Research Associate or Senior Research Associate in Non-Destructive Evaluation Data Science

Job number    ACAD104483
Division/School    School of Civil, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Contract type    Open Ended
Working pattern    Full time
Salary   £33,797 - £42,792
Closing date for applications    01-May-2020 

You will be based in the Ultrasonics and Non-destructive Testing (UNDT) research group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bristol. You will undertake internationally-leading research on the application of Data Science techniques to the measurements obtained from critical engineering assets using Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) methods. The project is funded by the Alan Turing Institute, the National Institute for Data Science.

Currently, the interpretation of most NDE measurements is performed by a skilled human operator and the only permanently-recorded output of an inspection is a note that confirms the component passed the inspection. However, the enabling computational infrastructure to store the raw data from every NDE measurement performed over the lifetime of an asset is becoming available in the form of cloud-based, asset-management platforms. An immediate consequence of this will be the move to automate the interpretation of individual measurements. More importantly, it will enable more accurate assessments of asset structural integrity to be made because the NDE data from multiple measurement modalities performed at different points in space and time can be leveraged. This is a challenging problem, but the solution has the potential to revolutionise NDE. The purpose of the project is to lay the foundation for this exciting new field by developing an initial framework for NDE data analysis and applying it to a small number of industrial case studies.

You must have a first degree in Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science or a related subject, and a PhD/EngD that demonstrates your ability to apply rigorous mathematical methods to practical problems. You will be an excellent programmer who can produce well-documented and efficient code for data analysis. The work will involve developing the underlying mathematical and statistical framework, implementing it numerically, liaising with industrial contacts to acquire example data, and using tools developed by others to generate simulated or augmented NDE data. You will be part of the vibrant UNDT research team and work with experts in ultrasonics, electromagnetic methods, and numerical simulations. You will be expected to present your work at regular project review meetings and work closely with industrial collaborators.

This post is being offered on a full-time basis, with funding for 17 months, starting on or before 1 October 2020.

The closing date for applications has been extended until 1 May 2020. It is expected that interviews will be held shortly after the closing date. Informal enquiries can be made to: Professor Paul Wilcox p.wilcox@bristol.ac.uk

We welcome applications from all members of our community and are particularly encouraging those from diverse groups, such as members of the LGBT+ and BAME communities, to join us.