Current PhD Opportunities:
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4-year PhD scholarship in addressing the human side of implementing digital technologies (particularly artificial intelligence), within a manufacturing environment
About the Project - We invite expressions of interest from applicants with a first or upper second-class honours degree in business or related discipline for a full-time, 4-year PhD scholarship in addressing the human side of implementing digital technologies (particularly artificial intelligence), within a manufacturing environment. This PhD project will be supervised by Assoc. Prof. Orla Byrne (orla.byrne@ucd.ie). The PhD Project is jointly funded by I-FORM, the Research Ireland Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Digital Manufacturing Ireland (DMI).
The successful candidate will spend time at the Smurfit School of Business at University College Dublin, along with DMI’s facility in Limerick.
PhD Overview: Manufacturing companies in Ireland are undergoing a digital transformation, implementing new digital technologies to improve all aspects of the manufacturing process. Adopting AI for example, has great potential to boost efficiency and socio-ecological sustainability. AI could significantly improve labour efficiency by removing repetitive tasks, facilitating automating monotonous and, in some cases, dangerous work tasks, thereby enhancing worker well-being and workplace conditions.
The introduction of new digital technologies, however, will require a degree of task reorganisation and upskilling of employees, which may exacerbate social inequalities among workers and alienate employees. Furthermore, cultural barriers and fear could mean a reluctance to embrace new skills, and an aversion to risk-taking.
High quality empirical research is needed to understand how to protect and promote employee wellbeing in the Irish context and beyond, while simultaneously retaining a competitive edge. This area of research is known as human-centric manufacturing and involves fully engaging humans in decision making and operations while leveraging advanced digital technologies.
The successful applicant will work within a small team focused on human-centric manufacturing, to publish excellent research, and identify best practices for the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) within Irish manufacturing. The longer-term objective will be to help inform critical Government policy decisions in this area.
Living allowance (Stipend): €28,000 per annum, [scholarship award]
University fees: Covered by the scholarship in addition to stipend
Closing date for applications: 16th January, 2025
Please submit your Expression of Interest with a CV by email to info@i-form.ie
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4-year PhD scholarship in addressing image analysis during advanced manufacturing processing
About the Project- We invite expressions of interest from applicants with a first or upper second-class honours degree in a science or engineering for a full-time, 4-year PhD scholarship in addressing image analysis during advanced manufacturing processing. This PhD project will be supervised by Dr Kevin Nolan (kevin.nolan@ucd.ie). The PhD Project is jointly funded by I-FORM, the Research Ireland Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Digital Manufacturing Ireland (DMI).
The successful candidate will spend time at the I-Form Centre in University College Dublin, along with DMI’s state of the art manufacturing facility in Limerick.
PhD Overview: The objective is to develop and validate image analysis techniques for precision measurements of nano-size features on manufactured parts during processing. Dedicated AI algorithms will be developed, tested and evaluated in practical case studies ranging from micro manufacturing at submicron precision to nano-sized electronic components with precision requirements under 1 μm. The automation of quality inspection in manufacturing is critical for directly assessing product quality features, such as dimensional accuracy (geometry) and surface defects, which are traditionally gauged through costly and time-consuming methods like tactile 3D systems or computed tomography, or subjective manual inspection by trained workers. Laboratory prototype development of vision-based inspection systems for manufactured products will be carried out at DMI’s new VCMG laboratory.
Amongst the objectives will be to enhance the accuracy & precision metrics for inspection of complex 3D shapes. This will be achieved by:
• Development of customised and robust computer vision methods to retrieve the geometry and surface defects of complex 3D-shaped parts, including techniques such as light field, photometric stereo, and structured light.
• Development and implementation of control algorithms and computer vision methods for continuous path planning and quality control of complex 3D-shaped parts.
• Define and establish visibility and accuracy & precision metrics for continuous view path operation and quantification of the obtained 3D data, respectively.
