Development of a Web Page for the Energy Group, March 2001. 1. PERSONAL INFORMATION Name : Dr. Thomas Roche Research Areas/Interests : Design for Environment methodologies and tools using AI techniques. Agent based collaboration, ERP/PDM and CAD. Name : Department : Thomas Roche, B.Eng. M.Eng. Ph.D. Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Room Number : 807 Phone : + 353 91 74 22 51 Fax : + 353 91 75 84 13 E-Mail : Tom.Roche@gmit.ie Biography: Thomas graduated from the University of Limerick in 1989 completeing a degree in Production Engineering. In the same year he decided to persue a masters degree in an Applied Research Project with Tretorn in Portlaoise in the area of high speed computer vision for high speed industrial component manipulation. In his work here he developed special optical sensors and for data fusion with computer vision for the specialist application. In 1991 (after completing his Masters in Engineering by research) Roche joined Athlone Institute of Technology as a full time lecturer. Late in 1991 he moved to Galway Mayo Institute of Technology where he became course co-coordinator for the degree program in Manufacturing Technology. In 1996 Roche commenced a Ph.D. in the area of design tools and methodologies for computer aided design particularly relating to design for x practices. Whilst completing this work Roche supervised a significant level of research at the Institute supervising masters students. After completing his Ph.D. in September of 1999 Roche became Head of Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at. Whilst being in this position he continued in his research activity supervising masters and Ph.D. students both at and at the National University of Ireland in Galway where he collaborates extensively with Professor Jimmie Browne. Roche stood down from his position as HOD in September of 2001 to pursue a significant research role and to work with large multinational companies such as jaguar Nortel Motorola in the area of software tool development for Design for Environment. Roche is patenting tools resulting from his Ph.D. work and whilst having published extensively in conferences and seminars he plans to publish numerous research papers in journals during 2002. Roche has been invited consultant to AMT Ireland, Kaiste University in Korea and NUI Galway and has completed work for these institutions over the last three years. Page 1 of 7
Development of a Web Page for the Energy Group, March 2001. Name: Thomas Roche Marital Status: Married Date of Birth: 18 May 66 Academic and Professional Qualifications B.Eng. (1989), Production Engineering, University of Limerick M.Eng. (1991), NCEA Ph.D. (1999) National University of Ireland Galway, Thesis Title Development of a Design for Environment Workbench. Academic Experience My academic appointment history is as follows: Regional Technical College Athlone Contract Lecturer (1989-1991). Regional Technical College Athlone Lecturer 1 ( fulltime 1991-1992). Regional Technical College Galway Lecturer 1 (fulltime 1992 1995) Regional Technical College Galway Fulltime Lecturer 2 (fulltime 1995 1999) Galway Mayo Institute of Technology Head of Dept of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (1999 September 2001) Fulltime 1 Galway Mayo Institute of Technology Lecturer 2 (Fulltime Sept 2001 ) I am also an external examiner for the following institutions: NCEA Masters Degrees all Institutes of Technology NCEA Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates in Tallaght and Dundalk Institutes of Technology. Research Experience Although having a heavy teaching load (16 hrs/week) and more recently a management role involving responsibility for 400 students and 53 staff in my current third level institution I have been active and successful in my research. I have conducted research at RTC Athlone, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology and at CIMRU in the National University of Ireland Galway. I have presented a number of papers at International Conferences (see below) although; much of my research activity is commercially exploitable and is therefore difficult to publish prior to protection. I currently supervise five Masters degree students and one Ph.D. student at and co-supervise one Ph.D. student and one Masters Student at NUI Galway. My research interests lie in a number of cognate areas including design software tool and methodology development to support the design of environmentally superior products. My major contribution to research over the last number of years is in the development of new design process models and a new approach to design for environment (DFE). DFE is a nascent science and as of yet very little knowledge is known about how to integrate environmentally superior 1 In September of 2001 I voluntarily stood down from my fulltime position as Head of Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering to fully engage in my research activity. Page 2 of 7
