Biomedical Radar PhD | Localising Metallic Foreign Bodies in Soft Tissue

Biomedical Radar PhD | Localising Metallic Foreign Bodies in Soft Tissue

Research snapshot: 6 November 2026

Quick Decision

Promising with material uncertainties. This is a defined four-year UCL EPSRC Doctoral Landscape Award (UELA) project, supervised by Dr Shobha Sundar Ram, combining electromagnetic modelling, tissue-mimicking phantom measurements, radar imaging and AI-assisted localization. Its strongest applicant alignment is an electronic/electrical engineering or closely related background with interest in radar, electromagnetics, signal processing or computational imaging. UCL lists a relevant radar/medical-sensing research environment and antenna measurement facilities.

The key eligibility gate is explicit: catalogue project 2531cs1055 is a Standard project and only applicants with Home fee status may apply. The general UELA page's international funding language does not override that project-specific restriction. The award page estimates a 2027/28 stipend of £26,022 per year, alongside fees and a Research Training Support Grant, but the project description labels the same figure as 2026/27. Verify the year and the formal four-year course-registration/upgrade schedule. The advertised deadline is 8 January 2027 at 12:00 noon UK time; UCL recommends that applications and both references arrive by 16 December 2026.

The research remains at a feasibility and validation stage. The catalogue promises modelling and phantom measurements, but does not promise trials with people or patients. The closest supervisor-advised public precursor is simulation-led; adjacent UCL and international studies provide phantom or ex-vivo precedent, not evidence that this project can guide clinical decisions or replace established imaging. Before applying, confirm Home fee eligibility and use the interview to establish the actual radar hardware, frequency scope, validation benchmark, cross-department supervision, and whether human-derived material or data are contemplated.

Research Problem and Doctoral Work

What is unresolved and why it matters

The project asks whether a portable microwave or millimeter-wave radar can localize metallic foreign bodies embedded in soft tissue. The catalogue frames this around settings where specialist infrastructure may be constrained, contrasting the proposed approach with CT, MRI and X-ray systems that require specialist facilities and ultrasound that may have difficulty separating multiple metal fragments when dressings obstruct the signal. These are the project's stated motivations, not evidence from a comparative clinical trial. This is an engineering research question about sensing and localization: it is not a clinical recommendation, and the project materials do not establish a use case in which the proposed system has been clinically tested.

A radar system observes reflected electromagnetic signals. Tissue composition, target properties and geometry influence those returns, while heterogeneity and clutter can make the target response difficult to separate. Frequency choice also creates a trade-off: shorter wavelengths can support finer spatial detail, while tissue attenuation can limit how much signal reaches and returns from a deeper target. The project names operating frequency, antenna aperture, polarization, waveform and radar architecture as factors to compare; the optimal choices are not specified in advance. A 2024 adjacent study on microwave localization likewise identifies the penetration-depth versus wavelength trade-off, but its target and setup differ from this project.

Advertised tasks and likely outputs

The UELA catalogue sets out a coherent sequence of work:

1. Electromagnetic modelling: model biological tissue and metallic fragments with a full-wave solver such as CST Microwave Studio.
2. Phantom measurements: build tissue-mimicking phantoms and collect experimental measurements.
3. Image formation and localization: develop imaging and AI-assisted localization algorithms using simulated and experimental data.
4. System comparison: examine how radar architectures, algorithms and selected parameters—including frequency, antenna aperture, polarization and waveform—affect performance across fragment sizes, shapes, depths and heterogeneous tissue conditions.

These are advertised research tasks, not established results. The catalogue does not state a target anatomy, fragment-size/depth range, quantitative benchmark, reference ground truth, preselected radar hardware or minimum localization accuracy. Nor does it describe patient recruitment, use of real human tissue, or a clinical partner. A plausible doctoral contribution is a better-characterized model-to-measurement pipeline and an evidence-based account of its limits; clinical translation would require additional validation and governance beyond what the catalogue promises.

The closest public precursor is the 2025 supervisor-advised study Biomedical radar for foreign object depth estimation. It explores depth estimation from simulated tissue and radar data, and its record describes real-radar experimentation as future work. It gives the topic a concrete computational starting point, while also making the experimental gap visible. Separately, a recent UCL EEE paper, Monitoring Knee Health: Ultra-Wideband Radar Imaging for Early Detection of Osteoarthritis, links radar modelling to ex-vivo porcine-knee measurements. That paper studies a different target and team; it is evidence of adjacent UCL methods, not validation of foreign-body localization.

