About the project
This project aims to accelerate bulk alloy discovery for additive manufacturing by leveraging smart design and 3D printing of material libraries to dramatically increase the throughput of characterisation and testing. Integrated with AI-assisted workflows, the project will streamline data curation and enable rapid exploration of structural material systems.
In the field of additive manufacturing (AM), researchers are increasingly designing alloy compositions specifically tailored to the unique thermal history inherent in AM processes. This shift presents a critical challenge in the era of Materials 4.0: how can we efficiently explore new alloys? This question lies at the core of the broader mission to accelerate the discovery of structural materials (also called bulk materials, as distinct from 2D functional materials.
A major bottleneck in alloy development is the time-consuming and resource-intensive nature of microstructural characterisation and mechanical testing, which are commonly conducted on a one-sample-at-a-time basis. This project aims to overcome that bottleneck by streamlining the materials innovation workflow.
You will integrate computational screening of candidate alloys (benchmarked against 316 stainless steel) with 3D printing of compositional libraries in novel sample configurations designed to enable high-throughput characterisation and testing. A key innovation is the design and fabrication of bespoke multi-sample fixtures to support automated characterisation workflows. For example, you will fabricate in-house sample holders, facilitating automated data collection from X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Such configuration will also allow for the extraction of multiple samples for small-scale testing.
Your research will significantly accelerate materials experimentation by adopting the principles of parallelisation, automation, and AI-enhanced workflows. You will work with AI companion agents across the entire pipeline, including materials selection, testing coordination, and data curation. Your work will generate new insights into how high-throughput experimentation can be effectively combined with ML to drive a digital transformation in materials research.
You will benefit from access to advanced research infrastructure at the University of Southampton, including the Additive Materials and Structures Research Laboratory, Testing and Structures Research Laboratory (TSRL), and Material Innovation Laboratory. You will thus receive trainings on the relevant experimental facilities.
