There are various projects on fusion energy available. This list is somewhat outdated. Please contact me for more details.

Undergraduate internship positions in 2027 are currently limited. We are only accepting students who meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Be able to commit to at least 6 months of full-time work,
• Have experience in AI or fusion, or
• Are A* scholars.

Open PhD Projects

These projects are typically funded by A*STAR scholarships, which are open to both Singaporeans and international students who have studied in Singapore. We also have funding for a small number of international students. Since A*STAR does not award degrees, students need to be enrolled in a university, such as NUS or NTU. Students at foreign universities are also welcome to work with us for one to two years, funded under the ARAP scheme.

Our projects range from purely pen-and-paper theory to intensive computation to data analysis. The list here is not exhaustive.

Experimental study of turbulence in tokamaks

• Main supervisor: Valerian Hall-Chen.
• Co-supervisors: Umesh Kumar and Li Xiaoliang.

We are currently developing diagnostic hardware at overseas collaborators’ fusion facilities. As this area is rapidly evolving, prospective students should reach out for further details.

Time series AI to analyse measurements made by microwave diagnostics

• Main supervisor: Eddie Chua.
• Co-supervisor: Valerian Hall-Chen and Gu Lin (RIKEN).

AI addresses two problems in fusion diagnostics. First, future fusion power plants will use diagnostics as control systems, which means a quick response is required, giving time to apply countermeasures when instabilities are detected. Second, analysis of today’s diagnostic data can be onerous, requiring laborious effort from trained operators. As such, there is more data available than data than can be analysed via traditional means. The student will use AI to identify and forecast plasma events by studying data from at least one diagnostic, such as reflectometry, Doppler backscattering, high-k scattering, or synthetic-aperture microwave imaging.

Full-wave modelling of ion-cyclotron resonance heating

• Main supervisor: Valerian Hall-Chen.
• Co-supervisor: Eddie Chua.
• Collaborator: Ruben Otin (UKAEA).

In today’s fusion experiments, the fuel routinely reaches temperatures many times hotter than the centre of the sun. Heating the fuel to such temperatures can be achieved by various methods, such as using high-powered (~MW) radio waves or microwaves. The large powers involved mean that these waves might inadvertently damage components in the reactor. As such, it is important to understand how these waves propagate and how they might scatter off turbulence in the edge, resulting in deflection. The student is also expected to travel to international collaborators’ fusion experiments to validate their code and work with experimentalists on developing fusion plasma scenarios.

Open Internship and Final-Year Projects

There is some funding available for Singaporean and international students. If you are applying for funding, please contact me at least 6 months before the start date. In general, it is never too early to write to me.

The projects available in this category are shorter term and thus more ad hoc than PhD projects. As such, they change rapidly as new discoveries are made in the field; the list here is far from exhaustive. Please contact me to find out what is currently available. Broadly speaking, there are usually experimental and computational projects available. Pen-and-paper theory projects are sometimes available, but those usually take at least 6 months.

By and large, my goal is for interns (at least those directly supervised by me) to publish their work, but given the uncertain nature of research, this is not always possible.