocean basin
• Landing gear aerodynamics and aeroacoustics
• Lightweight gas storage: real-world strategies for the hydrogen economy
• Long-term change in the benthos – creating robust data from varying camera systems
• Machine learning for multi-robot perception
• Marine ecosystem responses to past climate change and its oceanographic impacts
• Mechanical effects in the surf zone - in situ electrochemical sensing
• Microfluidic cell isolation systems for sepsis
• Migrant entrepreneurship, gender and generation: context and family dynamics in small town Britain
• Miniaturisation in fishes: evolutionary and ecological perspectives
• Modelling high-power fibre laser and amplifier stability
• Modelling soil dewatering and recharge for cost-effective and climate resilient infrastructure
• Modelling the evolution of adaptive responses to climate change across spatial landscapes
• Nanomaterials sensors for biomedicine and/or the environment
• New high-resolution observations of ocean surface current and winds from innovative airborne and satellite measurements
• New perspectives on ocean photosynthesis
• Novel methods of detecting carbon cycling pathways in lakes and their impact on ecosystem change
• Novel technologies for cyber-physical security
• Novel transparent conducting films with unusual optoelectronic properties
• Novel wavelength fibre lasers for industrial applications
• Ocean circulation and the Southern Ocean carbon sink
• Ocean influence on recent climate extremes
• Ocean methane sensing using novel surface plasmon resonance technology
• Ocean physics and ecology: can robots disentangle the mix?
• Ocean-based Carbon Dioxide Removal: Assessing the utility of coastal enhanced weathering
• Offshore renewable energy (ORE) foundations on rock seabeds: advancing design through analogue testing and modelling
• Optical fibre sensing for acoustic leak detection in buried pipelines
• Optimal energy transfer in nonlinear systems
• Optimizing machine learning for embedded systems
• Oxidation of fossil organic matter as a source of atmospheric CO2
• Partnership dissolution and re-formation in later life among individuals from minority ethnic communities in the UK
• Personalized multimodal human-robot interactions
• Preventing disease by enhancing the cleaning power of domestic water taps using sound
• Quantifying riparian vegetation dynamics and flow interactions for Nature Based Solutions using novel environmental sensing techniques
• Quantifying the response and sensitivity of tropical forest carbon sinks to various drivers
• Quantifying variability in phytoplankton electron requirements for carbon fixation
• Resilient and sustainable steel-framed building structures
• Resolving Antarctic meltwater events in Southern Ocean marine sediments and exploring their significance using climate models
• Robust acoustic leak detection in water pipes using contact sound guides
• Silicon synapses for artificial intelligence hardware
• Smart photon delivery via reconfigurable optical fibres
• The Gulf Stream control of the North Atlantic carbon sink
• The Mayflower Studentship: a prestigious fully funded PhD studentship in bioscience
• The calming effect of group living in social fishes
• The duration of ridge flank hydrothermal exchange and its role in global biogeochemical cycles
• The evolution of symmetry in echinoderms
• The impact of early life stress on neuronal enhancer function
• The oceanic fingerprints on changing monsoons over South and Southeast Asia
• The role of iron in nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis in changing polar oceans
• The role of singlet oxygen signaling in plant responses to heat and drought stress
• Time variability on turbulent mixing of heat around melting ice in the West Antarctic
• Triggers and Feedbacks of Climate Tipping Points
• Uncovering the drivers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease progression using patient derived organoids
• Understanding recent land-use change in Snowdonia to plan a sustainable future for uplands: integrating palaeoecology and conservation practice
• Understanding the role of cell motility in resource acquisition by marine phytoplankton
• Understanding the structure and engagement of personal networks that support older people with complex care needs in marginalised communities and their ability to adapt to increasingly ‘digitalised’ health and social care
• Unpicking the Anthropocene in the Hawaiian Archipelago
• Unraveling oceanic multi-element cycles using single cell ionomics
• Unravelling southwest Indian Ocean biological productivity and physics: a machine learning approach
• Using acoustics to monitor how small cracks develop into bursts in pipelines
• Using machine learning to improve predictions of ocean carbon storage by marine life
• Vulnerability of low-lying coastal transportation networks to natural hazards
• Wideband fibre optical parametric amplifiers for Space Division Multiplexing technology
• Will it stick? Exploring the role of turbulence and biological glues on ocean carbon storage
• X-ray imaging and property characterisation of porous materials
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PhD opportunities

Explore the different ways to apply for a PhD at NTU, including advertised projects, submitting your own research proposal, and studying at-distance. Find a PhD that works for you, and begin your research journey today.

Applying for a PhD

A PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) is the highest level of academic qualification you can achieve. It usually takes three to four years to complete full-time, or up to eight years part-time. During your PhD, you will work on an original research topic under the guidance of our supervisors.

At NTU, we encourage and support a huge range of PhD opportunities. We invite you to apply for a project designed by our research staff, as well as submitting a proposal for your own novel research project.

