Stratospheric
optimisation
Dr András Sóbester is engaged in wide-ranging
research which aims to develop technologies for the
design, manufacture and testing of complex scientific
instrument platforms, in particular low cost, high
altitude unmanned aircraft.
Research area
Dr András Sóbester is a senior lecturer
in Aerospace Engineering in the Faculty
of Engineering and Environment at the
University of Southampton. Dr
Sóbester has BEng and MEng degrees
in Mechanical Engineering and Design
and Manufacture respectively. He
completed his PhD at the University of
Southampton, where he joined the
Computational Engineering and Design
research group.
His doctorate was on the application of
statistical techniques to optimise
aerospace systems and this influenced
much of his later research work too. He
devises computational models which
reduce the dependency on expensive
and time-consuming simulation
techniques required in the
development of complex systems.
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Dr Sóbester’s ideas have led to
applications in aerospace systems,
including the design of unmanned air
vehicles that operate at
a wide range of altitudes. His statistical
methods have also been applied to
recent work on climate modelling
which attempts to isolate and optimise
the factors which cause the greatest
uncertainty in current models.
Academy support
Dr András Sóbester received a Royal
Academy of Engineering Fellowship in
2007. The Fellowship supported
research work on various aerospace
projects, including research to
minimise the negative environmental
impact of next-generation airliners by
reducing their noise signature.
During the course of his Fellowship, Dr
Sóbester’s research increasingly
focused on issues surrounding the
scientific exploration of the
stratosphere. His ASTRA (Atmospheric
Science through Robotic Aircraft)
initiative at Southampton was set up to
rethink the technology that takes
scientific instruments into the
stratosphere for earth science and
meteorology research. “The aim is to
have rapid and low-cost development
and deployment of fully customised
systems, avoiding the expense and
complexity of current generic systems,”
he said.
At the same time, he developed
computational optimisation techniques
to analyse the parametric shapes which
make up the external surfaces of
aircraft. Using these models, aircraft
designers can save testing time and