PhD Studentship in Electrical Engineering - University of Manchester

Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Awards (DHPA) Studentship
Investigating The Spectral And Spatial Performance Of Food Line Detectors
The University of Manchester - School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Start date: September 2010

Deadline for applications: 9 July 2010

Supervisor: Professor Tony Peyton

Project reference number: PhD/EEE/AP/SL684

Project description:

This 3 year DHPA Studentship offers an exciting opportunity for a graduate student to pursue an industrial based PhD degree between sites at the University of Manchester School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Mettler Toledo Safeline facilities nearby in Salford, and working as part of a team of academic and industrial partners, working to develop new, state of the art food line detectors.

In-line metal detectors are widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industry. They serve as a safe guard against product contamination from metal fragments and for some applications there are statutory requirement for their levels of performance. Although the metal detection industry is relative mature; there are aspects of the performance of the detectors that need to be better understood. Some of these issues now present a significant barrier to further improvement of these instruments

Consequently, this research will address fundamental issues, which now limit the performance of food line detectors, especially the systems for sensing foreign bodies. For example, an immediate aim is to improve our understanding the "product effect", which is the unwanted signal caused by the complex electrical conductivity of the object being scanned.

A full understanding of this issue should lead to more sensitive detectors and an ability to use the product signal to monitor product quality in food stuffs. It is likely this knowledge could be beneficial to other detector such as those for security applications. As the research progresses we would hope to exploit our new knowledge and together with techniques being pioneered for mutual induction tomography and spectroscopy to look forward towards a new generation of electromagnetic food line inspection systems.

Qualifications:

DHPA are highly respected awards and the scheme is open to only scholar nationals from India, China, Hong Kong, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and the developing world.

The ideal candidate will have a top first class honours degree from a prestigious overseas academic institution in Physics, or Electrical Engineering / Electronics, or a similar. The ideal candidate will also be stimulated by problem solving and have proven practical ability and be able to work in a multidisciplinary team with food scientists, application engineers, business management and end-users.

Funding:

The student will have full fees paid plus a minimum stipend of £13,290 p.a. over 3 years, which will increase each year at a rate stipulated by the Research Councils UK (RCUK).

Enquiries: Informal enquiries about the studentship are welcome by email to a.peyton@manchester.ac.uk or by telephone on 0161 306 8716.

How to Apply:

In the first instance, please send a CV and 1 page accompanying statement to Mrs Marie Davies, Postgraduate (Research) Admissions, email M.B.Davies@manchester.ac.uk quoting the project reference number PhD/EEE/AP/SL684.

Links:

* www.mt.com/metaldetection
* http://www.eee.manchester.ac.uk/
* http://www.eee.manchester.ac.uk/research/groups/sisp/

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/a.peyton/