Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems

Courses

Further Information

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Find out what our postgraduates are researching

Undergraduate study

The Engineering Science major offers Australian and International students, the opportunity to specialise in chemical, civil, electrical or mechanical engineering for careers in the oil and gas industry.


Available projects

Opportunities exist in all of the current research streams in COFS. More information about available projects will be given once we have received your application. Please note that applications will be assessed twice a year, in line with the UWA RTP scholarships (around March and September each year). Your application will be assessed on the next assessment date and you will be notified of the results shortly after. You will then be required to apply for a scholarship.  Please see How to apply for information required and where to send it to.

Currently there are a number of special opportunities available.   

 

Caisson anchors for deep water oil and gas developments in calcareous soils - supervisors:  Muhammad Shazzad Hossain and Yuxia Hu.  Please click here for more information

Cryogenic pipelines to replace trestle for liquefied gas transfer terminals - supervisors:  Muhammad Shazzad Hossain, Mark Cassidy, Yinghui Tian, Hongwei An and Youngho Kim. Industry partner is Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd., Korea.  Please click here for more information


Fugro Scholarship in Offshore Geotechnics - an international company that specialises in the design of offshore foundations, Fugro will work with COFS to help sustain this highly successful research group, addressing key questions relating to the design and performance within the field of offshore geotechnics, reduction of risk and enhancement of engineering design within the offshore sector.  Please click here for further information. 

The OFFshore ITRH - The Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Offshore Floating Facilities (OFFshore ITRH) is a multi-disciplinary research initiative jointly funded by industry and the Australian Research Council. We are collaborating on the critical engineering challenges faced by offshore oil and gas projects by creating improved design and operating procedures.  Projects available under the Hub can be found here

Optimising the placement of wave energy converters in coastal waters

Historically, the location of wave energy converter (WEC) devices and arrays has been usually selected based on a relatively narrow range of factors (e.g. proximity to ports, grid infrastructure, device limitations).  However, in order for wave energy to become cost-competitive compared to traditional sources and other renewable sources of energy, the location of WEC devices will need to both maximise energy production while minimising cost.  While many WEC devices may perform optimally in deeper offshore waters where wave energy potential may be greater, these locations will in many instances decrease the value of the projects (e.g. subsea infrastructure, ship time to reach the site) and thus reduce the competitiveness with other renewable sources.  The PhD project will investigate how WEC devices can be optimally placed in coastal and continental shelf waters, based on how surface wave properties transform from the deep to shallow waters, how the dynamics of wave-device interactions vary under increasingly nonlinear waves, the device-device interaction within WEC arrays, and how WEC arrays can attenuate the wave energy reaching shorelines.  We seek a PhD student to conduct research within this topic area with a background in coastal engineering, oceanography or a related field.  The successful candidate will have some flexibility to develop a research project in this area using numerical modelling, laboratory experiments in a wave flume, and/or field data, and will also work to integrate their results with other PhD students and researchers focusing on WEC device foundation and mooring systems.  The candidate will join a growing marine renewable energy research group at UWA covering both the engineering and oceanographic aspects. 




Please note that available projects are not limited to these opportunities. COFS currently has several PhD projects available. For more information please see How to apply section.

For further details or to discuss research topics, please contact the COFS administration office.


Comments from previous postgraduate students

"The reason I left my home country, my family and my friends was to join the world renowned COFS to perform my PhD under Mark Randolph. During my research I could experience why this centre is so highly regarded in the (geotechnical) world. On top of that I made many new friends, got myself a family (in-law) and Australia allowed me to become a citizen as well. It is clear that COFS was for me more than just the place where I did my PhD, it opened up a new life for me."
Marc Senders, PhD student, graduated 2008

"COFS is an amazing research centre with top standard scholars, researchers and research facilities. My PhD research at COFS has provided an in-depth understanding of structural analysis and numerical modelling with particular emphasis on the stability of offshore pipelines".
Bassem Youssef, PhD student, graduated 2012