We provide funded, part-funded and self-funded PhD projects across a range of disciplines. Opportunities are available year-round. Search the PhD projects currently available, filtering by keyword, title or academic school.

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Decided on your own research topic? You’ll need to identify a supervisor whose expertise aligns with your own before putting together a research proposal. Explore our research strengths and staff interests to see if we can support you.

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Our at-distance PhDs have been designed for candidates who require a more flexible mode to complete their doctoral research. They particularly suit professionals looking to undertake research alongside their job, individuals with research interests local to where they live, or candidates with caring or other personal responsibilities.

These part-time, structured programmes are delivered online over four to seven years. Every researcher must normally spend at least eight weeks at NTU in any one academic year, to establish personal relationships with supervisors and benefit from face-to-face participation in the academic community.

We can offer at-distance PhDs across the majority of disciplines with projects aligned to our research centres. Contact the relevant Director of Doctoral Studies to discuss at-distance opportunities in more detail.

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We have four PhD intakes per year in October, January, April and June. Typically it takes four years to complete a PhD full-time or up to eight years part-time, including your "write up" period.  The application deadlines for these are:

How to write a research proposal

Whether you apply for a PhD project or submit your own research question, you will need to produce a research proposal and personal statement as part of your application. Read our advice on how to construct a successful proposal.

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Everything you need to know about applying to study at the NTU Doctoral School.

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The NTU Doctoral School provides a multi-disciplinary home for all our researchers, here to support you throughout your entire doctoral degree. Explore our research community.

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• Connected Everything: Industrial Systems in the Digital Age
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• Faculty of Engineering

Alistair Speidel

Staff, Faculty of Engineering

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• work Room C21 Advanced Manufacturing Building Jubilee Campus Wollaton Road Nottingham NG8 1BB UK
• [email protected]

Alistair was awarded his PhD in 2018 from the University of Nottingham, following which he was awarded an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship at Nottingham to start his independent research career. During this time, Alistair co-founded the spinout company TextureJet Ltd., which commercialises electrochemical surface processing technologies. He joined the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering as Assistant Professor of Sustainable Engineering in September 2023, and works as part of the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Research Group. Alistair specialises in non-conventional manufacturing processes, waste reduction in manufacturing, and on-machine materials data acquisition. Alistair is Member of the Instutite of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3).

Expertise Summary

Non-conventional machining (electrophysical and electrochemical machining)

Ambient condition microstructure mapping

Process monitoring

Novel methods to reduce manufacturing waste

Teaching Summary

Alistair contributes to the following undergraduate courses: MMME1024 Engineering Design and Design Project, MMME2045 Materials in Design, MMME3100 Engineering Sustainability, MMME4052 Advanced… read more

Selected Publications

• SPEIDEL, ALISTAIR, BISTEROV, IVAN, AHMED, SHAMRAZE and CLARE, ADAM THOMAS, 2024. Ambient grain orientation imaging on complex surfaces: Acta Materialia Acta Materialia. 265, 119604
• AHMED, SHAMRAZE, GIRERD, THOMAS, CLARE, ADAM THOMAS and SPEIDEL, ALISTAIR, 2024. Electrolyte jet tomography: Three-dimensional microstructure mapping with an electrochemical machine tool and an optical microscope: Journal of Materials Processing Technology Journal of Materials Processing Technology. 332, 118571
• THANGAMUTHU, MADASAMY, KOHLRAUSCH, EMERSON C., LI, MING, SPEIDEL, ALISTAIR, CLARE, ADAM T., PLUMMER, RICHARD, GEARY, PAUL, MURRAY, JAMES W., KHLOBYSTOV, ANDREI N. and ALVES FERNANDES, JESUM, 2024. From scrap metal to highly efficient electrodes: harnessing the nanotextured surface of swarf for effective utilisation of Pt and Co for hydrogen production: Journal of Materials Chemistry A Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
• ALISTAIR SPEIDEL, MATTHEW D. WADGE, LEONARDIS GARGALIS, TIMOTHY P. COOPER, WILLIAM REYNOLDS, DAVID M. GRANT, RICHARD HAGUE, ADAM T. CLARE and JAMES W. MURRAY, 2022. The interaction of volatile metal coatings during the laser powder bed fusion of copper Journal of Materials Processing Technology. 299,
• View all publications

Alistair contributes to the following undergraduate courses: MMME1024 Engineering Design and Design Project, MMME2045 Materials in Design, MMME3100 Engineering Sustainability, MMME4052 Advanced Technology Review, MMME4056 Integrated Systems Analysis