Other original studies help set the validation boundary. Towards Localization of Miniaturized Medical Robots With Microwaves evaluates metal surrogates behind tissue-mimicking material, while Feasibility study of fiducial marker localization using microwave radar reports phantom-level tracking of a different marker. A separate foreign-body thermoacoustic tomography study uses microwave-to-acoustic signal conversion and therefore is not the same radar modality. These studies show that several laboratory validation routes exist; none establishes patient-level accuracy or clinical utility for this advertised project. The broader 2024 review of microwave near-field sensing and imaging in medical applications covers multiple target organs, devices and stages of testing, so its clinical examples should not be transferred to traumatic fragment localization.

School, Programme and Field Context

University College London is ranked 8th overall in the QS World University Rankings 2027 and 2nd for research power in REF 2021 in the university's institutional summary. UCL EEE separately reports 2nd place in the UK for Electronic and Electrical Engineering in the Times UK University Rankings 2026. UCL Engineering reports that 97% of its REF 2021 research was world-leading or internationally excellent and that engineering was 5th in UK research power. These are distinct measures: overall university, subject table, and faculty-level research assessment. They support the institutional context but do not assess this project or supervisor individually.

The degree-awarding institution is UCL, with the host department listed as Electronic and Electrical Engineering within Engineering Sciences. The EEE MPhil/PhD programme names radar and sonar, antennas, electromagnetic modelling and medical electronics among its research areas, and describes a doctoral community of more than 100 students. It expects regular contact with a primary and subsidiary supervisor, group meetings, seminars and doctoral skills training. The ordinary full-time course page describes a three-year MPhil/PhD route, initially registered as MPhil and transferring to PhD after a year subject to upgrade. UELA, by contrast, states that this award funds and registers students for four years and expects submission within that funded period. The cohort-specific registration and upgrade timetable should be confirmed rather than inferred from either page alone.

For entry, the EEE course page lists a relevant UK Master's, a minimum upper-second UK Bachelor's, or an overseas equivalent. It names electronic/electrical engineering, communications engineering, computer science, chemistry and materials science as examples of related disciplines in context. The course English requirement is Level 1. The relevant primary sources are the EEE MPhil/PhD course page and UCL's English-language requirements.

Supervisor and Lab Assessment

Supervisor research directions and recent work

The project catalogue names Dr Shobha Sundar Ram as principal supervisor. UCL's academic staff page lists her as an Associate Professor in EEE, and a prior institutional profile describes long-standing work in radar systems and electromagnetic sensor design/modelling. A 2024 co-authored preprint, Synthesis of Through-Wall Micro-Doppler Signatures of Human Motions Using Generative Adversarial Networks, explores machine-learning generation of radar signatures from simulated data. It supports relevant radar-signal and ML expertise, but is not medical imaging or biological validation.

Recent work	Contribution relevant to this opportunity	Boundary of the evidence
Biomedical radar for foreign object depth estimation (2025; Shobha Sundar Ram is listed as adviser)	Closest topic match; an early simulation-driven localization study.	Student project record; the public abstract points to real-radar experimental validation as future work.
Monitoring Knee Health: Ultra-Wideband Radar Imaging for Early Detection of Osteoarthritis (2025; UCL EEE)	Combines modelling and ex-vivo porcine-knee radar assessment.	Different research group and clinical target; not a foreign-body study or human trial.
Towards Localization of Miniaturized Medical Robots With Microwaves (2024)	Examines small metallic surrogates behind tissue-mimicking material.	Phantom work on robot localization, not real tissue or trauma fragments.
Synthesis of Through-Wall Micro-Doppler Signatures (2024; Shobha Sundar Ram co-author)	Shows adjacent research on simulated radar data and ML-based signal generation.	Preprint and non-medical through-wall setting.

The publication pattern supports a supervisor with radar, modelling, signal-processing and ML expertise, including a directly relevant early-stage student project. The public evidence does not show a long record of clinical microwave imaging led by this UCL team. Treat the technical pathway as plausible and the medical validation plan as an interview question.

Lab, resources and collaboration environment

UCL's Sensors Systems and Circuits group works on radar/RF and medical sensors, radar and medical-imaging signal processing, circuits and control, and lists Shobha Ram as a group member. The department's facilities page describes a 1–40 GHz antenna measurement anechoic chamber. This provides a relevant institutional resource, but public pages do not confirm that it is allocated to this project, that it covers the project's still-unspecified frequency range, or that the required radar source/receiver system, tissue measurement equipment or higher-band support is already secured. Ask how the listed facility will fit the measurement plan.

The UELA catalogue says the student may interact across EEE, Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering and AI. It names no subsidiary supervisor or clinician and does not define a formal collaboration with a hospital or medical physics unit. The EEE page documents broad departmental collaborations and support, but these should not be read as a specific partnership for this studentship. Clarify who would provide day-to-day support for medical-image/AI components and whether any clinical or sample-governance collaborator is actually committed.

