Research groups and their expertise

Introduction

Machineries & Factories brings together expertise from two faculties at Ghent University and one at university college howest.  

The activities of M&F group the activities of Ghent University at FlandersMake.

Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (FMake core lab MIRO)

Applied Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer -  Sustainable Thermo-Fluid Energy Systems | Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering

  • Thermodynamics & thermal engineering
  • Heat transfer in complex heat exchangers and cooling plates
  • Innovative cooling of power electronics and electrical machines (e.g. heat pipes)
  • Experimental and numerical research
  • Two phase (liquid-solid, liquid-gas, oil in air) cooling

Fluid Mechanics -  Sustainable Thermo-Fluid Energy Systems | Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Numerical optimisation of multi-scale flow and heat problems
  • Fluid structure interaction (combined simulation of movement and flow)
  • Transition modelling 
  • Unsteady flows in complex moving geometries

Dynamic Systems and Controls | Department Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering

  • System level design of smart motion systems including their control: new architectures, component sizing, component selection, component & architecture validation, trajectory optimisation
  • Non-linear and user friendly model based predictive control
  • Stability, stabilisation and optimization of dynamical systems
  • Modeling and regulation of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems
  • Synchronisation of oscillators and control of discrete event systems
  • Mechatronics: control and optimization of drivetrains and mechatronic systems

Electrical Energy LaboratoryDepartment Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering

  • Multi-physical design of electrical machines and drives
  • Hybrid & physical based modelling
  • Co design of power electronics and electrical machines, power electronics integrated in electromechanical actuators
  • Innovative actuators and their fault tolerant control
  • Virtual sensors/soft sensors of electromechanical machines
  • EMC of electrical drives

Electrical Energy LaboratoryDepartment Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering

  • Hybrid & physical based modelling
  • Machine learning and control theory
  • Optimization of nonlinear dynamical systems
  • Co-design of cyberphysical systems
  • Virtual sensors of electromechanical systems

Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (FMake core Lab ISyE)

Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design

  • Design of flexible assembly (automation, multi-criteria evaluation, support tools, context-aware information, novel parts supply)
  • Logistics & supply chain management
  • Integrated (preventive/selective) maintenance and production planning
  • Supply chain management
  • Material handling & warehousing

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FMake core lab CVAMO)

Data Analytics and Statistical Sciences

  • Data collection, storage, pre-processing and analysis of business relevant data
  • Applied AI/Machine learning (i.e. trees, graphical models, deep learning ... ) with focus on operational experts-machine interaction  

Business Informatics

  • Modelling TCO elements in business ecosystems in a human and computer readable
  • Discovery of models using mining techniques
  • Using executable models for decision support in business

Department of Management Information Science and Operation Management

  • Robust cost-optimal decision making (stochastic optimisation) for: (i) manufacturing and intralogistic systems, (ii) supply chains, (iii) planning and scheduling under uncertainty 
  • Combinatorial optimisation

Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (imec ID-Lab)

IDLab (Internet Technology and Data Science Lab) 

  • Surrogate Modelling
  • Data efficient machine learning
  • Machine learning for time series
  • Context based dashboards

University college howest - DAE

Howest - Digital Arts & Entertainment

  • VR/AR and mixed reality