PhD Opportunities at the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering | Adelaide University

The selection of applicants for the award of higher degree research scholarships at Adelaide University involves consideration of your academic credentials and demonstrated research experience.

For detailed information regarding eligibility criteria, including specific GPA requirements and program structure please refer to the relevant Adelaide Graduate Research School (AGRS) Academic Program Rules for higher degree by research qualifications.

International applicants must provide evidence of meeting the minimum English language proficiency requirements for their application to be considered. Refer to the AGRS website for requirements.

We are seeking highly motivated PhD candidates to join the Terahertz Engineering Laboratory. Our research sits at the critical intersection of microwave and optical engineering, where we develop the high-performance components and systems necessary to unlock the potential of the terahertz spectral range.

Our work is organised into three core streams:
- Terahertz Components: Leveraging metasurfaces for wavefront engineering and developing high-efficiency, broadband antennas and lenses.
- Integrated Platforms: Pioneering unique substrateless silicon platforms to overcome traditional loss barriers, enabling low-loss, high-bandwidth integrated systems.
- Terahertz Systems & Applications: Bridging the gap between lab innovation and field-ready solutions, including 6G wireless communications, non-destructive evaluation, advanced spectroscopy, and astronomical instrumentation.

Why Join Us?
- Tailored Research: We believe in the strength of individual curiosity. While we have established research directions, specific PhD project topics can be tailored to align with your personal research interests and career goals.
- Global Collaboration: Our laboratory maintains an active, ongoing network of collaborations with leading research groups across Europe, including partners in Germany, the UK, Sweden, and Switzerland, offering our students exposure to international best practices and multi-institutional project environments.
- Cutting-Edge Ecosystem: You will work in a healthy, collaborative ecosystem that combines advanced electromagnetic simulation, precision fabrication, and real-world system testing.

For more information on our ongoing research and to explore our facilities, please visit our website: www.thz-el.org

I am very happy to discuss potential project options and how they might fit your background. Please feel free to reach out to initiate a conversation about your research interests.

The selection of applicants for the award of higher degree research scholarships at Adelaide University involves consideration of your academic credentials and demonstrated research experience.

For detailed information regarding eligibility criteria, including specific GPA requirements and program structure please refer to the relevant Adelaide Graduate Research School (AGRS) Academic Program Rules for higher degree by research qualifications.

International applicants must provide evidence of meeting the minimum English language proficiency requirements for their application to be considered. Refer to the AGRS website for requirements.

The selection of applicants for the award of higher degree research scholarships at Adelaide University involves consideration of your academic credentials and demonstrated research experience.

For detailed information regarding eligibility criteria, including specific GPA requirements and program structure please refer to the relevant Adelaide Graduate Research School (AGRS) Academic Program Rules for higher degree by research qualifications.

International applicants must provide evidence of meeting the minimum English language proficiency requirements for their application to be considered. Refer to the AGRS website for requirements.

The selection of applicants for the award of higher degree research scholarships at Adelaide University involves consideration of your academic credentials and demonstrated research experience.

For detailed information regarding eligibility criteria, including specific GPA requirements and program structure please refer to the relevant Adelaide Graduate Research School (AGRS) Academic Program Rules for higher degree by research qualifications.

International applicants must provide evidence of meeting the minimum English language proficiency requirements for their application to be considered. Refer to the AGRS website for requirements.

The selection of applicants for the award of higher degree research scholarships at Adelaide University involves consideration of your academic credentials and demonstrated research experience.

For detailed information regarding eligibility criteria, including specific GPA requirements and program structure please refer to the relevant Adelaide Graduate Research School (AGRS) Academic Program Rules for higher degree by research qualifications.

International applicants must provide evidence of meeting the minimum English language proficiency requirements for their application to be considered. Refer to the AGRS website for requirements.

Background: Wire-arc directed energy deposition (WAAM) is a metal additive manufacturing process well suited to large structural components because it combines high deposition rates with low material cost. However, WAAM stainless and structural steels commonly show pronounced anisotropy and surface/geometry irregularities that create local stress raisers. Fatigue is critical: fatigue fracture causes roughly 80% of structural failures, yet the fatigue behavior of WAAM steels remains incompletely characterised.

Problem Statement: Geometric discontinuities and process-induced microstructure in as-built WAAM parts increase susceptibility to fatigue failure. Existing studies have begun to address WAAM fatigue for various alloys, but a comprehensive, mechanistic understanding for steels—linking as-built geometry, local stress concentrations, microstructure and fatigue life—is lacking.

