2024 winners

Christopher Hull
University of Oxford

Chris Hull is a PhD candidate in the Energy and Power Group in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. Chris is passionate about electrification and decarbonization, and his research focuses on developing tools and knowledge to accelerate the electrification of public road transport in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, he focuses on the minibus taxi sector, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of passenger journeys in the region.

Chris's doctoral work has been foundational in understanding the energy requirements and driving patterns of the minibus taxis, and he has developed novel methods for designing hybrid renewable charging stations in the face of local electricity supply constraints. His research collaborations with Stellenbosch University led to the electric minibus taxi retrofit in sub-Saharan Africa.  The completion of this retrofit, a technology which enables minibus taxi electrification without requiring large-scale local electric vehicle manufacturing capacity, marked a significant advancement towards achieving affordable and clean mass transportation in the developing world.

The IET Postgraduate Scholarship award will enable him to continue further research, travel to conferences, and present his work to a wider audience, hopefully attracting further interest and investment in electric transportation and renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Yuezhou Luo
University of Cambridge

Yuezhou Luo is a PhD candidate in the Electrical Engineering Division at the University of Cambridge, where he previously received a MRes in Connected Electronic and Photonic Systems. In 2020 he obtained a BSc in Material Physics from Fudan University, China.

Yuezhou’s PhD research investigates novel electronic devices based on amorphous semiconductors. He focused on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), one of the earliest channel semiconductors in thin film transistors. Despite its fascinating merits, a-Si:H has been overshadowed by its successors mainly due to its low electron mobility, but these successors also possess their own issues.

Yuezhou established a systematic theory and a computationally tractable model which links material structure with electrical properties relevant to localised band tail states. Insights brought modifications to existing charge transport theories and validated that the electron mobility of a-Si:H in a novel device can be significantly improved without material-level optimisations. This signifies the potential return of a-Si:H which could significantly influence sectors such as information displays.

Being awarded the Hudswell International Research Scholarship will facilitate the dissemination of his research and allow Yuezhou to explore further ideas in the rest of his PhD.

Peiqian Guo
University of Birmingham

Peiqian Guo is a Chartered Engineer and a PhD student at the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Birmingham.

Peiqian specialises in VSC-based DC technologies for power systems, renewable energy integration, and traction power supply systems. He is supported by the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Birmingham and the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University.

His current research focuses on developing high-power density and flexible interconnection strategies for urban distribution networks in load-centred cities, as well as exploring the zero-carbon transport-power nexus in load-centered environments. These efforts aim to better the accommodation of renewables and electric vehicles, enhance power system stability and flexibility, and drive decarbonisation.

He is committed to bridging the gap between academic and practical applications, enhancing collaboration between universities, research institutions and electricity companies.

The Leslie H Paddle Scholarship will motivate his future research work within the global power, energy, and transport community, enabling further engagement in industry and academic collaborations.

Mohamed Elzeadani
Imperial College, London

Mohamed Elzeadani is a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College, London.

His research is focused on developing sustainable rubberised concrete materials for use in buildings subjected to extreme loads. The concrete developed avoids Portland cement completely for environmental reasons and uses industrial waste materials with cementitious characteristics instead. A proportion of the natural aggregates in concrete is also replaced with crumb rubber particles derived from end-of-life vehicle tyres. This provides a recycling path for waste tyres and enhances the deformation characteristics of concrete.

Mohamed’s research attempts to provide a detailed account of the mechanical properties and structural behaviour of the rubberised concrete developed using both experimental and numerical simulation methods.

The IET Postgraduate Prize will enable Mohamed to expand his PhD work to consider other loading scenarios and member configurations, which will enhance the depth of his research findings.

Junluo Li
Tsinghua University, China

Junluo Li is a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Her research focuses on high-energy-density and high-temperature film capacitor dielectrics.

During her PhD studies, Junluo has developed a high-temperature capacitor film designed for industrial applications. By integrating simulations with experimental work, she engineered an advanced modified polypropylene dielectric material and elucidated its multi-level structural impact on electrical properties. Her innovative capacitor film, which is scalable for large-scale production and reduces volume by 45 times while maintaining the same energy storage density at extreme temperatures, ensures stable operation in harsh conditions.

If widely adopted, this technology could significantly cut CO₂ emissions and broaden the application field of film capacitors. Junluo actively disseminates her findings, bridging the gap between academia and industry, and driving advancements in dielectric materials and capacitor technology.

The IET Postgraduate Prize will provide additional motivation for Junluo’s work. She also plans to use the award to attend more international scientific conferences.

Lisa Alazraki
Imperial College, London

Lisa Alazraki is a PhD student at the Department of Computing at Imperial College, London. Before starting her PhD, she was awarded a DeepMind scholarship to complete an MSc in AI and Machine Learning at Imperial College. Lisa previously obtained a degree in Fine Art before becoming fascinated with artificial intelligence and embarking on science and engineering studies.

Lisa’s research interests lie in large foundation models and large language models. Her academic work attempts to enhance these models’ reasoning and planning capabilities and improve their performance in complex and challenging tasks, such as maths problem solving, knowledge-intensive question answering, and navigation of virtual environments. Additionally, she is interested in model robustness and generalisability. Lisa hopes to make a positive impact with her research towards more capable, factual, and reliable foundation models, as their adoption and importance in society increases.

Since working with large-scale models is a data and compute-intensive endeavour, receiving an IET Postgraduate Prize will help Lisa with the costs of collecting a new dataset and accessing additional GPUs.