Development of a Web Page for the Energy Group, March 2001. characteristics in a product in a holistic way. My research team and I have developed, tested, improved and validated a new DFE methodology (called the DFE Workbench) based on the analysis and evaluation of the interface characteristics and material properties of components in a product structure. The methodology takes a holistic view of the product system and its performance over the entire product life cycle. Subsequent to test and validation with four multinational design organisations and over seventy design engineers, my team and I embedded the methodology into a CAD environment, taking into account the man machine interface, the cognitive models and learning styles of the typical design engineer. In the latest version of the DFE Workbench we have developed and integrated a knowledge based advisor tool that supports the decision making process of the designer. In addition we have integrated e-collaboration technologies and tools to support distributed design activity associated with the development of ESPs. We are currently working with NORTEL worldwide and JAGUAR UK 2 for the test, validation, improvement and commercialisation of the tool, (hence we are reluctant to publicise this work). The DFE Workbench currently has been developed for large corporations, supporting distributed teams, and uses Oracle databases, Java and reasoning tools (both qualitative and quantitative reasoning) to plan, manage, evaluate and support the improvement of the structural product characteristics such as disassembly planning and routing for multi component electro-mechanical products. The tool handles coupling between thirty-three different key component interface variables and has been tested on product systems exceeding one hundred components. NUIG,, my research team and I are in the advanced stages of patenting the DFE Workbench tool and intend to commercialise it with our industrial partners. Another of my teams is prototyping a web-based tool for a design integrated and distributed reliability management system for a large manufacturing company in Galway. I also have research students working in the area of web-based learning and the study of learning styles of engineers. We are currently developing and testing web based learning tools appropriate for the learning styles of engineers. My research achievements, are summarised below: Supervised eleven Masters students and two Ph.D. students Author of distance education modules for masters programs in Dublin City University. Author of three courses for engineers in the specialist area of computer vision. Author of seven papers in the area of life cycle design tools and methodologies three currently submitted for publication. Author of a Masters Module for the National Trainers for Trainers Scheme in Computer Vision and Image processing. Awarded over 0.4M in research grants over the past five years. Experience of national research programmes (Applied Research, Strategic Research Grants Scheme) including those of Enterprise Ireland. Experience of Irish and international industry-university, and university-university collaboration including experience in Europe (west and east). Led, managed and delivered multi-partner national research and development projects. Acted as reviewer for four applied research projects for Enterprise Ireland. 2 We have just gone through intense validation with Jaguar UK on the test and validation of the tool and the underlying methodology. The tool has passed the technical evaluation stage, and JAGUAR, my team and I are at the advanced stages of developing a business case for its implementation across the entire JAGUAR enterprise. Page 3 of 7
Development of a Web Page for the Energy Group, March 2001. Research Papers A list of papers presented in the last five years is as follows. Roche T., Brennan A., Browne J.," A Green Approach to Product Development", Proceedings of 1998 International Conference on Intelligent Manufacturing Systems", 1998, Lausanne Switzerland. Roche T., Development of a Design for the Environment Workbench, PhD Thesis, 1999. Roche T., Asensio P., Man E., Environmental Advisor Tool to Support Green Design ICPR Manufacturing for a Global Market, 1999. Roche T. Man E., Chira C. Browne J., The DFE Workbench a Case Study, Second International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing (EcoDesign 2001) 12-15 December, 2001, Tokyo Big Sight, Japan. Roche T. Man E., Browne J., Development of a CAD Integrated DFE Tool, Second International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing (EcoDesign 2001) 12-15 December, 2001, Tokyo Big Sight, Japan. Roche T. Man E., Browne J., Development of The Design for the Environment Workbench, Proceedings of International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, IEEE, Denver, May 2001. Roche T., Life Cycle Design of an Environmentally Superior Office Chair, Improving your Business through the Environment Conference, Enterprise Ireland, May 2001. Roche T., Man E., Browne J., The DFE Workbench, Proceedings of Intelligent Systems and Advanced Manufacturing Conference, Boston, 2001. Roche T., Chira C., Testing and Validation of a Distributed Design Tool, Proceedings of Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Conference, 2002. Roche T. Enrique Diez J., The DFE Workbench A Case Study, Proceedings of Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Conference, 2002. Roche T., Hernon P., A product Data Management System for reliability Management of Extended Products, Proceedings of Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Conference, 2002. Other Publications I developed two training manuals for Masters Level courses as follows: NCEA, National Training for Trainers Masters Module in Computer Vision Technology National Distance Education Centre, Graduate Program in Computer Integrated Operations International Patents I am currently in the advanced stages of registering a full international patent in association with the National University of Ireland Galway and for the development of a CAD integrated distributed design tool to support the development of environmentally superior products. Page 4 of 7
