About the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Ultra Precision Engineering (CDT-UP)
The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Ultra Precision Engineering offered a Masters taught course at the University of Cambridge or Cranfield University, with cross-centre teaching at both institutions. Students then progressed to a full three-year PhD programme at Cambridge or Cranfield.
Both MRes courses consisted of various modules, laboratory classes, mini and long projects, and transferable skills workshops.
The programme aimed to produce the next generation of ultra precision research engineers that will deliver future developments in precision manufacturing technology and systems capable of delivering nanometer levels of precision.
The CDT-UP relies on extensive support from industrial and governmental partners. These partners contribute highly to the PhD years of selected students.
We offered a broad range of skills to prepare the students for a PhD from MRes, and from PhD to employment. Along with a diverse range of hands-on projects based at a number of UK universities, working with top ultra precision researchers and academics in the community.
The programme aims to:
- Produce engineering leaders with a high level of understanding and skills in ultra precision, in particular the fundamentals of the field together with the necessary research expertise, technology, systems and applications knowledge.
- Develop strong business awareness in MRes graduates and foster an understanding of the foundations of management theory and the connections between technology, management and entrepreneurship. Encourage an appreciation of applications drivers for ultra precision systems technologies and the business, road-mapping and cost analysis tools used to determine the adoption of new technological solutions.
- Expose the students to a range of technology areas and provide an experience of a variety of different research and development cultures, via the use of mini-projects, from blue skies university lab to short term industry development projects. Enable students to study across discipline boundaries, with a resultant enhancement of interdisciplinary understanding.
- Equip the graduates of the programme with generic communications skills as well as research specific training to enable them to make a seamless transfer to doctoral research programmes at either Cambridge, Cranfield, or another UK University.