The mission of the EPSRC CDT in Theory and Simulation of Materials (TSM) is to create a generation of scientists and engineers with the theoretical and computational abilities to model properties and processes within materials across a range of length- and time-scales. It aims to provide a multidisciplinary training to meet the need for versatile researchers capable of using the whole range of tools available to provide a holistic treatment of materials challenges relevant to industry and academe. The impact of materials on our economy is both vast in its scope and deep in its reach, since it is materials that place practical limits on the efficiency, reliability and cost of almost all modern technologies. These include: energy generation from nuclear and renewable sources; energy storage and supply; land-based and air transportation; electronic and optical devices; defence and security; healthcare; the environment. In recent years there have been significant advances in the predictive capability of computational tools for TSM. By providing fundamental understanding of underlying physical processes and mechanisms TSM is an indispensable pillar of modern research on materials. Computational materials science and engineering is changing how new materials are discovered, developed, and applied, from the macroscale to the nanoscale. Citation statistics show that research activity in TSM is growing at about twice the average rate for all fields. At the same time industrial demand for skills in TSM is also growing. A recent report presented evidence that a sizeable fraction of the 650 top companies worldwide by R&D spend in sectors relevant to materials have in-house staff working on TSM. The translation of TSM from academic inventors to industrial users has resulted from professional software development producing reliable tools with accessible interfaces. Training is a critical issue worldwide, both due to the limited computer programming skills of graduates and the multidisciplinary nature of research in materials. Many important phenomena in materials involve processes that take place over a range of length- and time-scales. However UK doctoral training in computational science typically focuses on single codes covering just one scale. There is an urgent need to train a new generation of doctoral students who are both confident and competent in using tools and theory across the scales from the level of electronic structure (physics and chemistry), through microstructure (materials science) to the continuum level (engineering). Versatile researchers like this are sought by industry because they can identify and use the right tools to treat problems comprehensively. The research theme of the TSM-CDT is therefore "bridging length- and time-scales". For their research projects students will have two supervisors working at complementary scales, normally from different departments, bringing together the perspectives of two disciplines on a common problem. This approach has already created new collaborations across nine departments at Imperial and further afield through the Thomas Young Centre, the London Centre for TSM. The CDT has adopted a 1+3 training model, consisting of a 12-month Master's in TSM in year 1 followed by the PhD in years 2-4. The aim of the Master's is to provide a rigorous training in theoretical methods and simulation techniques. It is multidisciplinary in nature, taught by staff from six departments and it is the only course of its kind in the UK. Cohort building is promoted by the Master's course, and the ethos of the CDT encourages collaboration and student ownership of the programme. The network provided by the cohort ensures that students appreciate the wider context of their research projects across disciplines. The student experience is further enhanced by bespoke professional skills courses, outreach activities, master classes and the option to work on projects with industry.

