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

My work explores the use of machine learning to quickly optimise spacecraft trajectories in missions with a large number of destinations. This is a combinatorial problem which is extremely (often prohibitively) time-consuming to design using conventional methods, but at the same time very useful in contexts such as space debris removal (the necessity of which is becoming quite urgent); so the possibility of training approximation models to learn properties of good solutions is being explored.

My research uses reinforcement learning to tackle this "sequence design" problem; learning how to obtain near-optimal solutions without needing to commit to resource-intensive iterative optimisation. Two outcomes are anticipated: a higher-level framework that selects an optimal visit sequence of target orbits, and a lower-level solver that can quickly output the optimal orbital transfers making up this sequence.

I am open to collaboration so if you are performing research that links in with my topic, please do not hesitate to send an email.

Broader research interests

Whilst the main focus of my PhD work is on multi-target mission design and machine learning, I have broader interests in a number of areas:

• High-efficiency space trajectory optimisation/optimal control methods in general, whether conventional or ML-based.
• Spacecraft control with high specific impulse propulsion, and propellant-less methods like solar sailing.
• Improving the sustainability of our use of space.

• Dr Matteo Ceriotti
• Professor Colin McInnes

My research is funded by an EPSRC DTP scholarship.

I have 3 years of teaching experience and I currently 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