Your fees will be waived for three and a half years for 3.5 years up to the international rate.  

For living expenses, a tax free stipend at a standard rate of £15,609 per year for 3.5 years.  

Additional pay available for teaching duties. 

This award is open to UK and International students. 

We are inviting applications for a fully-funded PhD studentships at the University of Sussex in the field Photonics and Optoelectronics for applications in surgical robotics. 

Robotic assisted technologies have allowed surgeons performing minimally invasive surgeries enhancing the patient’s recovery and prognosis. The need of in situ non-invasive screening and less invasive procedures represents the future of medical robotics. This however requires implementing cutting-edge photonic technologies to develop the next generation surgical tools in robotic systems to offer superior capabilities in terms of accuracy, surgical outcomes, and integration. This PhD project will focus on studying the light tissue interaction using novel laser technologies.  

Through the implementation of photonic technologies the candidate will develop medical tools capable of being integrated into robotic systems for performing minimally invasive surgery using phantom models. Webpage  

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/robotics-and-mechatronic-systems/research/rodrigo 

Suitable candidates should have a minimum of a 2:1 at ungergraduate level and preferably a postgraduate master/ MSc degree qualification in one of the following areas: Photonics, Optoelectronics, Physics, Optics, Biomedical or Electronic engineering. Due to the interdisciplinarity of the research topics, candidates should be keen to learn related concepts from key areas within this project such as robotics, kinematics, surgical techniques etc.       

Complete requirements and the procedure for formal application process can be found at: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/phd/apply. 

The stipend is available to: UK / EU / Overseas. 

The fee waiver is available to: UK / EU / Overseas. 

Apply online for a full time PhD in Engineering and Robotics using our step by step guide (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/phd/apply). Here you will also find details of our entry requirements. 

Please clearly state on your application form that you are applying for the “PhD Scholarship: Engineering the properties of coherent light sources for in situ diagnostic and intervention in surgical robotics”. Please mention that the research project is under the supervisor of Dr. Rodrigo Aviles Espinosa (https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p439645-rodrigo-aviles-espinosa)