Objectives: 1) Quantify fatigue life and failure mechanisms of WAAM steel components in both as-built and machined conditions; 2) Identify the role of geometric variability and microstructure in initiating and propagating fatigue cracks, and 3) Compare WAAM steel fatigue performance to conventional steel using standard fatigue metrics and design tools.

Methodology: The project will take an integrated experimental and numerical approach. The main steps are as follows.
1) Production and characterisation: Fabricate WAAM steel plates; perform geometric metrology, mechanical testing and microstructural analysis.
2) Fatigue testing: Conduct controlled fatigue tests on a series of as-built and machined coupons to generate S–N data and failure observations.
3) Numerical analysis: Use finite element models to quantify local stress concentrations associated with measured geometric features and correlate them with observed crack initiation sites.
4) Fatigue assessment: Construct constant life diagrams (CLDs) and S–N curves for the WAAM plates and benchmark them against conventional steel.

Expected Outcomes and Impact: Deliverables will include validated S–N curves, CLDs, failure-mode characterisation, and FEM-based maps of critical stress concentrations. These results will clarify how WAAM-specific geometry and microstructure influence fatigue life, inform post-processing and design strategies (e.g., machining, surface finishing, or geometry control), and support safer, more reliable adoption of WAAM steels in structural applications.

The selection of applicants for the award of higher degree research scholarships at Adelaide University involves consideration of your academic credentials and demonstrated research experience.

For detailed information regarding eligibility criteria, including specific GPA requirements and program structure please refer to the relevant Adelaide Graduate Research School (AGRS) Academic Program Rules for higher degree by research qualifications.

International applicants must provide evidence of meeting the minimum English language proficiency requirements for their application to be considered. Refer to the AGRS website for requirements.

This PhD project focuses on the design of energy-efficient digital hardware for edge-AI and embedded computing applications. These systems often need to perform complex computations with limited power, area and latency budgets. While conventional floating-point arithmetic is widely used, it can be costly in hardware. Alternative number systems, such as posit arithmetic, may offer a more efficient way to balance accuracy, hardware complexity and energy consumption.

The project will explore how adaptive arithmetic can be used to support low-power FPGA-based accelerator design. The research may involve the development of configurable posit/unum arithmetic units, multiply-accumulate structures, precision-adaptive processing elements, and small accelerator blocks. These designs will be compared with more conventional fixed-point and floating-point approaches in terms of resource usage, timing, power consumption and numerical accuracy.

The work will involve RTL design using Verilog/SystemVerilog, FPGA implementation and verification, and design-space exploration across different number formats and precision settings. The project would suit a candidate with a strong interest in digital logic design, computer arithmetic, FPGA implementation, low-power hardware design and hardware accelerators. Experience with Verilog/SystemVerilog, Vivado, Python/C/C++, computer architecture or AI inference workloads would be advantageous.

The selection of applicants for the award of higher degree research scholarships at Adelaide University involves consideration of your academic credentials and demonstrated research experience.

For detailed information regarding eligibility criteria, including specific GPA requirements and program structure please refer to the relevant Adelaide Graduate Research School (AGRS) Academic Program Rules for higher degree by research qualifications.

International applicants must provide evidence of meeting the minimum English language proficiency requirements for their application to be considered. Refer to the AGRS website for requirements.

A supplementary funding is possible from government grants, teaching and contract research.

The 2027 University of Adelaide Research Scholarship for outstanding applicants has an annual stipend of $36,500 (indexed) for a period of up to 3.5 years of full-time study, tuition fee waiver and allowances. Please see the Postgraduate Research Scholarships Conditions of Award for further information.

The selection of applicants for the award of higher degree research scholarships at Adelaide University involves consideration of your academic credentials and demonstrated research experience.

For detailed information regarding eligibility criteria, including specific GPA requirements and program structure please refer to the relevant Adelaide Graduate Research School (AGRS) Academic Program Rules for higher degree by research qualifications.

International applicants must provide evidence of meeting the minimum English language proficiency requirements for their application to be considered. Refer to the AGRS website for requirements.

The selection of applicants for the award of higher degree research scholarships at Adelaide University involves consideration of your academic credentials and demonstrated research experience.

For detailed information regarding eligibility criteria, including specific GPA requirements and program structure please refer to the relevant Adelaide Graduate Research School (AGRS) Academic Program Rules for higher degree by research qualifications.

International applicants must provide evidence of meeting the minimum English language proficiency requirements for their application to be considered. Refer to the AGRS website for requirements.