Living allowance (Stipend): €28,000 per annum, [scholarship award]
University fees: Covered by the scholarship in addition to stipend
Closing date for applications: 16th January, 2025
Please submit your Expression of Interest with a CV by email to info@i-form.ie
PhD positions - Submit an Expression of Interest
I-Form Research Ireland Centre for Advanced Manufacturing seeks to attract outstanding students to work on cutting-edge research projects in additive manufacturing along with the digitalisation of materials processing. Amongst the funded PhD projects are those in metal additive manufacturing, multi-material printing and Artificial Intelligence applications for advanced manufacturing. Opportunities exist, under the supervision of the Centres’ academics at our seven partner academic institutions in Ireland (Dublin, Galway, Maynooth, Sligo, Waterford).
We invite expressions of interest (EOI) from applicants with a first or upper second-class honours degree in a science or engineering discipline for PhD positions in any of the topic areas listed below. Following the internal review process, successful applicants will be invited to submit an application. EOIs are welcome from suitably qualified candidates worldwide.
Please submit your Expression of Interest with a CV by email to info@i-form.ie stating clearly in which one of the three Platform research areas (detailed below) for which you would like to submit an application.
Platforms and Research Topics:
Platform 1: Materials Process Development and Data Capture
Objective: To capture new insights on the influence of processing variables and materials properties on end-product characteristics for additive manufacturing using novel materials.
Overview: I-Form’s AM processing research explores the printing of (a) metal alloys by laser powder bed fusion and (b) multi-materials by material jetting. Platform 1 experimentation will create valuable datasets and correlations that span material properties, process inputs, in-situ multi-sensor measurements, post-build processing data and end-product performance.
Research Topics
- Laser-based powder bed fusion (PBF-LB).
- Multi-material printing: Ink production, printing and sintering control
- Multi-sensor process monitoring.
- Porosity, microstructure, and surface morphology.
- Processing parameters and compositions of NiTi and Ti-alloys.
- Post processing for tailored metallic bulk and surface properties.
- Optimisation for low carbon footprint additive manufacturing
Platform 2: Materials Process and Product Modelling
Objective: To develop multi-scale, multi-physics models of additive manufacturing, that capture process-structure-property-performance relationships at full component level.
Overview: The focus of this Platform is to facilitate the sustainable (efficient in terms of energy and materials), rapid development of new products and processes by replacing physical experimentation in the development cycle with advanced predictive modelling. This is achieved through the development of multi-scale, multi-physics (MSMP) process-structure-property-performance (PSPP) models, combined with machine learning (ML) to provide digital tools for advanced manufacturing.
Research Topics
- Process modelling – MSMP computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for thermo-fluids and finite volume / finite element analysis (FEA) for thermo-mechanical modelling.
- Microstructure evolution during solidification.
- Crystal plasticity modelling
- Cellular Automata and Phase field modelling
- Fatigue and fracture mechanics modelling (e.g. xFEM, cohesive zone modelling)
- Topology and process optimisation for performance.
Platform 3: Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics in Materials Processing
Objective: To create and apply novel Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analysis techniques and tools that will rapidly analyse Additive Manufacturing process data to provide real time feedback and control.
Overview: This Platform will develop and integrate a range of computational tools for additive manufacturing in order to achieve enhanced processing efficiencies and to enable improvements in sustainability. The research work in this Platform will include data analysis for both AM alloy parts and multi-material printing. The role of human oversight and decision making in AI drive process understanding and control will also be researched.
Research Topics:
- Time series analysis.
- Anomaly detection.
- Image analysis.
- Bayesian optimisation.
- Active learning and human-in-the-loop.
- Deep reinforcement learning for real-time closed-loop control.
Other Opportunities
We are currently seeking applications for our EPSRC-CDT PhD programme. See details here.
In addition, we are always interested in hearing from researchers who wish to work with us either via a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship, an IRC PhD or postdoctoral Fellowship or other similar mechanisms. Email us at info@i-form.ie.
If you are interested in writing a proposal with an I-Form Academic, take a look at our People Page and get in touch.