The international offshore energy industry currently faces the triple challenges of an oil price expected to remain less than $50 a barrel, significant expensive decommissioning commitments of old infrastructure (especially North Sea) and small margins on the traded commodity price per KWh of offshore renewable energy. Further, the offshore workforce is ageing as new generations of suitable graduates prefer not to work in hazardous places offshore. Operators therefore seek more cost effective, safe methods and business models for inspection, repair and maintenance of their topside and marine offshore infrastructure. Robotics and artificial intelligence are seen as key enablers in this regard as fewer staff offshore reduces cost, increases safety and workplace appeal. The long-term industry vision is thus for a completely autonomous offshore energy field, operated, inspected and maintained from the shore. The time is now right to further develop, integrate and de-risk these into certifiable evaluation prototypes because there is a pressing need to keep UK offshore oil and renewable energy fields economic, and to develop more productive and agile products and services that UK startups, SMEs and the supply chain can export internationally. This will maintain a key economic sector currently worth £40 billion and 440,000 jobs to the UK economy, and a supply chain adding a further £6 billion in exports of goods and services. The ORCA Hub is an ambitious initiative that brings together internationally leading experts from 5 UK universities with over 30 industry partners (>£17.5M investment). Led by the Edinburgh Centre of Robotics (HWU/UoE), in collaboration with Imperial College, Oxford and Liverpool Universities, this multi-disciplinary consortium brings its unique expertise in: Subsea (HWU), Ground (UoE, Oxf) and Aerial robotics (ICL); as well as human-machine interaction (HWU, UoE), innovative sensors for Non Destructive Evaluation and low-cost sensor networks (ICL, UoE); and asset management and certification (HWU, UoE, LIV). The Hub will provide game-changing, remote solutions using robotics and AI that are readily integratable with existing and future assets and sensors, and that can operate and interact safely in autonomous or semi-autonomous modes in complex and cluttered environments. We will develop robotics solutions enabling accurate mapping of, navigation around and interaction with offshore assets that support the deployment of sensors networks for asset monitoring. Human-machine systems will be able to co-operate with remotely located human operators through an intelligent interface that manages the cognitive load of users in these complex, high-risk situations. Robots and sensors will be integrated into a broad asset integrity information and planning platform that supports self-certification of the assets and robots.

Robots will revolutionise the world's economy and society over the next twenty years, working for us, beside us and interacting with us. The UK urgently needs graduates with the technical skills and industry awareness to create an innovation pipeline from academic research to global markets. Key application areas include manufacturing, assistive and medical robots, offshore energy, environmental monitoring, search and rescue, defence, and support for the aging population. The robotics and autonomous systems area has been highlighted by the UK Government in 2013 as one the 8 Great Technologies that underpin the UK's Industrial Strategy for jobs and growth. The essential challenge can be characterised as how to obtain successful INTERACTIONS. Robots must interact physically with environments, requiring compliant manipulation, active sensing, world modelling and planning. Robots must interact with each other, making collaborative decisions between multiple, decentralised, heterogeneous robotic systems to achieve complex tasks. Robots must interact with people in smart spaces, taking into account human perception mechanisms, shared control, affective computing and natural multi-modal interfaces.Robots must introspect for condition monitoring, prognostics and health management, and long term persistent autonomy including validation and verification. Finally, success in all these interactions depend on engineering enablers, including architectural system design, novel embodiment, micro and nano-sensors, and embedded multi-core computing. The Edinburgh alliance in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (EDU-RAS) provides an ideal environment for a Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) to meet these needs. Heriot Watt University and the University of Edinburgh combine internationally leading science with an outstanding track record of exploitation, and world class infrastructure enhanced by a recent £7.2M EPSRC plus industry capital equipment award (ROBOTARIUM). A critical mass of experienced supervisors cover the underpinning disciplines crucial to autonomous interaction, including robot learning, field robotics, anthropomorphic & bio-inspired designs, human robot interaction, embedded control and sensing systems, multi-agent decision making and planning, and multimodal interaction. The CDT will enable student-centred collaboration across topic boundaries, seeking new research synergies as well as developing and fielding complete robotic or autonomous systems. A CDT will create cohort of students able to support each other in making novel connections between problems and methods; with sufficient shared understanding to communicate easily, but able to draw on each other's different, developing, areas of cutting-edge expertise. The CDT will draw on a well-established program in postgraduate training to create an innovative four year PhD, with taught courses on the underpinning theory and state of the art and research training closely linked to career relevant skills in creativity, ethics and innovation. The proposed centre will have a strong participative industrial presence; thirty two user partners have committed to £9M (£2.4M direct, £6.6M in kind) support; and to involvement including Membership of External Advisory Board to direct and govern the program, scoping particular projects around specific interests, co-funding of PhD studentships, access to equipment and software, co-supervision of students, student placements, contribution to MSc taught programs, support for student robot competition entries including prize money, and industry lead training on business skills. Our vision for the Centre is as a major international force that can make a generational leap in the training of innovation-ready postgraduates who are experienced in deployment of robotic and autonomous systems in the real world.