Phd in Micro-electronics with Application in Biomedical Engineering

Applications are invited for a semiconductor industry funded studentship, to be filled by April 2011. This role will be based at the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and will use state-of-the-art facilities at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. This is a truly interdisciplinary environment with laboratories for microelectronics, EDA CAD, and sensor characterisation, cleanrooms, anechoic chambers, prototyping workshops, biochemistry, bionanotechnology genetics, etc.

The outline of the project is presented below:

Leveraging on the successes of the semiconductor industry, new opportunities for medical devices are presenting themselves throughout healthcare. The market is seeing a new breed of consumer-devices emerging for medical health-related solutions. In these applications, the complex nature of many of the bio-signals requires demanding processing algorithms to achieve robust and reliable operation. Applying conventional architectures to implement such systems often lead to inefficient or over-engineered hardware resulting in limited utility. For example, ECG data is often sampled at resolutions and rates much higher than applications require, simply because this is the lowest risk strategy for dealing with signals of such an unknown nature. Such a methodology results in a far from optimal implementation often consuming even orders of magnitude higher power levels than required. This project will therefore aim to develop a novel, ultra-low power integrated circuit for front-end (local) processing of bio-signal data.

The ideal candidate should have a background in microelectronics with experience in circuit design and an interest in biomedical engineering. They should have a 1st class undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in electronic engineering or a related subject. This studentship is fully funded for UK/EU resident applicants, for a period of 3 years via industry collaboration and it provides a bursary for 3 years at £16,000 per year together with College fees at the UK/EU rate. The successful candidate will work closely with industry experts at a leading analogue semiconductor vendor and will require travel to attend meetings, etc.

More information on the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology can be accessed at: www.imperial.ac.uk/bioinspired Prospective candidates are encouraged to contact Dr Timothy Constandinou (t.constandinou@imperial.ac.uk) directly for further details.

To apply please send a CV, relevant publications, the names of two referees and a covering letter explaining your current interests and relevant background to Mrs Wiesia Hsissen, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ.  We encourage applications by email to w.hsissen@imperial.ac.uk. Please note that the successful candidate will be asked to submit a PhD research application to Registry to ensure they have met the College’s admissions criteria.

Closing date for applications:  28 February 2011

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