• BISTEROV, I., ABAYZEED, S., SPEIDEL, A. and CLARE, A. T., 2022. On-machine measurement with an electrochemical jet machine tool: International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture. 174,
• SPEIDEL, A., BISTEROV, I., SAXENA, K. K., ZUBAYR, M., REYNAERTS, D., NATSU, W. and CLARE, A. T., 2022. Electrochemical jet manufacturing technology: From fundamentals to application: International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture. 180,
• SPEIDEL, ALISTAIR, BISTEROV, IVAN and CLARE, ADAM THOMAS, 2022. Direct Writing Unclonable Watermarks with an Electrochemical Jet: Advanced Functional Materials Advanced Functional Materials. 2208116
• SPEIDEL, A., XU, D., BISTEROV, I., MITCHELL-SMITH, J. and CLARE, A. T., 2021. Unveiling surfaces for advanced materials characterisation with large-area electrochemical jet machining: Materials and Design Materials and Design. 202,
• BISTEROV, I., SPEIDEL, A., MITCHELL-SMITH, J. and CLARE, A. T., 2021. Implications of vector change in electrochemical jet processing: Manufacturing Letters Manufacturing Letters. 27, 82-86
• SPEIDEL, A., SÉLO, R., BISTEROV, I., MITCHELL-SMITH, J. and CLARE, A. T., 2021. Post processing of additively manufactured parts using electrochemical jet machining: Materials Letters Materials Letters. 292,
• MONACA, A. L., MURRAY, J. W., LIAO, Z. R., SPEIDEL, A., ROBLES-LINARES, J. A., AXINTE, D. A., HARDY, M. C. and CLARE, A. T., 2021. Surface integrity in metal machining-Part II: Functional performance: International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture. 164, 55
• LIAO, ZHIRONG, LA MONACA, ANDREA, MURRAY, JAMES, SPEIDEL, ALISTAIR, USHMAEV, DMITRII, CLARE, ADAM, AXINTE, DRAGOS and M'SAOUBI, RACHID, 2021. Surface integrity in metal machining - Part I: Fundamentals of surface characteristics and formation mechanisms: International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture. 162, 103687
• MURRAY, J. W., SIMONELLI, M., SPEIDEL, A., GRANT, D. M. and CLARE, A. T., 2019. Spheroidisation of metal powder by pulsed electron beam irradiation: Powder Technology Powder Technology. 350, 100-106
• CLARE, ADAM T., SPEIDEL, ALISTAIR, MITCHELL-SMITH, JONATHON, BISTEROV, IVAN and MURRAY, JAMES W., 2019. Surface enhanced micro features using electrochemical jet processing CIRP Annals. 68(1), 177-180
• MITCHELL-SMITH, J., SPEIDEL, A. and CLARE, A. T., 2018. Transitory electrochemical masking for precision jet processing techniques: Journal of Manufacturing Processes Journal of Manufacturing Processes. 31, 273-285
• ALISTAIR SPEIDEL, JONATHON MITCHELL-SMITH, IVAN BISTEROV and ADAM T. CLARE, 2018. The Dependence of Surface Finish on Material Precondition in Electrochemical Jet Machining Procedia CIRP.
• JONATHON MITCHELL-SMITH, ALISTAIR SPEIDEL, IVAN BISTEROV and ADAM T. CLARE, 2018. Electrolyte Multiplexing in Electrochemical Jet Processing Procedia CIRP.
• ALISTAIR SPEIDEL, JONATHON MITCHELL-SMITH, IVAN BISTEROV and ADAM THOMAS CLARE, 2018. The importance of microstructure in electrochemical jet processing Journal of Materials Processing Technology. 262, 459-470
• SPEIDEL, ALISTAIR, SU, RONG, MITCHELL-SMITH, JONATHON, DRYBURGH, PAUL, BISTEROV, IVAN, PIERIS, DON, LI, WENQI, PATEL, RIKESH, CLARK, MATT and CLARE, ADAM T., 2018. Crystallographic texture can be rapidly determined by electrochemical surface analytics: Acta Materialia Acta Materialia. 159, 89-101
• MITCHELL-SMITH, J., SPEIDEL, A. and CLARE, A.T., 2018. Advancing electrochemical jet methods through manipulation of the angle of address: Journal of Materials Processing Technology Journal of Materials Processing Technology. 255, 364-372
• MITCHELL-SMITH, JONATHON, SPEIDEL, ALISTAIR, GASKELL, JENNIFER and CLARE, ADAM T., 2017. Energy distribution modulation by mechanical design for electrochemical jet processing techniques: International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture. 122, 32-46
• SPEIDEL, ALISTAIR, LUTEY, ADRIAN HUGH ALEXANDER, MITCHELL-SMITH, JONATHON, RANCE, GRAHAM A., LIVERANI, ERICA, ASCARI, ALESSANDRO, FORTUNATO, ALESSANDRO and CLARE, ADAM, 2016. Surface modification of mild steel using a combination of laser and electrochemical processes: Surface and Coatings Technology Surface and Coatings Technology. 307, Part A, 849-860
• SPEIDEL, ALISTAIR, MITCHELL-SMITH, JONATHON, WALSH, DARREN A., HIRSCH, MATTHIAS and CLARE, ADAM, 2016. Electrolyte Jet Machining of Titanium Alloys Using Novel Electrolyte Solutions: Procedia CIRP Procedia CIRP. 42, 367-372

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