The fundamental principles of energy, materials, and mechanics are vital to the field of Mechanical Engineering. Science and technology are applied to ensure that complex structures and systems such as yachts, robots, sawmills, space vehicles, airplanes and heating systems remain sustainable and in motion.

Design Thinking is an especially distinctive focus within the field of Mechanical Engineering, with an emphasis on solving practical, real-world problems. This puts many graduates in the right position to contribute to future technological innovations.

Our department is affiliated with many of the University’s well-known research areas, groups, labs and experts, such as the Centre for Advanced Composite Materials, the Innovative Manufacturing and Materials Programme, the Laboratory for Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing Systems.

Mechanical engineers play a pivotal role in the drive for greater efficiency. They have a strong capacity to build and implement innovative products and processes. This makes them employable in diverse environments, from large-scale commercial firms to niche markets and consultative roles.

Pursuing a PhD at the University gives you access to a high-calibre research community – you may have the opportunity to publish papers, attend international conferences and develop your network in academia and industry.
We welcome research proposals in topics relating to our key areas, including:
- Acoustics – theoretical, computational and experimental research on building acoustics, vibroacoustics, audio signal processing, active soundfield synthesis and aeroacoustics, and applications in dynamics, control and mechatronics
- Dynamics and Control, from Artificial Intelligence and neural networks, to support decision-making algorithms, sound transmission through floors, and stability control of mobile robots
- Aerodynamics, including low speed and unsteady aerodynamics, turbulent flows, fixed wing and rotary UAV operation under extreme conditions, aeroacoustics of UAVs, aerodynamic flow control, and more
- Thermodynamics, in areas such as thermal power cycles, heat transfer, refrigeration, air conditioning, micro-combustion, and thermal management
- Fluid dynamics, including developing algorithms to visualise three-dimensional flows with applications in the healthcare, manufacturing and software industries
- Wind engineering, including topographic effects on turbulent wind flows, storm (tropical cyclone) wind characteristics, and their influence on unsteady pressures and loading of buildings and structures, and pedestrian level wind flows in cities
- Yacht research, where world-class sail-testing facilities allow theoretical and experimental studies in the modelling and measuring of sail pressures, wind velocity and turbulence, aerodynamics, shaping, and more
- Manufacturing systems, including fundamental and application-oriented research under the umbrella of Industry, 4.0 with key focuses on smart manufacturing solutions, cyber-physical systems, digital twins, IoT-enabled production systems, cloud-manufacturing, big data analytics, AI for manufacturing, and intelligent and interoperable manufacturing systems
- Composites and plastics, focusing on cost-effective, sustainable solutions for future industry needs: novel materials, manufacturing process development, and multi-functional material and structure performance
- Design and Development, with an emphasis on developing new models and methods to support practice