Fully Funded PhD Scholarship: Advanced Data-Driven Engineering Design (ADDED): Future Manufacturing Technologies

This scholarship is funded by Swansea University’s College of Engineering in:

Advanced Data-Driven Engineering Design (ADDED): Future Manufacturing Technologies

Start date: April 2020

Subject areas: Big Data; Machine Learning; High-Performance Computing; Engineering Simulation; Computational Mechanics

The digital revolution offers an exciting opportunity to disrupt the engineering sector. There is a need to develop a national Data-Driven Engineering Design capability to bridge the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) gap across applications that are notoriously difficult and expensive to prototype. This will require a multidisciplinary community from industry and academia to bridge the disciplines of the AI, HPC and Industry 4.0 technologies.

Our goal is to establish a platform, which leads to systems and processes that are designed for data, and designed by data. To do this, the design process must be turned on its head, it is no longer appropriate for designers to focus solely on the operational use as optimisation targets. As part of a circular economy, usage and monitoring across entire life-cycles must be the cornerstone of development. Current practice is to base design decisions for systems and processes on computational modelling or simulation that emulates expected utilisation scenarios to evaluate predicted performance. Research in this centre of excellence will pursue an approach that focuses on data-based outcomes to project backwards how systems and processes should be utilised in order to inform optimal design. We will investigate topics such as:

- Optimisation of data collection
- Predictive monitoring of complex systems
- Real-time simulation
- Handling of anomalies and extreme events
- Automation with ML from real-world data
- Computer vision informed models.
- Measured and simulated data-driven design of additive manufactured materials

We are calling for applications for a 3-year fully funded and industrially sponsored research studentship as part of a new exciting initiative at The College of Engineering, Swansea University. Join us and be part of a new generation of engineers developing this data-driven approach to tackle some of the world’s most challenging problems. From innovating to mitigate climate change and meet associated challenges, to next-generation medical imaging systems to making a step-change in smart and/or autonomous systems to developing the next generation of methods to address these challenges.

This training programme will offer an unparalleled opportunity to develop your skills in areas vital to Advanced Data-Driven Engineering Design. These include topics, such as: Big Data; Machine Learning; High-Performance Computing; Leading Edge Engineering Simulation of Systems and Processes; Advanced Computational Mechanics and Fluids and Additive Manufacturing, all of which are highly in demand by our industrial partners, thus putting you at the forefront of employability.

The successful candidate will have an undergraduate degree in a relevant subject, e.g. engineering, materials science, physics, computer science or mathematics. Previous specialisation in data-driven engineering is not required as the student will gain this expertise during their studies in addition to valuable transferable skills ensuring the candidate is prepared for a wide range of possible career paths after graduation.

Location: Zienkiewicz Centre for Computational Engineering & Future Manufacturing Research Institute, Bay Campus, Swansea University.

The centres are closely linked to a number of world-leading strategic partners in industry and academia such as Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. Depending on projects’ particular research focus, students will be provided opportunities to undertake placements for significant periods (e.g. 6 months) with our research partners.

Supervisors: The supervisory team will consist of academics from the Zienkiewicz Computational Centre for Engineering, Future Manufacturing Research Institute and a representative from the industrial partner if applicable. The team will be established around the particular needs of the project and the background of the successful PhD candidate.

Eligibility
Candidates should hold a first or upper second-class honours degree (or its equivalent) or a Master’s degree in a subject area related to the project (engineering, materials science, computer science, mathematics, physics and cognate disciplines).

Experience with engineering simulation is desirable.

Good programming skills, Python, CUDA, C/C++ Fortran or MATLAB are preferred.

We would normally expect the academic and English Language requirements to be met by point of application. For details on the University’s English Language entry requirements, please visit – http://www.swansea.ac.uk/admissions/englishlanguagerequirements/

This scholarship is open to candidates of any nationality.