2012 EPSRC PhD Studentship at Cranfield University, UK

[scholarscope]

PhD Studentship in Predicting the No Fault Found (NFF) Burden for Avionics Over their Operational Life at Cranfield University, UK 2012

Study Subject(s):Predicting the No Fault Found (NFF) Burden for Avionics Over their Operational Life

Course Level:PhD

Scholarship Provider: EPSRC

Scholarship can be taken at: UK

Eligibility:

Applicants should have a First or Second Class UK honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline such as engineering or physics. It would be beneficial for the applicant to have some experience of electronics, data analysis, systems engineering or failure mechanisms.

Scholarship Open for International Students: Yes

Scholarship Open for Students of Following Countries: All EU and non-EU nationals

Scholarship Description: Through-life engineering services and maintenance effectiveness are highly important in the new age of industrial success. However, there is a problem of faults arising within electronics during operation that result in a failure to diagnose the root cause of the problem during subsequent testing. Such diagnostic failures are widely recognised and are described as 'No Fault Found' (NFF) events. In order to increase the rate of diagnostic success within avionics equipment, there is the need to understand NFF from a fundamental perspective; identifying the relationships between NFF levels, the types of fault, the equipment most at risk and how NFF occurrences change throughout the operational life of the equipment. The researcher will begin by understanding system designs, utilising data mining techniques for analysis of maintenance data before identifying specific avionics items for in depth investigations into how the design, modification, life-cycle stage, testability and reparability influence NFF events. The research will seek to correlate equipment design features and selected NFF attributes in order to develop a NFF rate/burden predictor. The overall impact of such a NFF rate/burden predictor is that it will be used at the design phase, or to verify a proposed modification resulting in equipment which is immune to NFF throughout its operational life. The researcher will form part of a larger NFF research team and will work within the Centre's state-of-the-art research labs which include high performance computing, thermography, environmental testing chamber, intermittent fault detection and isolation equipment and a Virtual Reality Suite for systems design. What it COvers: *Supported by the EPSRC Centre, studentships will cover the tuition fees at the UK/EU rate only and provide a bursary of up to £20,000 p.a. for three years. To be eligible for this funding applicants must have:

• no restrictions on how long you can stay in the UK, i.e. no visa restrictions or have 'settled status', and

• have been 'ordinarily resident' in the UK for 3 years prior to the start of the grant and

• not been residing in the UK wholly or mainly for the purpose of full-time education. (This does not apply to UK or EU nationals).

• All EU nationals are eligible to receive a fees-only award if they do not have 'settled status' in the UK. All non-EU nationals are very unlikely to be eligible for this funding under the Education (Fees and Awards) Regulations 1997.

How to Apply: Online

Scholarship Application Deadline: 31 October 2012

Further Scholarship Information and Application