PhD Studentship in Reconfigurable Meta-structures

About the Project

Applications are invited for a research studentship in the field of Mechanical Engineering focused on reconfigurable meta-structures, leading to the award of a PhD degree. The post is supported by a bursary and fees (at the UK student rate) provided by the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Imperial College London.

Adaptive and reconfigurable structures offer a powerful route to improving the performance, efficiency, and sustainability of engineered systems. In most current designs, adaptability is achieved through the integration of distributed sensors, actuators, and control units that actively drive structural change in response to external conditions. While effective, these approaches introduce significant complexity, energy consumption, and potential points of failure, often limiting robustness and scalability.

This project explores an alternative paradigm in which adaptability is achieved through the intrinsic mechanical design of the structure itself. By exploiting geometry, materials, and nonlinear mechanical response, architected meta-structures can be designed to exhibit multiple functional states. Here, responsiveness is embedded at the material level by combining passive structural elements with stimuli-responsive materials (such as shape-memory polymers or hydrogels). External stimuli then act directly as control inputs, triggering controlled transitions between global configurations and enabling system-wide changes in stiffness, shape, or load transfer. A central aim of the project is to understand how these collective responses can be programmed through design, tuned through geometry and material choice, and made robust to imperfections, variability, and repeated actuation.

The successful candidate will develop a combined computational and experimental framework for the design and analysis of responsive meta-structures. This will include modeling nonlinear and multistable mechanical behavior, numerical simulation of architected systems, and the fabrication and testing of physical prototypes. The candidate will explore how localized mechanical inputs can activate global reconfiguration. The project will culminate in a proof-of-concept mechanically adaptive component for robotics, demonstrating electronics-free functionality switching.

You will be an enthusiastic and self-motivated person who meets the academic requirements for enrolment for the PhD degree at Imperial College London. Start date: September/October 2026. You will have a 1st class honors degree in engineering, mathematics, physics, material science or a related subject. Prior experience with mechanical instabilities, active materials, finite element modeling, and laboratory testing and manufacturing are helpful but not required. More important is a strong enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research, problem solving, creativity, and a readiness to engage with both theoretical and experimental aspects of the work.

To find out more about Giada Risso's laboratory, go to:

https://giadarisso.com/

To find out more about research at Imperial College London in this area, go to:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mechanical-engineering/research/

For further details of the post, contact Dr. Giada Risso (g.risso@imperial.ac.uk). Interested applicants should send an up-to-date curriculum vitae, a motivation letter (max 1.5 pages) and one to two reference letters to Dr. Giada Risso. Suitable candidates will be required to complete an electronic application form at Imperial College London for their qualifications to be addressed by College Registry.

For further information on how to apply, go to:

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/mechanical-engineering/study/phd/how-to-apply/

Closing date: until post filled

Funding Notes

The post is supported by a bursary and fees (at the UK student rate) provided by the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Imperial College London.

Project supervisors

Dr Giada Risso