PhD in Robotic Piano Expression for Personalised Music-Heart Interventions at King's College London

King's College London announces a PhD position in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Engineering for Personalised Surgery & Intervention (PSI), supervised by Professor Elaine Chew, Gary Cook, and Ildar Farkhatdinov. The project, titled "Dexterous manipulation of robotic piano expressions for personalised music-heart interventions," aims to develop autonomous, steerable robotic systems capable of nuanced musical expression to support cardiovascular interventions tailored to individual patients. This interdisciplinary research combines robotics, biomedical engineering, music technology, and cardiovascular science. The project leverages the profound physiological effects of music, particularly its impact on the autonomic nervous system and the heart, to create innovative adjunctive medical interventions. Students will build tools and interfaces for learning and shaping prosodic musical expressions using a robotic piano, with real-time physiological feedback guiding the system to achieve target cardiovascular states. The CDT offers a multidisciplinary environment, with access to state-of-the-art facilities and collaboration with international academic and industrial partners, including Yamaha Corporation and Bösendorfer. Students will be immersed in an active hospital setting, closely examining patient pathways and benefiting from the expertise of the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences and the Department of Engineering. Applicants should have a strong background in engineering, biomedical engineering, robotics, computer science, or related fields. Experience with music technology, physiological signal processing, or cardiovascular science is desirable. Candidates must meet King's College London PhD entry requirements, including English language proficiency. Both direct PhD and MRes+PhD routes are available. EPSRC CDT scholarships are available, covering tuition fees and a stipend for eligible students. The application deadline is 22 February 2026 for October 2026 entry. For more information and to apply, visit https://www.surgerycdt.com/ . Informal enquiries can be sent to [email protected] .