Recent graduate with a first class honours in a MEng in Mechanical Engineering. My Masters project was titled “FEA of additively manufactured composite hexagonal and re-entrant honeycombs under compression”. I continued this interest in composites and I am currently studying a PhD with the intent to explore new composite materials for High Altitude Long Endurance UAV’s.My PhD is focusing on making robust ultralight weight next generation composite aero structures. This involves having to understand and take advantage of composite failure mechanisms including fibre bridging, matrix cracking and size effects. Thin laminates currently struggle to maintain adequate compression after impact strength making them very difficult to get certified in next generation aircraft currently.This project involves material characterisation, laminate design, computer vision analysis and numerical modelling in order to study how ply thickness and architecture impacts matrix cracking, fibre bridging stresses and fracture toughness, with the intent to improve delamination resistance of CFRP composite laminates.