The gauge/gravity duality conjecture asserts an equivalence between theories of gravity on a curved space and ordinary quantum field theories defined on the boundary of such spaces. This duality has become a powerful tool to study strongly interacting systems by use of a conjectured dual weakly coupled string/gravitational theory, allowing new computations that go beyond the standard perturbative techniques of quantum field theories. The proposed projects focus on applying the gauge/gravity duality to more realistic condensed matter systems. In particular, the following topics will be studied: a) Constructing black hole solutions with anisotropy and studying their thermodynamics and transport coefficients; b) Constructing black hole solutions in four-dimensional higher derivative gravity and realizing the Coleman-Mermin-Wagner theorem; c) Modeling the holographic superconductor/insulator phase transition with inhomogeneity. The proposed projects will deepen our understanding on gauge/gravity duality itself and will provide a more precise description on realistic condensed matter systems.