Students complete two mini-research projects, one in Lent term and one in Easter term. Projects are devised by supervisors from Cambridge University departments across a wide range of sciences, technology and medicine. Students choose from the proposed project and work full-time for approximately 10 weeks.
The range of topics is varied and challenges the students in new areas of sensor technologies and applications. The second project will be closely aligned with the student's future PhD project. At the end of some projects, students publish their results at conferences or in scientific journals.
The mini-projects will be assessed by a report, and a poster or oral presentation.
Recent mini- research project topics
- Bioactivation of digital microfluidics
- Noble metal nanozymes as photoactive and tuneable catalysts
- Improving the fomorlase stability using buffer condition screening and protein engineering
- Optical sensing with nano-fabricated photonic crystals
- Nanopore sensing for the identification of protein-RNA interactions
- Imaging workflow for the investigation of multispecific antibodies stoichiometry based on single-molecule methods
- Exploring two degrees of freedom EMG control of a hand augmentation device
- An affordable, point-of-care sensor for the detection of Barrett’s oesophagus
- Development of a high-throughput approach for probing RNA structure with X-rays
- The effects of confinement on colloidal particle fluctuations in optical traps
- Investigating the use of magnetic resonance techniques to guide the modelling of coupled reaction-diffusion across a partially wetted catalyst pellet
- Assessing high-performance lightweight compression formats for geospatial computation
- Studying aerosol delivery of chemotherapy drugs to target mesothelioma
- A portable, easy to use, optical sectioning microscope suitable for long term use in a cell incubator
