Ad Astra Fellow - Assistant Professor of AI for Advanced Manufacturing

Applications are invited for an Assistant Professor (Ad Astra Fellow) in AI for Advanced Manufacturing at the UCD School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering. For this position, we would like applicants to have a background in some of the following areas: Artificial Intelligence (AI) including machine learning, digital twins, smart manufacturing systems, AI-driven optimization, predictive analytics, robotics, or autonomous systems. Experience in working or collaborating with manufacturing companies in addressing efficiency and sustainability issues in sectors such as precision engineering, aeronautics, medical device or pharmaceutical manufacturing, would be particularly advantageous.

The School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering is a dynamic, research-driven school with a clear focus on delivering excellent teaching programmes. It has grown considerably in the last 10 years, with 40 academic staff, 50 research staff (post-doctoral researchers, research engineers) and 130 PhD students. Six of the academic staff currently hold ERC awards.  The School delivers a 4-year Bachelor of Engineering (BE) programme in Mechanical Engineering, and several full-time 2-year Master of Engineering (ME) programmes with Majors in Manufacturing, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Energy Systems Engineering and Engineering with Business. In addition, the School has several specialist one year Master programmes, including MEngSc Robotics & Intelligent Manufacturing, MEngSc Materials Science & Engineering and MEngSc Engineering Management.

The School has achieved outstanding success in Advanced Manufacturing over the last 8 years. It is home to the Research Ireland (formerly Science Foundation Ireland) funded I-Form National Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Research (www.i-form.ie ), which has recently received Phase 2 funding of €19 million up to 2029. This Centre has over 70 PhD and post-doctoral researchers, along with over 40 academics from 9 academic institutions from across Ireland. A particular focus for I-Form during phase 2 is digitisation of manufacturing and the role AI will play in this.

UCD is the only Irish academic partner in the EU's EIT Manufacturing, within which the School delivers the EIT Master of Engineering Manufacturing dual degree graduate taught programme involving university partners from 7 European countries. The School is also a partner in the SFI/EPSRC funded Advanced Metallics Systems (Metallurgical Challenges for the Digital Manufacturing Environment) Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT). Additionally, the School hosts an SFI Research Professor in Precision Manufacturing, the UCD Centre of Micro/Nano Manufacturing Technology (MNMT-Dublin (https://www.mnmt-dublin.org/) and also has a state of the art Laboratory for Advanced Manufacturing Simulation & Robotics (LAMS).

95 Lecturer/Asst Professor Above the Bar (7943) Salary Scale: €62,855 - €99,533 Per Annum

Appointment will be made on scale and in accordance with the Department of Finance guidelines.

Closing date: 12:00 noon (local Irish time) on the 21st February 2025. 

Applications must be submitted by the closing date and time specified. Any applications which are still in progress at the closing time of 12:00 noon (Local Irish Time) on the specified closing date will be cancelled automatically by the system. UCD are unable to accept late applications.

Please note: the eRecruitment system only requests the names of two referees. The full list of 3 referees should be included in the text of your application.

UCD do not require assistance from Recruitment Agencies. Any CVs submitted by Recruitment Agencies will be returned.

Note: Hours of work for academic staff are those as prescribed under Public Service Agreements. For further information please follow the link; https://www.ucd.ie/hr/t4media/Academic%20Contract.pdf