About
Prof
Andrew Parnell
Principal Investigator
Prof Andrew Parnell is Hamilton Professor in the Hamilton Institute at Maynooth University. His research is in statistics and machine learning for large structured data sets in a variety of application areas. He has over 70 peer-reviewed papers in applied journals such as Science, Nature Communications, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and has methodological publications in journals such as Statistics and Computing, The Annals of Applied Statistics, and Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C. He has been awarded over €3 million to-date in direct funding.
Research Interests (Lay Summary)
Prof Parnell works on artificial intelligence applied to 3D printing. We now live in a world where we can place sensors inside a 3D printer and read off the information in real time as the part is built. This information might be about the environment, such as the temperature or humidity; about the build itself, such as whether it matches the product design; or it might be images that show the part as it is built up layer by microscopic layer. If something goes wrong with the build, you might not know until the 3D printer has finished or, worse, when the product goes into use. If we can monitor all these data streams we can identify faulty parts before they’re finished printing, or even make corrections so that the part doesn’t have to be thrown away at the end. This could potentially save Irish businesses a fortune in costs, as well as reducing waste.