Development of a Web Page for the Energy Group, March 2001. Administrative and Management Experience Over the past five years, I have gained experience in academic administration and college management. I have managed numerous research projects in collaboration with industry, the institute and the university. I also acted as course co-ordinator for five years on the Bachelor of Technology in Manufacturing Technology Degree program at the Institute of Technology. I have developed many training programs at masters and degree level and have participated on many interview panels across the Institute of Technology Sector. I currently manage three research projects at the institute and collaborate with the National University of Ireland in Galway on all of these programs. When I was Head of Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology I was responsible for industry/ institute links as well as four hundred fulltime students and fifty-three fulltime and part-time staff. In the last year I have been successful in developing and introducing a new 1.2 million Advanced Manufacturing Centre at the Institute in collaboration with local multinational companies. I have introduced two new programs to the Institute and initiated the development of four new diplomas as well as taught masters programs with a number of universities across east and western Europe. I am a member of many internal committees (e.g. Academic Council and B.Sc. Course Board) within the Institute and have been involved in the development of new marketing literature and web training applications. I managed the development of a new B.Sc. in Manufacturing Technology and introduced industrial placement for the first time in the department. In September of 2001 I voluntarily stood down from my fulltime position as Head of Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering to engage fully in my research activity. Industrial Experience With my activities as course co-ordinator, Head of Department and in Research, I believe that I have developed a particular understanding of the needs of industry. I have worked with AMT Ireland in design projects for local industry. I have been engaged with industry in many consultancy activities over the years, (e.g. for the design and development of image processing systems for Irish multinationals in the automotive sector, design and development of environmentally superior products for multinationals in the electronics and automotive sectors, design development and implementation of an information management system for enterprise based reliability management systems). I have worked with Philips CFT in Eindhoven on the development and testing of Automated Visual inspection systems for the Electronics Manufacturing Sector. Some of the other companies I have worked with include Nortel Networks (world wide), Rand International (Pro Engineer R&D Company), Motorola and Jaguar Cars in the UK as well as a number of local companies. Page 5 of 7
Development of a Web Page for the Energy Group, March 2001. Research Grants The following is a list of the research grants received in the last five years. No. Title Funding and Partners Amount Duration Start date 1. Green Advisor for Concurrent Engineering Enterprise Ireland ARP AST Computers Ltd. CIMRU NUI Galway 50,000 2 Years December 95 2 Multimedia Applications for Third Level Engineering Learning, MATEL. 3. Development of Web Based Tools for Reliability Management 4 Performance Measurement Systems for Manufacturing 5. Development of a Product Life Cycle Information Communication and Management Tool for Environmentally Superior Product Design Department of Education Graduate Development Enterprise Ireland ARP Thermoking Ltd. Internal Research Fund Enterprise Ireland SRG CIMRU NUI Galway Motorola Ltd. Rand Ltd. Nortel Ltd 6 EE Services Ireland Enterprise Ireland AMT 7 Intelligent Environmental Enterprise Ireland Management Systems Innovation Partnership Implementation Wizard (I-EMS Wizard) Mini Project 8. Intelligent DFE Post graduate R&D Workflow Manager skills programme. 17,716 2 Years September 98 70,000 3 Years May 97 2,500 1 Year December 95 78,0000 2 years September 2000 154,000 3 Years September 2000 5000 Six December Months 2000 IR 22,500 2 years May 2001 9. Enterprise Information Enterprise Ireland 229,262 2 Years Awaiting Page 6 of 7
Development of a Web Page for the Energy Group, March 2001. Management for Mobile Product Reliability Improvement Innovation Partnership Thermoking approval in Thermo king Galway. Other Activities Invited Consultant to DFE research Group in the KAIST University in Korea, May 2001. Consultant to AMT Ireland the in the design of Environmentally Superior Products, worked on five major projects. Invited speaker for Improving Your Business through the Environment Conference at Enterprise Ireland in May 2001. Currently Working with Jaguar in the UK for the integration of an Intranet based enterprise DFE Tool to support the development of environmentally superior and compliant vehicles. Member of ECO2 World wide Research group on design for environment. Member of O2 World wide research group for research in DFE. Member of European COST Network to support life cycle design, Life cycle analysis and DFE. Page 7 of 7