Collaborators

My research group.

Vicki's words and work: Time Resolved Experimentation with Acoustically Levitated and Manipulated Samples.

I started my research in September 2020 and my aim is to acoustically levitate biological samples so that biological reactions can be analysed using X-ray crystallography at Diamond Light Source.

To levitate the samples, I will be using a device called TinyLev (see picture.) Part of my PhD is to gain a better understanding of the physics of TinyLev; design and build a TinyLev that can levitate and control the rotation of smaller droplets of samples and use the TinyLev to investigate lysozyme-ligand reactions and changes in plant phytochrome structure after exposure to infra-red light. The TinyLev is controlled via an Arduino Nano and I expect to use COMSOL or similar over the course of the PhD.

The research is a collaboration between Diamond Light Source and BCU so I hope to spend some time at both places once Covid-19 restrictions are over!

TinyLev levitating polystyrene beads
TinyLev levitating polystyrene beads

Promod's words and work: Machine Learning based control of fluid flows.

Nowadays due to the continous progress in computer system, the field of fluid dynamics has seen ahuge advancement and development, where large amounts of data from experiments and simulations arecontinously gathered.
Although, due to the unpredictable nature of flows at high Reynolds number, such data present lack of accuracy to some extent. Therefore, my PhD focuses on using machine learning, mainly reinforcement learning, to study and extract detailed information about the flow characteristic from this data. The approach will be purely data driven, where the data are the outputs of the simulation frameworks. Such data will then be provided into CNN and LSTM systems to model the dynamics of flows. Once it has been achieved, a RL framework will then be employed to calculate and identify the control flows.

cylinder flow
Flow past a cylinder


Being able to reduce drag entails less fuel consumption, which then entails less carbon footprint emissions into the environment. In terms of windows flickering instead, nowadays plenty of vehicles such as EVs produce almost no sound. Therefore, being able to reduce windows flickering will be another step forward in reducing noise pollution in particular habitat.

Muhammad's words and work: Optimization of the energy distribution in renewable energy based minigrids.

I am a Ph.D. student in renewable energy (RE) based microgrid energy management and control at BCU.

As part of my PhD research, I am working on developing control algorithms to answer the specific challenges of the main modes of operation identified by the International Energy Agency:

  • Electricity storage
  • Mini-grid use cases

minigrid
A typical mini grid

In order to achieve both the control systems, I am working on developing model predictive control schemes for renewable energy sources-based battery energy storage with electricity market participation. In addition, premature battery life span degradation minimization is also among the control objectives of the research under study. Our main aim is to deploy the developed control schemes in RE powered microgrid in Indian Punjab, for farming purposes.

Here is the people I work with

Lorenz

Dr. Florimond Guéniat
Contact : contact[at]gueniat.fr // florimond.gueniat[at]bcu.ac.uk
Tel : +44/0 121 331 5405 // +44/0 749 333 3859
Address : School of Engineering and the Built Environment, Birmingham City University, Millennium Point, Birmingham B4 7XG, United Kingdom

Birmingham City Univ.