Research Field, Validation and Career Context

Microwave and millimeter-wave sensing is an active research area for biomedical sensing and imaging, but evidence must be read by application and validation tier. Studies may use simulations, simplified phantoms, more realistic phantoms, ex-vivo tissue, healthy volunteers or patient cohorts; these are not interchangeable. A 2024 medical microwave review surveys a range of applications, including some human studies, but those devices and clinical targets do not establish performance for metallic fragments in injured soft tissue. The direct project-linked study remains simulation-led, while the advertised work adds phantom measurements. No patient-level evidence for this particular system was found as of 6 November 2026.

A careful validation question is therefore not simply “Can radar detect metal?” but how consistently localization works as tissue, geometry and measurement conditions vary, what comparisons and independent ground truth are used, and which failure modes matter to the intended research claim. The project says it will evaluate multiple system parameters and use both simulated and experimental data, but it does not publish the exact test matrix or performance criteria. The scope should remain engineering feasibility research until those are specified and verified.

The likely transferable skills—radar/RF systems, antenna measurement, electromagnetic modelling, signal processing, computational imaging and ML-assisted sensing—can map to research and development in sensing, instrumentation, medical-device engineering and related engineering roles. UCL EEE describes graduates entering academia and industry. UK government context also points to policy interest in MedTech and cross-sector collaboration: the Medical Technology Strategy highlights NHS demand signals and coordination among clinical, industry and government partners. Skills England's 2026 Life Sciences Sector Skills Needs Assessment projects around 66,000 additional priority-occupation jobs (44%) across life sciences from 2025 to 2035, while explicitly describing these projections as indicative and uncertain. Neither source forecasts jobs specifically in microwave foreign-body imaging or guarantees an individual career outcome.

Funding, Application and Living Cost

Project-specific funding and eligibility

UELA 2027/28 advertises approximately 50 four-year studentships, expected to start on 1 October 2027. The programme page describes Home-rate fees, an enhanced maintenance stipend estimated at £26,022 per year for 2027/28, and a Research Training Support Grant for eligible study and project costs. The formal award terms and any annual stipend increase should be checked in the offer letter.

There is a material inconsistency to resolve: the project text labels £26,022 as the expected 2026/27 total, whereas the current UELA 2027/28 funding page labels that figure as a 2027/28 estimate. This report uses the UELA page's year for the upcoming cohort while retaining the source discrepancy for confirmation. The project-specific catalogue says only Home fee status candidates can apply because this is a Standard project. General UELA guidance that some awards may cover international fee differences applies only where the project restriction allows it; the programme states international candidates are eligible only for collaborative projects. The EEE course page lists a 2027/28 international fee of £36,100 per year, but that rate is not a funding option for an applicant classified as International on this Standard project. UCL makes a formal fee-status assessment, based on the applicable rules and the applicant's circumstances, rather than nationality alone.

Application process and required material

Applications must be submitted through the official UELA 2027/28 application portal by 8 January 2027 at noon UK time. Applicants must have two references submitted by that deadline; UCL recommends submitting applications and ensuring references arrive by 16 December 2026 because email support is unavailable over the Christmas closure. The guidance allows up to three project choices, with a separate application for each.

The application asks about motivation for doctoral research and this project, suitability for doctoral research, relevant knowledge and skills, and research experience. Candidates can list up to three research experiences and give a fuller account of one, including their own contribution; degree details and relevant transcript modules are also requested. Final-stage candidates may be asked for official certificates and transcripts. The guide also describes an anonymised review process, so application answers and referee letters should follow its anonymity instructions. Interview invitations are expected from 1 February 2027, interviews are expected during 2–12 February, and outcomes are expected at the end of February or early March; these timings are estimates. Candidates receiving an informal UELA offer must then complete the separate UCL admissions application before a formal funding offer is issued.

London cost context

UCL's indicative page lists postgraduate-hall rent at £153–529 per week or £7,956–27,508 over a notional 52 weeks; postgraduate hall contracts are usually 51 weeks. Shared private-house rent is listed at £650–1,300 per month, excluding household bills. The page estimates £5,314 per year for selected other essentials such as food, materials, mobile, health and an Oyster travelcard. UCL says these estimates are not a full annual living-cost budget, use 2026/27 accommodation data and may change. At the lower end of rent the stipend may leave more room for other needs; at the upper end, rent alone can consume a large share. Personal budget, dependants, visa costs and discretionary spending are not included in that comparison.

