The University of Huddersfield is adverting these 2 PhD opportunities. Please contact Prof David Walker d.d.walker@hud.ac.uk for more information.
- Data-mining of materials-properties to implement ultra-precision process automation.
This project is the marriage of materials-science and artificial-intelligence, in a particularly challenging context – autonomous-manufacture of ultra-precision surfaces. These are critically important to society, embracing precision lenses and mirrors, human joint and cranial implants, industrial moulds and dies, turbine-blades, and more. There are hundreds of diverse material-types – glasses, ceramics, metals and crystals, implying tedious process-trials for unfamiliar materials. The project will link identified mechanical, chemical and thermal properties of such materials, with predicted parameters and outcomes for successful manufacturing processes. Data-mining and correlative analysis will be used, removing uncertainties, and providing a key part of the jigsaw for autonomous manufacturing.
2. Freeform metrology in an autonomous manufacturing environment.
The science of measurement is key to precision manufacturing in a global marketplace. Particularly challenging is the measurement of complex surfaces for lenses and mirror (e.g. for head-up and head-mounted displays, remote-sensing from space, etc), and for prosthetic joint-implants, turbine-blades, industrial moulds & dies, and much else besides. Methods for processing such surfaces are well established, measurement being the limiting factor. This project will research and develop a novel measurement method, with the principal goal of delivering an integrated solution to be incorporated in an autonomous manufacturing cell – which will be a world first.
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