Hello everyone, I am a mechanical engineer working in an automotive company as a Finite element analysis and numerical simulations Engineer. I would like to do a PhD in either of them. But the problem is I am not able to find an already funded research project in those fields. So I have a few questions

1) I approached couple of universities near me and they sent me lists of researches they are doing. They are not completely related to the above topics but it’s part of it. Is it possible to focus only on the FEA or NS part of that research project and get a doctorate? I wanted to get some advice before I ask the universities, and come of as a stupid.

2) what are some resources you guys use to find funded PhD projects? I couldn’t find many projects on my google searches.

Any advices would be greatly appreciated!

I know several engineering PhD students using FEA for various applications including in automotive. Although a pure FEA PhD is rare and it usually done in conjunction with experimental validation for a specific project on topic such as sports engineering, skin modelling or implosion modelling. I would be patient and see if anything comes up in the new year, as a lot of funded PhDs come up in the January- March period.

Goodluck!

I was in a similar situation to you a few years ago where I was working in the automotive sector as a simulation engineer and wanted to undertake a PhD in Simulation & Modelling but couldn’t find a 100% funded one. What I did was identify an engineering problem of practical/real-world importance to the automotive company I was working for at the time to which I could apply novel computational solution techniques. I liaised with senior engineers within the company to translate this practical problem into a research question/proposal suitable for academic investigation. Together we designed this research proposal in such a way that the findings of the study would maximise insight gained into an important customer requirement for a vehicle that the company was developing at the time, while ensuring that the project itself was sufficiently novel and complex for a PhD degree. With this proposal in hand I approached the Mechanical Engineering Department at my University and proposed this as a PhD project. After a few discussions my company agreed to cover my annual tuition fees and the university agreed to cover my tax-free stipend. In this way I was able to undertake my PhD without worrying about incurring any debt as both my fees and living expenses would be covered. Note that the abovementioned Company/University discussions were had in such a way so as to emphasis to the respective parties the following benefits: through completion of my PhD studies (i) the university would build rapport/strengthen affiliation with a major automotive company (ii) the company would get one of their pressing engineering problems solved for less than half the budget they would otherwise have had to set aside to pay a full-time engineer. I would recommend you follow a similar strategy and see how you get on. Good luck.