Doctoral Projects

Space

Design of Flexible and Sustainable Engineering systems

We are looking at the role of Deep Reinforcement Learning to support the design and operations of adaptable and reconfigurable systems.

The system learns new adaptation strategies, configurations, and timings based on large datasets. The approach improves both sustainability and resilience of complex engineered systems, dealing with important uncertainty.

The work complements existing techniques based on creativity, standard real options analysis and decision rules.

Current applications are in civil infrastructures, waste-to-energy, and dynamic micro-power systems

People:

Cesare Caputo, PhD Student

Co-supervisors:

Dr. Anna Korre, Professor of Environmental Engineering

Dr. Antonio Del Rio Chanona, Lecturer in Chemical Engineering

Space mining

AR for Space Mining System Design and Operations

Designing and operating complex systems under uncertainty is a challenging endeavour.

Our work aims to develop an immersive environment to support the design and operations of complex engineering systems under uncertainty.

We aim to understand the psycho-cognitive factors that influence better decision-making under uncertainty in a context where flexibility, sustainability, and resilience are absolutely needed in order for the system and people to survive.

Current applications involve in-situ resource extraction in a Lunar environment, and for mining operations in remote, harsh environments

People:             

Luka Malone, PhD Student

Alex Sayegh, MEng Student in Design Engineering

Co-Supervisors:

Dr. Jan Cilliers, Chair Professor in Mineral Processing

Dr. Kathryn Hadler, Lecturer in Mineral Processing

Master's Projects

Space

Design and Analysis of Flexible Multi-Layer Staged Deploymen

This project analyses the value of flexibility in designing and deploying satellite mega-constellations.

The work is motivated by ongoing activities by SpaceX, and OneWeb, aiming at deploying space-based internet provider infrastructures.

Deployment of such constellations have faced significant challenges in the past i.e., Iridium, GlobalStar.

The paper aims to inform policy-makers and business leaders on ways to design and deploy such system in the future, exploiting the concept of multi-layered reconfigurable satellite systems

People:

Joshua Anderson, MEng in Design Engineering

Ismael Josue Tapia Tamayo, PhD student at Stevens Institute of Technology

Jordan Stern, PhD student at Stevens Institute of Technology

Co-Supervisor

Dr. Paul Grogan, Assistant Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology

Metro

Improving the Future Social Cost of Metro Systems

This project proposes a new approach to design strategically and operate future subway systems.

The research is motivated by the need for better sustainability and resilience for future transportation systems.

The analysis proposes a novel agent-based modeling approach to analyse flexibility at strategic, tactical, and operational levels.

It proposes a novel metric accounting for social cost, as a way to quantify the value of flexibility.

The work informs businesses and policy-makers on a different, data-driven approach to conceive and operate future generation subway systems.

People:

Rachel Brown, MEng in Design Engineering, 2021 DESIRE Award for Sustainability

Co-Supervisors

Dr. Steffen Blume, PhD in Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich

Dr. Giovanni Sansavini, Associate Professor in Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich

Completed Projects

For completed projects, please click here.

Contact Us

For further academic details, please contact m.cardin@imperial.ac.uk.
For PhD application inquiries, please check out this link.