Overview
Our research cuts across the expertise of our School and Faculty, to identify and seek solutions to the wide range of complex sustainability-related problems associated with current and future cities, both in the UK and globally. We encourage PhD candidates to take an active role in our School's research community, in areas currently ranging from climate change and resilience to smart cities, integrated urban infrastructure, mechanical engineering and tribology, technology, health sciences and medical engineering, society and culture, planning and architecture.
We have a large multidisciplinary academic team ready to support you in your studies working across our Future Cities Research Network (FCRN) and research groups.
FCRN brings together PhD researchers and academic, teaching and research staff from across our School of Engineering and the Built Environment and beyond. Our aim is to investigate and generate best practice and policy relevant evidence to understand and effectively respond to the complex urban challenges for sustainable and resilient urban futures.
The approach FCRN takes to research is grounded in the multidisciplinary work with industry, third sector organisations and policy makers, using collaborative research methodologies that treat end users as partners in the research process and not as subjects to be studied. In this way the findings from our projects have immediate relevance and impact on the societal issues they are addressing.
Research within FCRN focuses on the following key themes:
- Smart Cities
- Urban Resilience
- Sustainable Communities
- Sustainable Technology and Manufacturing
- Building Performance
- Adaptive Reuse
- Quality of Life
We're also carrying out research in the following areas:
- Built Environment
- Engineering Analysis Simulation and Tribology
- Medical Engineering
- Telecommunications Engineering
Throughout the year the FCRN hosts and supports a range of activities, including invited lectures and lunchtime seminars, collaborative workshops and training and mentoring opportunities.
In addition to our Engineering and the Built Environment PhD, we've also identified a range of innovative research project opportunities for you as a postgraduate researcher.
We also offer the opportunity to combine doctoral research with your full-time career, making a substantial contribution to the development of professional practice in your area, through our Professional Doctorate in Science and Engineering DProf.
Supervision and Support
We'll provide high-quality supervision so you can get the most from your programme. Our supervisory staff are recognised experts in their field with research expertise that includes:
- Dr Mehrdad Asadi - Mehrdad is a specialist in metal/carbon composite mechanics, applied Finite Element techniques in crashworthiness, pedestrian and passenger safety, nuclear energy dissipation systems and roadside safety equipment.
- Dr Javaid Butt - Javaid is an active researcher in the field of Additive Manufacturing and has a wealth of experience in characterising and analysing varied materials for product development.
- Dr Alan Coday - Alan is a materials scientist and building surveyor specialising in heritage buildings.
- Dr Yingang Du - Yingang's research interests and consultancy activities focus on the area of assessment and design of engineering structures under severe environments, including marine environments, fire and high temperature, and seismic zones.
- Dr Christian Henjewele - Christian's research interests include public-private partnerships and private finance initiatives (PFIs), risk and uncertainty management, sustainable construction, value management and value for money in infrastructure projects (modeling, testing and sustainable economics), ethics in the built environment, and teaching and learning in the built environment.
- Dr Maryam Imani - Maryam's specialisms include resilience-based/risk-based/reliability-based asset management, integrated modelling, interdependencies, failure analysis, water quality, flood (risk) management, artificial neural network, sustainable drainage system UK and Global South.
- Prof Keith Jones - Keith's research specialises in community resilience and the application of sustainability principles to the built environment.
- Dr Jennifer Martay - Jennifer's background is in Biomechanics and Orthopaedics. She is interested in how the healthy person moves, and the potential mechanical factors which might causes diseases such as osteoarthritis.
- Dr Habtom Mebrahtu - Habtom’s research interests include additive manufacturing, Industry 4.0, manufacturing simulation and optimisation.
- Dr Esther Norton - Esther's research interests are hydraulic conductivity of soils, detritus flow, soil liquefaction, landfill in arid zones and finite element analysis.
- Dr Nezhapi-Dellé Odeleye - Nezhapi’s research interests range from sustainable design and wellbeing in places, to the urban design implications of time and space concepts from the cultural design and planning of indigenous settlements.
- Dr Federica Pascale - Federica's main focus is on the requirements needed in the planning, design, and construction of sustainable and resilient health and social care environments.
- Dr Alison Pooley - Alison's research interests include transformative learning within the construction industry and environmental change. Her current research is focused on housing and forms of housing that address the future needs of an ageing population.
- Dr Lakshmi Priya Rajendran - Lakshmi's research areas are based in architecture, spatial representation and practice, sustainable and resilient urban futures, inclusive and liveable city, everyday urbanism, architectural phenomenology, social production of space, urban informality, comparative urbanism, identity, media and culture.
- Dr Ahad Ramezanpour - Ahad’s main research interests are sustainability and future cities through smart product development, water and energy saving, and thermal and fluid dynamics analysis and simulation.
- Dr Fred Sherratt - Fred focuses her research on health and safety management, safety culture, people in construction and methodologies of construction management research.
- Prof Hassan Shirvani - Hassan works with industry partners to deliver engineering solutions to business problems.
- Dr Nadeeshani Wanigarathna - Nadeeshani's research interests cover a broad range of topics related to construction cost management, whole-life costing, construction economics, construction procurement and health economics.
- Dr Louise Webb - Louise's research interests are around 'Smart Cities' and technological change management, emerging technologies in higher education environments and the rise of China as an industrial nation.
- Dr Sufian Yousef - Sufian's research themes include wireless networks, RF Systems, noise cancellation, mobile communications (2G, 3G, 4G and 5G ), cyber security, RF MEMs, mobile ad hoc networks (MANET), cloud computing, artificial intelligence, software defined networks (SDN) and social networks security.
- Dr Francesco Zuddas - Francesco's research focuses on investigating the city as machinery for knowledge creation across its material and immaterial dimensions.
Your faculty
The Faculty of Science & Engineering is one of the largest of the four faculties at Anglia Ruskin University. Whether you choose to study with us full-time or part-time, on campus or at a distance, there’s an option whatever your level – from a foundation degree, BSc, MSc, PhD or professional doctorate.
Whichever course you pick, you’ll gain the theory and practical skills needed to progress with confidence. Join us and you could find yourself learning in the very latest laboratories or on field trips or work placements with well-known and respected companies. You may even have the opportunity to study abroad.
Everything we do in the faculty has a singular purpose: to provide a world-class environment to create, share and advance knowledge in science, technology and engineering fields. This is key to all of our futures.
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