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Mechanical Engineering
Advanced electronic/optoelectronic technologies designed to allow stable, intimate integration with living organisms will accelerate progress in biomedical research; they will also serve as the foundations for new approaches in monitoring and treating diseases.
4D printing is emerging as a transformative manufacturing paradigm in which 3D-printed structures are engineered to change shape over time in response to external stimuli. In an engineering context, this enables a new generation of morphing structures that are lightweight, compactly stowed, and capable of autonomous reconfiguration—offering major advantages for applications where conventional mechanisms are bulky, noisy, complex, or hard to scale. This PhD will explore electroactive shape-memory polymer (SMP) morphing structures activated by Joule heating, aiming to achieve large, rapid, and repeatable motion without reliance on motors or complex assemblies. A central scientific opportunity is to exploit structural instabilities—where non-linear mechanics can amplify motion via snap-through (non-linear snap-back)—so that relatively small, localised actuation produces large, global shape change. The project will investigate how to encode and control these instabilities in additively manufactured architectures, enabling robust “motion amplification” while maintaining structural integrity and repeatability.
Research objectives
The PhD student will develop and test electroactive morphing structures that deliberately exploit mechanical instabilities to enhance actuation authority. The work will combine design, modelling, fabrication, and experiments to deliver design principles for instability-enabled electroactive morphing.
The PhD will involve
• Design and modelling of instability-enabled morphing architectures, including bistable and snap-through structures (e.g., shells, arches, lattices, hinge-inspired unit cells) to achieve motion amplification and controlled deployment paths.
• Development and fabrication of electroactive 4D-printed specimens (single- and multi-material), integrating conductive pathways and actuation zones compatible with Joule heating.
• Experimental characterisation of actuation and instability behaviour, including kinematics (fold angle/displacement), force/energy landscape, repeatability over cycles, and failure modes under repeated snap-through events.
• Electro-thermal diagnostics and actuation control, including resistance monitoring, Joule-heating strategies, and thermal-field measurement to manage hotspots and enable repeatable triggering.
• Iterative design–build–test cycles leading to demonstrator-level building blocks (not a one-off prototype), with generalisable design rules for instability-amplified, electroactive morphing.
Ideal candidate profile
We welcome applicants with a strong background in one or more of:
• Mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, civil engineering, materials science, mechatronics, robotics, or applied physics
• Additive manufacturing / 3D printing and experimental mechanics
• Numerical modelling (FEA) and/or programming (Python/Matlab) Experience with 4D printing or SMPs is helpful but not essential—the project is suitable for a motivated candidate keen to develop expertise at the intersection of mechanics, materials, and manufacturing.
Why join this project?
This PhD project is part of HORUS 4D, a £2.2M consortium comprising six academic institutions in the UK and France dedicated to advancing 4D printing. The selected candidate will operate at the forefront of morphing structures research, developing foundational principles that could support future technologies across aerospace, space systems, robotics, transportation, and biomedical devices. They will have access to cutting-edge manufacturing and characterisation facilities and will be immersed in a research environment focused on high-impact, interdisciplinary engineering science. The position offers numerous networking opportunities, including participation in workshops and international conferences. Additionally, three-month secondments at partner institutions will be incorporated into the work plan.
Host: School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, UK, ESTACA Ecole d’Ingénieurs, France. Supervisors: Francisca Martinez Hergueta, Matteo Taffetani, Thuy-Quynh Truong-Hoang, Marcelo Dias
Funding for eligible candidates is sponsored by Dstl.
Successful candidate will be expected to start their position in September 2026 (duration 3 years).
How to apply
Please submit:
1. CV (including relevant projects and technical skills)
2. Cover letter / personal statement (max 300 words) explaining your interest in 4D printing/morphing structures and how your skills match the project
3. Academic transcripts (or list of grades if transcripts are not yet available)
4. Names/contact details of two referees
Minimum criteria:
- a 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent).
- the University’s English language requirements.
Tuition fees + stipend are available for Home students only
To qualify as a Home student, you must fulfil one of the following criteria:
- You are a UK student
- You are an EU student with settled/pre-settled status who also has 3 years residency in the UK/EEA/Gibraltar/Switzerland immediately before the start of your Programme. (International students not eligible.)
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Research Associate in Physics-Informed Machine Learning for Crowd Dynamics
hyang5@ed.ac.uk
2.2017 James Clerk Maxwell Building
Mechanical Engineering
Multiscale Thermofluids
Research Associate
plokini@ed.ac.uk
2.2017 James Clerk Maxwell Building
Mechanical Engineering
Multiscale Thermofluids
Honorary Visiting Professor
Terry.McGrail@ed.ac.uk
No Fixed Office
Mechanical Engineering
Materials and Processes
Research Associate
mboudina@ed.ac.uk
2.2017 James Clerk Maxwell Building
Mechanical Engineering
Multiscale Thermofluids
This PhD tackles a fundamental open problem in soft matter physics that sits at the heart of multiple industries and natural systems: the rheology of dense suspensions of elongated particles. Why does a slurry packed with cellulose fibres flow so differently from one packed with spherical particles? What common principles govern the flow and mechanical behaviour of crystal-laden lavas, river logjams, recycled carbon-fibre composites and bacterial suspensions, and how do we develop predictive models useful to real world practitioners? Despite decades of progress on dense suspensions of spheres, culminating in unified flow laws and quantitative theories of jamming, an equivalent description for rod-shaped particles do not yet exist. You will help build it. The project will combine particle-based simulation with continuum modelling to deliver the first physics based constitutive model for dense rod suspensions, resolving how alignment, packing fraction and heterogeneous flow interact to produce stress. You will work at an active frontier of contemporary soft matter physics, joining a group with a strong international profile and an active track record of publishing in Physical Review Letters, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and other important journals. The science is genuinely fundamental, but its applications are immediate: your insights will feed directly into our basic understanding of manufacturing process such as speciality chemical crystallisation, composite recycling for the circular economy, and volcanic hazard prediction. You will become fluent in modern computational soft matter, writing and deploying GPU-based particle simulation codes; utilising Edinburgh's Eddie cluster and ARCHER2; statistical analyses of high-dimensional simulation data; and continuum modelling. You will have the opportunity to write your own codes from scratch and to use standard open source codes such as LAMMPS and OpenFOAM. You will graduate with a skillset that maps onto careers in academic research, computational materials science, engineering R&D and quantitative industry roles. You will be supported by Dr Chris Ness, Reader in Chemical Engineering, who runs an active group with a strong record of researcher development. You will be embedded in an international collaborator network, will attend major conferences in the field, and will contribute to open-source software releases that the wider community will use. We are seeking a motivated graduate in physics, applied maths, mechanical or chemical engineering, materials science or a related discipline, with an insatiable curiosity about how things flow. Prior simulation experience is welcome but not required.
Minimum entry requirements
- a 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent).
- the University’s English language requirements.
Funding may be available for this project, please enquire.
Applications are welcomed from self-funded students, or students who are applying for scholarships from the University of Edinburgh or elsewhere
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Postgraduate
sean.clark@ed.ac.uk
2.2009 James Clerk Maxwell Building
Mechanical Engineering
Multiscale Thermofluids
Visiting Researcher
v1qwenzh@ed.ac.uk
No Fixed Office
Mechanical Engineering
Materials and Processes
Visiting Student
s2907186@sms.ed.ac.uk
Mechanical Engineering
Materials and Processes