Student projects
See examples of our undergraduate students’ project work.
Student work
Our students have taken part in the Junior Research Associate (JRA) scheme, which develop future research leaders. They reward academic excellence by supporting high-achieving undergraduates to work alongside Sussex's top research faculty during the summer holiday.
Mathematics
- Mathematical Queuing Models and their Applications in Everyday Problems
Third year Mathematics BSc student, Mariia Sinkevich, exhibited her research at the 2023 Junior Research Associate poster exhibition. Her research focused on queuing problems. Using mathematical modelling and probability theory, she modelled queuing systems and analysed behaviour.
“After developing core theories and mathematical models, I implemented them in Python programmes to perform predictive analysis, analysed long-term behaviour, and created animations of queues and traffic based on initial parameters.
It was a great opportunity to see all the amazing projects that undergraduate students had developed over the summer. The exhibition showcased a variety of posters on different topics, which led to many engaging discussions throughout the day.
The fact that we spend around five years of our lives waiting in queues made people especially engaged with my research. Visitors were curious how we could decrease this number and how we could relate traffic jams and probability.
I enjoyed explaining the power of maths and probability and the amazing things we can achieve with them. Visitors also enjoyed playing with coding programmess and animations, attempting to model queue behaviour in real time. I also had some in-depth scientific conversations about the research and how we can utilise the results.
I intend to delve deeper into mathematical modelling and system analysis. It amazes me how we can utilise mathematical theories to model systems and anticipate their behaviour. My research this summer has been instrumental in determining the career path that I want to pursue, and I’m looking forward to beginning my postgraduate journey.”
- The Isodiametric Inequality
Mathematics BSc student, Phoebe Valentine, exhibited her research and won first prize in the poster competition with her poster "How to measure a coffee splat”.
Phoebe said: "What better way to spend your summer than being paid to delve into some fascinating mathematics?! When I approached supervisors, I did not have a specific project in mind. In fact, I initially said I wanted to do something related to topology. However, when I spoke to Dr Filippo Cagnetti, who was to become my supervisor, he suggested what ultimately became the focus of my JRA: The Isodiametric Inequality.
This was my first contact with the world of measure theory as it is not part of the syllabus in years one and two. Of course, it is quite possible to hit the library under your own steam, but having the structure and support given by a supervisor is invaluable. Weekly meetings helped to propel the project forwards and resolve any issues that I encountered along the way.
The final element of doing a JRA is, of course, the poster competition. This is a particular challenge for those doing a JRA in mathematics as we need to make a technical and alienating subject approachable for anyone. After submitting the poster, a handful of people are shortlisted to also give a presentation. This was a daunting but rewarding process which was excellent practice for my subsequent third-year project.”
- Numerically simulating curve shortening flow (CSF) with interesting boundary conditions
George Crowley: “I was lucky enough to have participated in the 2021 Junior Research Associate program (JRA), working with Prof Anotida Madzvamuse and Dr James Van Yperen from MPS, in which we worked on a project for numerically simulating curve shortening flow (CSF) with interesting boundary conditions. To put it briefly, CSF is a process that modifies a smooth curve in the Euclidean plane (2D) by moving points on the curve perpendicularly to the curve at a speed proportional to its curvature.
From my project, I gained a wealth of experience in research and programming. With the help of Anotida and James, I was guided through some useful research papers on CSF and all the relevant material needed to numerically solve the partial differential equation(s) that model CSF. Working with Anotida and James was by far one of the most useful and best experiences I have had since joining Sussex, their wealth of knowledge and generosity with regards to development are unparalleled to any other experience I have had before and were paramount to the success of the project.
Since the completion of my JRA, I was given the opportunity to continue working with James and Anotida for my BSc dissertation. Thanks to the knowledge gained and relationships made from the research associate program, I was able to work on a further research project created by Anotida within the area of data driven modelling, warranted by the outbreak of the coronavirus.”
Physics and Astronomy
- Searching for Axion-like-particles
Toby Wallage: “My JRA research project related to searching for Axion-like-particles as a potential candidate for Dark Matter. These particles would have a very small mass which would make them behave more like waves, they are also predicted to interconvert with photons in the presence of magnetic fields.
My research involved finding pairs of quasars and galaxy clusters that can be observed by future X-ray observatories. We can then look for evidence of this interconversion as the X-rays from the quasar travel through the magnetic fields of the galaxy cluster.”
Toby showcased his research at the annual JRA poster exhibition.
- Working with the Data Intensive Science Centre at Sussex
Andrew Bowell: Andrew worked with DISCUS on two machine-learning projects - SimFarm2030 using past weather and crop yield data to try to predict future crop yields across the UK, and AstroCast using satellite data to predict areas in Kenya at risk of drought.
