EPSRC CDT MRes + PhD in Photonic and Electronic Systems

The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Photonic and Electronic Systems offers a four-year MRes + PhD (1+3) course in collaboration with University College London (UCL). The four-year course comprises an initial year undertaking the Photonic and Electronic Systems MRes programme, followed by a three-year PhD programme. Continuation on to the PhD is conditional on satisfactory performance in the MRes year. Full funding is available for eligible applicants. The programme is designed to produce engineering leaders with a high level of understanding and skills in photonic and electronic systems, in particular, the fundamentals of the field together with the necessary research expertise, and technology, systems and applications knowledge.

Accordingly, the programme aims to:

• produce engineering leaders with a high level of understanding and skills in photonic and electronic systems, in particular, the fundamentals of the field together with the necessary research expertise, technology, systems and applications knowledge;
• develop strong business awareness in MRes graduates and foster an understanding of the foundations of management theory and the connections between technology, management and entrepreneurship;
• encourage an appreciation of applications drivers for photonic systems technologies and the business, road-mapping and cost analysis tools used to determine the adoption of new technological solutions;
• expose students to a range of technology areas and provide an experience of a variety of different research and development cultures;
• encourage students to study across discipline boundaries, with the resultant enhancement of interdisciplinary understanding;
• equip graduates of the programme with generic communications skills as well as research-specific training to enable them to make a seamless transfer to doctoral research programmes at either Cambridge or UCL.

The MRes programme in photonic and electronic systems will equip its graduates with a wide range of skills and knowledge, fully equipping them for both further research and for industrial work in the area of photonic and electronic systems.

Graduates will have developed a thorough technical understanding of photonic and electronic systems, with a firm grip of the fundamentals in the broad areas of communications, biophotonics, displays, lighting and processing. All students will be equipped with the fundamental concepts in this area and will have the opportunity to specialise in chosen areas (taught courses may include computer vision, image processing, RF circuits, network software, optical transmission networks, biosensors etc). They will also be equipped with an understanding of the business practice and commercial exploitation routes for ICT-based technologies.

They will have cultivated a range of transferable and specialist skills allowing them to engage with business, innovation and technology development. These include:

• skills in the modelling, simulation and experimental evaluation of photonic systems;
• critically evaluating and finding alternative solutions to technical problems;
• carrying out surveys of existing technologies and research topics, and providing a detailed and critical overview of a technology or research area;
• academic research skills developed through practical experience in mini-projects;
• team-working and time-management;
• critical reasoning.

By the end of the PhD, successful students will have produced original work making a significant contribution to knowledge in the area of photonic and electronic systems.

All students on the 1+3 course who pass the MRes year will automatically proceed to study for the PhD, subject to them being accepted by a supervisor onto one of the offered PhD projects, and having demonstrated adequate research potential (such potential is normally demonstrated simply by passing both the taught and research components of the MRes year). Note that, as for all Cambridge PhDs, the first year of the PhD (the year after the MRes) is still probationary and students will be required to pass a first-year assessment.