Understanding of tribological interactions with human tissue to enable improved robotic surgery

We have a vacancy for a bright, enthusiastic and self-motivated PhD student to join the Centre for Doctoral Training in Integrated Tribology (iT-CDT) at the University of Sheffield.

About the Project:

The project will begin in October 2020 and builds on previous work that examined the tribological mechanisms occurring during interactions between medical devices and human tissues across a range of length scales.

This project will take this research into a new direction to examine the frictional interactions that occur between devices used in robotic surgery applications and the tissues that they come into contact with, either due to the tasks they carry out (e.g. tissue gripping and manipulation, placement of stents etc.) or through their locomotion in the body.

The study will feed into and support a much broader research activity – “TRENT” (Tribology as an Enabling Technology), an EPSRC Centre to Centre funded project linking tribologists with world-leading robotisists. This provides the opportunity for the successful PhD candidate to work with international academics in Norway, Germany and the U.S. The work will also compliment activity within the EPSRC Programme Grant “Friction: The Tribology Enigma”. Both of these projects are being run jointly with Leeds University.
For further information please contact Dr Matt Carré – [Email Address Removed]

About the Centre:

The CDT Centre is a partnership with The University of Sheffield and University of Leeds, set up with funding provided through the EPSRC and is currently funded through industrial partnerships and other research funding sources.
We are a training and research facility for PhD students offering 3.5 year fully funded PhD projects, along with a taught programme, which has been designed to provide the relevant tribology training to students with engineering and physical sciences background. We also provide professional skills training needed for either a successful career within industry or academia.

Requirements:

• 1st or 2:1 degree in Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, Applied Mathematics or other Relevant Discipline.

• Funding is only available to cover the level of fees set for UK / EU applicants and a stipend at the standard EPSRC rate of £15009 for 2019/20. However, we are willing to consider overseas applicants providing there is means to fund the difference between home and overseas tuition fees.

• EU and overseas applicants will require an acceptable English qualification such as IELTS with an overall score of 6.5 and minimum of 6 in each component or equivalent

Applications should be submitted through the University system by using our standard online PhD application form http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mecheng/phd/applying. Please indicate that you are applying for this advertised post.