Following his Junior Research Associate (JRA), he continued developing the forecasting software for the AstroCast project, benefiting agricultural communities during times of climate change and went to Kenya to train stakeholders on how to use the model developed from the AstroCast project to forecast the vegetation condition index (VCI), an agriculture drought index derived from satellite remote sensing images of earth. It looks at how sunlight reflects off vegetation and measures how green and healthy the plants are. If it isn’t doing well, the region is said to be in drought or at risk of a drought.
"Working for DISCUS has opened my eyes to the possibility of a PhD in data science or physics. I’ve enjoyed being in a research setting. The idea of doing ground-breaking research fascinates me and I would love to continue aiming for that. I definitely know that whatever I do will involve machine learning and programming, whether at Sussex or for a company somewhere else. The DISCUS team has offered me amazing experiences that have accelerated and diversified my learning."
- Optically Pumped Magnetometers (OPMs)
Daniel Nightingale: Daniel was awarded a Junior Research Associate placement in the Quantum Systems and Devices group working on real world applications. The group are working on Optically Pumped Magnetometers (OPMs) with plans to make them commercially viable. His project focused on an automated way to scan the alkali vapour cells that are needed in OPMs to test their suitability to be used and will involve some coding of the automated algorithm used for the scanning as well as 3D and circuit design. This is the 2nd summer he worked with the group.
"It was good to be back in the QSD group and actually be able to go into the labs last year. Everyone was really helpful and welcoming. The previous year I had to work remotely due to the pandemic, but last year my project was lab based. By working from home, I figured out that I want to get much more hands on.
I liked working in the Quantum Systems and Devices group as it is very applied and has real world applications. The strand of research I worked in focused on the development of novel quantum sensors that are used for the characterisation and understanding of electric vehicle batteries, as well as advancements in magnetoencephalography, which could lead to the early detection of degenerative brain diseases. The real-world applications and potential for advancements that could have a profound impact on society are what interest me."
Find out more about the Quantum Systems and Devices Group. - Looking for isolated neutron stars
Chloe Randall: "For my project, I was looking for isolated neutron stars. As of then, only 7 had been discovered despite thousands being predicted. I used data from the Dark Energy Survey and the ROSAT all sky survey to see if I could find more candidates. I had 2 candidates and was looking for more!
"It was exciting to be able to apply my skills to ongoing research in an exciting area of physics. It's fun to be able to work with other scientists and see what research is all about!"
- Studying a potential component for neutrino detectors (DUNE)
James Coleman-Smith: "As my final-year project during my last year of my Physics BSc, I took on research commissioned to the University of Sussex by the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) – a vast international experiment involving over 1000 scientists from over 30 countries.
"Explained in broad stokes, the primary aims of DUNE are to determine the hierarchy of neutrino mass states, and ultimately help shed light on the mystery behind the matter-antimatter imbalance of the universe. Other secondary aims include: detecting the birth of black holes, and searching for signs of proton decay - potentially revealing a relation between the stability of matter and the Grand Unification of forces."This field of physics still possesses many unknowns – we know that neutrinos can change from one type to another but the mechanism behind that is not fully understood – and this was my first time working on something at the edge of human knowledge. It was very exciting!
"I spent the whole year working on the project alongside Dr. Clark Griffith, with occasional support from Iker De Icaza -- one of his PhD students -- and Dr. Ian Wardell, an associate Research Fellow in Physics and Astronomy.
"In essence, by incorporating a “reflector foil” into the Time-Projection Chamber (the bit where particles are detected) of DUNE, data of a higher fidelity may be taken – improving the performance of the experiment. My supervisor and I were testing whether a suggested material for the reflector foils would be suitable. Conditions generated inside DUNE involve cryogenic temperatures of 77 K (-196 °C) and an electric field of half a million volts. By immersing samples of the reflector foils into a cryostat filled with liquid cryogen and subjecting them to an enormous electric charge we were able to observe their breaking point, and then experiment with various backing materials to increase their resistance.
"Over the course of the year I gained and strengthened a broad range of valuable skills: data-collecting, statistical analysis, operating machinery, and problem solving; then when creating my dissertation, I particularly honed my ability to write scientifically and analyse data. I also found that part of the necessary background reading for this project neatly complimented two of the modules I was taking alongside it."
Final-year projects
The final-year project is an important part of your degree. You’ll have a chance to put your studies into practice and experience academic research. See some examples of final-year projects below.
Mathematics
The final-year mathematical research project is undertaken by all Mathematics MMath students, where they have the chance to put their studies into practice and experience academic research.
