PhD Studentship in Inverse Design and Machine Learning Techniques in UK, 2018

The University of Warwick invites applications for the PhD Studentship – Inverse design and machine learning techniques applied to thermoelectric nanomaterials in UK for the  2018 academic year.

The start date is by arrangement with a duration of 3 years.

Project details

Thermoelectric materials convert directly heat into electricity, and they are very promising in contributing towards energy savings, reduction of the use of fossil fuels, powering autonomous sensors, etc. Nanostructured thermoelectric materials have recently emerged as an advanced technology with much higher performance and lower prices compared to existing bulk materials. 

The design and optimization of nanostructures, however, is not a trivial task, and involves understanding electronic and phonon transport phenomena at the nanoscale, such as ballistic to diffusive and quantum mechanical to the semiclassical crossovers.

This PhD project creates and utilizes inverse design machine learning techniques to assist the design of next generation nanostructured thermoelectric materials. It will be aligned with a larger effort within a European Research Council (ERC) funded project and will use electrothermal transport tools that will be developed within that project. 

It will provide automated performance optimization, achieved through the use of the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique to nanostructured materials. This will be used within the Adaptive Sequential Monte Carlo (ASMC) scheme, which can provide parallelisation in the optimization process. 

To speed up the optimization procedure, a well calibrated Gaussian Process (GP) surrogate will be used to emulate the functionality of existing electrothermal simulators, and then the surrogate will be used within the ASMC algorithm.

Worth of Award

The annual stipend will be £14,254 (tax free), for 3 years, with all tuition fees paid at the UK/EU rate.

Eligibility

Due to funding restrictions this award is available for well-qualified UK or EU students (oversees students can apply, but need to meet the difference in costs).

How to Apply

To apply for this post you must complete the online application form and quote scholarship reference NNThermo
 
As soon as you have a University ID number you will be invited to upload your degree certificate, transcripts, CV and a personal statement that explains your specific research interests and why you should be considered for this award.

Application Deadline: open

Click here for more details and to apply