Applicant Fit and Preparation

Formal requirements

The project asks for a highly motivated candidate with an electronic/electrical engineering or related background and requires satisfaction of UCL EEE doctoral entry requirements. The course page lists a relevant Master's, an upper-second UK Bachelor's or equivalent overseas qualification, with relevant disciplines including electronic engineering, communications engineering, computer science, chemistry and materials science in the contexts stated by UCL. It sets English language Level 1. The UELA application also requires two references before the deadline, accurate qualification details and completion of its application sections. Home fee status is a project-specific eligibility condition.

Useful evidence and preparation

The project does not set separate mandatory requirements for CST, a particular programming language, a particular machine-learning package, or clinical experience. Those are not listed as application prerequisites. Useful evidence would include research work in electromagnetics, radar/RF, signal processing, applied mathematics, imaging, computation, measurement or ML; a clear explanation of the applicant's own contribution; and examples of how models, predictions or code were checked against empirical data. Prior healthcare-device work could help with interdisciplinary communication, but the project does not require clinical qualifications.

Before applying, confirm fee status and the formal UELA timetable; check the EEE course requirements and Level 1 English condition; request two references early; and prepare a project-specific rationale that explains the technical contribution without assuming the system is clinically established. At interview, ask about the planned validation tier, hardware and facility access, actual frequency range, supervision split, ethics/data pathway and what a successful four-year thesis would demonstrate.

Ethics, Data and Questions to Verify

The catalogue commits to constructed tissue models and phantom measurements but does not state whether the work will use patient data, human tissue, animal tissue or human participants. UCL's research-ethics policy requires appropriate prospective review where applicable to research involving participants or data/tissue derived from them, and related privacy/data-protection obligations may apply. The Research Ethics overview, UCL Research Ethics Policy and human-tissue and patient-information guidelines set the institutional framework. This does not establish that this project will use human material or that a particular approval is already in place; ask what data and samples are planned and who would obtain approvals before any such work begins.

Before applying

• Obtain a formal assessment or written guidance on whether the candidate meets Home fee status for project 2531cs1055.
• Confirm that the project remains available and that the application has the correct UELA project code.
• Ask UELA to reconcile the stipend year attached to £26,022 and clarify expected annual increments, RTSG terms and any part-time restrictions.
• Prepare two references early; the submission system will not consider a late or incomplete application.

At interview

• Which radar hardware, modelling licences, phantom fabrication and measurement resources are already available, and who can access them?
• What frequency range is expected, and how does it map to the listed 1–40 GHz antenna facility or any separate higher-frequency support?
• What is the planned validation scope: constructed phantoms only, ex-vivo tissue, human-derived data/material or participants? What comparison ground truth and success criteria will be used?
• Who is the subsidiary supervisor, and what is the actual supervision/support arrangement with Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering and AI?
• What analysis will distinguish realistic localization performance from simulation or idealized phantom results?

Before accepting

• Obtain written confirmation of fee-status eligibility and the full stipend/fees/RTSG award terms.
• Confirm the formal registration duration, MPhil-to-PhD transfer timetable and thesis-submission deadline for the UELA cohort.
• If human-derived material or data will be used, confirm the approvals, consent, data access and governance arrangements.

Evidence and Sources

Project, funding and application

• UELA 2027–28 project catalogue — project 2531cs1055
• UCL EPSRC Doctoral Landscape Award studentships
• UELA 2027–28 applicant guidance
• UELA application portal
• Electronic and Electrical Engineering MPhil/PhD
• UCL English-language requirements
• Student fee status at UCL

Institution, supervisor and facilities

• EEE academic staff
• Shobha Sundar Ram — IIIT Delhi profile
• Sensors Systems and Circuits
• EEE facilities
• UCL rankings
• UCL EEE ranked 2nd in the UK
• UCL Research Excellence Framework 2021
• UCL Engineering REF 2021

Research and field evidence

• Biomedical radar for foreign object depth estimation
• Monitoring Knee Health: Ultra-Wideband Radar Imaging for Early Detection of Osteoarthritis
• Feasibility study of fiducial marker localization using microwave radar
• Towards Localization of Miniaturized Medical Robots With Microwaves
• A Low-Cost Compressive Thermoacoustic Tomography System for Hot and Cold Foreign Bodies Detection
• Review of Microwave Near-Field Sensing and Imaging Devices in Medical Applications
• Synthesis of Through-Wall Micro-Doppler Signatures of Human Motions Using Generative Adversarial Networks

Ethics, living costs and careers

• UCL Research Ethics overview
• UCL Research Ethics Policy
• UCL human-tissue and patient-information guidelines
• How much does it cost to study at UCL?
• UK Medical Technology Strategy
• Skills England — Life Sciences Sector Skills Needs Assessment