AI: Part of the Master’s Plan

Adam Duckett speaks to Tina Düren and Bernardo Castro Dominguez about the University of Bath’s new master’s focusing on the application of AI in engineering

IN September, 24 students at the University of Bath enrolled on a new master’s called Artificial Intelligence for Engineering and Design. The impetus to create the course followed discussions among colleagues within the Faculty of Engineering and Design centred around the growing importance of AI and machine learning and the apparent lack of dedicated courses aimed at engineers.

“There’s very little out there on the application of AI to engineering, rather than the computer science aspects,” says Tina Düren, the incoming head of department for chemical engineering and director of Bath’s Centre for Integrated Materials, Processes & Structures. Düren helped design the new course along with 16 of her colleagues from across the university’s engineering and design faculty. This included Bernardo Castro Dominguez, senior lecturer in chemical engineering and deputy director of the Centre for Digital Manufacturing and Design.

“There’s a lot of AI in chemistry or digital chemistry programmes,” he says. “However, I believe we are one of the first offering applied AI for engineering. It gives a different spin because we’re talking more about control, manufacturing, and processing.”

There were strong signals from industry too. Staff visiting the companies that provide industrial placements for Bath’s engineering students were being asked by employers what their plans were for teaching the skills graduates need to secure future jobs in industry.

“They often asked us if our students would get any type of training on AI, on data-driven modelling, on digital tuning, on process model control using data etc,” Dominguez explains.

While AI is already being integrated into Bath’s undergraduate courses, it became obvious that there was a need for something broader. Hence the new master’s courses. Students can enrol on a straightforward one-year master’s or choose a two-year version that includes a one-year industrial placement.

They expect the courses will appeal to recent graduates who have discovered a passion for the computing aspects of engineering and want to specialise. But also engineers and architects already working in industry who are keen for professional development.

Dominguez says: “I always tell chemical engineering students that basically we take biology, chemistry, and physics and we mix it up using a common language, which is mathematics, to create new technologies or improve existing ones. We use equations to articulate physical phenomena. But I think having the opportunity to digitalise, to use data and create different types of models is key to really getting into the depths of the physical sciences so that we can accelerate the creation and improvement of technology.”

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