- Proving the existence of a bound for the Hausdorff dimension of an attractor
The purpose of Ezra Goldsmith's MMath Project was to prove that a bound exists for the Hausdorff dimension of an attractor, in particular for the subsequent dynamical systems of suitably defined ordinary differential equations. Moreover, though both this result and its area of research have long been established, he wanted to increase the accessibility for those with only an undergraduate level of mathematical understanding and ability, making clear how any involved branches of mathematics are interlinked.
"To achieve this, I had to first establish the groundwork theory of dynamical systems - that is, systems which evolve over time - and their attractors, explaining afterward some different notions of dimension alongside how they're used here to characterise structural complexity. Then I justified why we proceed with the Hausdorff dimension over the rest, and conclude the report by proving the existence of a bound for this dimension of an attractor.
"What I easily enjoyed the most about this project was the opportunity to apply all I have learnt since having begun undertaking my degree, and through a medium that may later help other students like myself overcome the difficulties and challenges this brings.
"While I have had to read many academic articles, papers and other such literature over these past four years studying at Sussex, there is something especially fulfilling about conducting your own research, getting to call upon the knowledge gained from your studies, and then see it all brought together in a report of your very own. As it goes, I really could not ask for a better, more meaningful way to wrap up my time as an undergraduate here at Sussex."
- Numerical solutions of partial differential equations on evolving curves
For her MMath project Jennifer Ward worked on researching how numerical solutions of partial differential equations are found when they have dirichlet boundary conditions, and then expanding to solving in other contexts including periodic conditions and on curves. In this research, she looked at solving using finite difference methods and wrote several different codes in MATLAB to solve equations using these methods. The equations evaluated include Ordinary Differential equations, the Poisson equation and the Heat equation.
She then moved on to looking at Periodic boundary conditions and solving on curves that are both stationary and evolving (moving with time), and writing code to solve in each of these cases.
"My supervisor was Vanessa Styles and she gave me a lot of support, especially when writing the code for the various cases and explaining to me the methods behind solving Partial Differential Equations numerically.
"This project helped me get more experience with MATLAB and increased my knowledge in the area of numerical solutions and why they are useful. I really enjoyed this project, especially as it had uses and applications in a number of my fourth year modules including 'Numerical Solutions of Partial Differential Equations', 'Mathematical Fluid Mechanics' and 'Mathematical Models in Finance and Industry' so it helped my understanding in these lectures."
- Mathematical modelling of infectious diseases
Cameron Richard's project focused on mathematical modelling of infectious diseases, with each of the different diseases' models depending upon their attributes, such as transmission rate, severity, fatality among other attributes.
"One of the most interesting parts of the project that could be looked at in further detail would be that of external factors contributing to disease spread. An example of this is Cholera, as mentioned in the project, where keeping drinking water filtered appropriately effectively removes the disease from circulation where the filtration is occurring, but as soon as that filtration stops the disease takes hold once again.
"This is shown in the graphs where the filtration starts at time 2000 but ends at time 3000, ω here is the period of immunity from the disease in time after recovery. This idea can be extended to other external factors such as general cleanliness of surfaces in public places.
"Another way in which the models could be improved upon is by taking a more realistic approach to modelling transmission with people going to work, to restaurants, etc. and contact at these places either via person-to-person transmission or contact with infected surfaces.
"Working on this project has given me a greater insight into how exactly the different attributes of a disease affect its spread, along with ways to mitigate this spread in more precise detail than before, using mathematics to model diseases with different attributes.”
- The Hammersley Model
Jonathan Robinson: "My MMath project concerns the discrete Hammersley model, which focuses on the positive integer lattice with each point marked as 1 (present) or 0 (occupied) according to i.i.d. Bernoulli random variables with parameter p. The project explores the problem of the 'longest strictly increasing path' in a grid, which is the path with positive slope that passes through as many occupied points as possible, but the path may not be fully horizontal or vertical.
"For a square grid, the value of the length of the longest increasing path divided by the size of the grid is of interest. The relative simplicity of the discrete Hammersley model enables an explicit formula for this value to be found. My project explores the application of this formula to a grid where the points above a straight line are more likely to be occupied than the points below. The shape of the maximal path changes and using the formula allows the optimal path shape to be found through a maximisation problem. The predicted points of where the dividing line is entered and exited are shown and match the behaviour of the maximal path.
"The project has taught me a lot about academic research and how the concepts learned in my degree can be used to explore and solve problems. I have also developed my problem-solving skills by having to think in different ways to solve problems encountered in the project."
