Artificial Optical Nervous System

The study of the mechanical properties of any large, complex structures such as a space launch vehicle or Earth’s crust relies on a large array of sophisticated and, often, expensive sensors. Constrained by budget, the number of sensing nodes deployed in such projects often does not exceed a few hundred, limiting the scale and scope of these studies. The aim of this project is to establish a new class of sensing system that is capable of mapping strain distribution at thousands of points using a single strand of optical fibre thinner than a human hair. When placed on or inside a structure such as the airframe of an aircraft, optical fibres act as artificial nerves, transmitting valuable information about the condition of the structure to the interrogating unit that acts as a brain.

The new system, which will be called High-resolution Ultra-fast Distributed Sensor (HUDS), allows static and dynamic strain measurement at +50,000 sensing points with 2 cm spatial resolution and at a sampling rate as high as 100,000 samples per second at each sensing point. The ability of HUDS to provide a high-resolution map of strain distribution at tens of thousands of points along a fibre opens up a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines such as Civil Engineering, Seismology, Mechanical Engineering, Ship Sciences, and High-energy Particle Physics, to name a few.

This project is supervised by Dr Ali Masoudi and Dr Gilberto Brambilla.

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5xcfwj/doctor-ali-masoudi

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5wy9h9/professor-gilberto-brambilla

Entry requirements

You must have a UK 2:1 honours degree or its international equivalent, in physics or a closely related discipline. 

How to apply

https://student-selfservice.soton.ac.uk/BNNRPROD/bzsksrch.P_Search

You need to:

• choose programme type (Research), 2025/26, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
• select Full time or Part time
• choose PhD ORC
• add name of the supervisor in section 2

Applications should include:

• personal statement
• your CV (resumé)
• 2 academic references
• degree transcripts to date