Ben Champion on his industry-funded PhD with Kraken

Ben Champion joined the School of Mathematics in September 2024 to do an industry-funded PhD. His project is fully funded by KrakenFlex, part of the Octopus Energy Group, and his supervisors are Julian Hall and Merve Bodur.

What’s your PhD project about?

The transition to renewable energy sources like wind and solar poses a number of challenges. Some of these can be tackled by formulating energy generation and distribution as mathematical problems. The focus of my project is developing techniques for efficiently solving these problems and implementing those techniques in my team’s open-source optimisation software HiGHS.

Did you always know you wanted to do an industry-funded PhD?

Working at the intersection of industry and academia has always been of interest, but this was the right project at the right time. After nearly a decade of working in quantitative finance, I was looking for a change. When I saw an advert for an interesting project that was “not suitable for someone aiming for an academic career”, I knew the right opportunity had arrived!

What’s it like working with KrakenFlex?

The people at Kraken are superb to work with. Their industry perspective guides my work to have impact in practice, not just in theory.

Do you know what you want to do post-PhD?

I plan to return to industry, working on problems closely related to those in my PhD. However, I see this PhD project as a way to diversify my skillset, so I’m looking at opportunities beyond the industry I came from.

Do you have any advice for students thinking about doing an industry-funded PhD?

Ensure that you will be able to make any research software contributions through an open-source project. This is particularly important for an industry-funded PhD, where it can be more difficult to arrange.

With an industry-funded PhD, your team may span academia and industry. As with any PhD, the team you work with is crucial. But for an industry-funded PhD especially, make an effort to get to know the entire team and its dynamics before you make any decision.

If you’ve ever considered doing a PhD, it’s never too late! In fact, industry experience can be a plus: when you spend time in industry, you come across interesting problems. A PhD is a perfect way to dig deeper.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell people about your project?

As it turns out, this project is an opportunity not only to live in Edinburgh, but also to spend time in two other great cities: Manchester and Berlin!