- Developing a numerical method to construct a contraction metric
Jordan Boote: "There exists a Theorem which proves the existence, uniqueness and exponential stability of a periodic orbit for a specific type of nonsmooth differential equations. This Theorem is equivalent to the existence of a contraction metric. My MMath Research Project was about developing a numerical method to construct this contraction metric and apply the method to several examples.
Essentially, my project was about writing a MATLAB algorithm to construct a valid function which can be used in conjunction with this existence and uniqueness Theorem, to prove results about solutions to this specific type of differential equation.
"During the project, I gained valuable insight into the processes and skills associated with mathematical research. It taught me how to bring different aspects of my degree together in order to understand extremely complicated results and how to present them in a simplified way which can be easily followed. In addition to this, it has developed my programming skills as the MATLAB program I wrote is something I never would have believed I could do. The MMath Research Project has been my favourite module by far throughout University as it really captures your individuality and gives you the freedom to write your own work.
"Post-graduation, I am currently editing the paper with my supervisor with the goal of publishing it. It is an amazing feeling, knowing that my own work could be published as a new research paper within the field of Mathematics. I would recommend every undergraduate student to get involved in a research project as despite the difficulty, it’s something you’ll gain invaluable experience from, and there is always the exciting possibility of getting your research published!"
Physics and Astronomy
You’ll be supervised by a faculty member and interact with postdoctoral researchers and PhD students. Projects vary from the purely experimental, including numerical projects using a supercomputer, to theoretical projects.
- X-ray: Generate and Analyse (XGA) to provide interactive and automated analyses of X-ray emitting sources observed by the XMM-Newton space telescope
Violetta Korbina: "My final-year project focussed on analysing and collating available data about the Magnificent Seven stars, and then using the developed code to analyse their spectra. I worked with a team on the XMM Cluster Survey (XCS), developing a new Python module, X-ray: Generate and Analyse (XGA) to provide interactive and automated analyses of X-ray emitting sources observed by the XMM-Newton space telescope."
It was an opportunity to get involved in writing a module in Python, which helped with my BSc project. This was one of the first times ever that my contribution actually had the potential to help other researchers, which felt amazing. I am eternally grateful to the whole of XCS, and especially to David Turner, for such an opportunity and for the support throughout my degree."
See Violetta's work which was featured in a research paper. - Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE)
James Coleman Smith: "As my final-year project during my last year of my Physics BSc, I took on research commissioned to Sussex by the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) – a vast international experiment involving over 1000 scientists from over 30 countries.
DUNE aims to determine the hierarchy of neutrino mass states, and ultimately help shed light on the mystery behind the matter-antimatter imbalance of the universe."
Summer projects
Our Physics and Astronomy students talk about the summer projects they were involved in within the Quantum Systems and Devices laboratory.
- Designing arbitrary 1D potentials using digital micro-mirror devices
Poppy Joshi: Poppy found her way onto the Foundation year after not getting the grades she required and taking a few years out. During the summer of 2019, she worked in the lab on a new set up using a blue laser for rubidium spectroscopy. Working with optics was all new for her and she enjoyed the practical applications of her first year of studies and being able to see results for what she was doing. She gained great experience and even presented a slide in the group meeting on the work she was doing.
“My favourite thing about the lab is that it is so multicultural.”
Poppy was back in the lab during the summer of 2020, designing arbitrary 1D potentials using digital micro-mirror devices. She worked on this project remotely.
"My project partner Luke and I would spend most of the day on Zoom together so it almost felt like we were in the lab still. And yet, I was lucky enough to be in Cornwall, which meant I was able to head out for an after-work surf!
My coding came on so much due to the project, setting me up for the labs module in my final year.
- Working with electrical vehicle batteries and a 3D scanner to measure magnetic fields in a 3D space
Micah Annor: Micah was keen to have a placement in quantum physics as he wanted to take the abstract into applications that are used in everyday lives. In the labs he worked with electrical vehicle batteries with a PhD student and a postdoc on a 3D scanner to measure the magnetic fields in a 3D space. He was daunted by the prospect at first but found the people in the lab so helpful and keen to explain things and after his MPhys he is keen to go into research.
“I have picked up so much and found it such a rewarding experience”
- Designing a device that can alter the polarisation of a laser beam
Luke McHugh: Luke is another success story from the Foundation year which he took as he just missed the grades for Sussex. However he jumped at the chance when he was offered it as he really wanted to go to Sussex and says he does not regret the decision.
He worked on a summer project to design a device that can alter the polarisation of a laser beam. He thoroughly enjoyed his placement which led him to reconsider his planned path into astrophysics and focus more on quantum modules.
Contact
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
School office, Room 3A20, Pevensey II
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton
BN1 9QH
+44 (0)1273 678557