Postgraduate research students

Biography

I graduated with a MEng in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Glasgow in 2023, with a final year dissertation on optimisation of low-thrust space trajectories. I currently work in the Space and Exploration Technology group of the James Watt School of Engineering, pursuing a PhD in Aerospace Engineering, supervised by Dr. Matteo Ceriotti and Professor Colin McInnes. In addition to my research, I have been involved in delivering a number of undergraduate engineering courses since 2021.

Current research

I am developing AI techniques for the efficient design of multi-target space missions. These have applications particularly in space debris removal and near-Earth asteroid exploration. The need to select optimal sequences from a large pool of potential targets leads to a very time-consuming combinatorial optimisation problem, and recent research has shown that the process can be significantly accelerated using machine learning. My research uses reinforcement learning to train a neural network to approximate the optimal trajectory for such missions in a matter of seconds to minutes; rather than hours, days or potentially weeks, as would be the case for a traditional global optimisation solver. Such estimates would be most useful in the preliminary design of a mission, although if the network can be trained to a sufficient degree of accuracy it could even be used in the more detailed design stages.

• Dr Matteo Ceriotti
• Professor Colin McInnes

My research is funded by an EPSRC DTP scholarship.

I undertake teaching assistant and marking duties on the following courses:

• Materials 1
• Fluid Mechanics 2
• Mathematics AE2X
• Simulation of Engineering Systems 3
• Aircraft Design 3
• Aerospace Design Project 4M