Digital Twin & AI Adoption Engineer (KTP Associate)

As an associate, you will:

• Plan, execute, and manage the KTP project working closely with CastAlum and WMG staff.
• Build your network with internal stakeholders, team members, and other leaders across CastAlum and WMG.
• Develop a strong understanding of foundry manufacturing processes and translate these into a scalable digital infrastructure.
• Work closely with CastAlum’s engineering team to assess the current state of digital maturity and detail key steps to improve the digital capabilities by adopting Industry 4.0 for set productivity improvements.
• Conduct applied academic and industrial research into measurement and sensing technologies.
• Work with the Production and Control systems team to identify key requirements to capture data from foundry cells, identify any gaps and initiate the procurement process for additional equipment/Sensors required to capture data.Work with the WMG and Innovation & Systems
• Director in redesigning CastNet to design data architecture for storing data securely while ensuring scalability and traceability.
• Establish a secure data pipeline for ingesting data from sensors/equipment, enabling live analytics and visualisation.
• Application of ML/AI models for AI-driven decision support to reduce energy, wastewater, and Predictive Maintenance of Machining/Tool Repair.
• Create a simple data visualisation dashboard.
• Work with the Engineering and Technical departments to review and evaluate current setups and processing methods.
• Implement, test and validate improvements and results of analytical investigation leading to delivery of outcomes and implementation of process improvements.
• Be the thought/subject leader in CastAlum on CastNet/digital twin development (Subject matter expert).
• Transfer knowledge and train the CastAlum team to properly utilise the digital tools created during the project.
• Contribute to the preparation of reporting material for the project Steering Committee and support day-to-day project management tasks.
• Define a personal development plan with the help of CastAlum and WMG University staff, and attend all necessary KTP-related courses, events, management, and reporting meetings as and when necessary.

This post is part of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) initiative funded by Innovate UK. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships is a UK-wide programme that has been helping businesses for the past 40 years to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge and skills that reside within the UK Knowledge Base.

The Associate will bring specialist knowledge and skills to assess the current state of Digital Maturity and readiness for improving the digital capabilities of the company, aiding productivity improvements. This will involve the use of methodologies aligned with industry standards such as ISO23247 or similar, selection of sensors/equipment for data capture, and building a data architecture for storing the captured data, data pipelines for analysis, business intelligence, and visualisation.

The role will require the Associate to work with the Innovation & Systems team, production staff and higher management to analyse and determine the current state of the digital maturity, improving the digital maturity. It will involve improving the CastNet system, enabling AI-driven decision support to improve Energy, Waste water usage, enabling predictive maintenance for Machining and Tool Repair, etc

Reporting to the project supervisor at CastAlum Ltd., you will work as part of a dynamic engineering team to embed the new knowledge in the company through training, paired working, and the creation of documentation. WMG will provide specialised technical support and supervision to the Associate to ensure CastAlum Ltd. is an industry leader driven by world-class research.