Mohamad Baassiri is a Mechanical Engineer and a PhD candidate at SSPC, Bernal Institute, University of Limerick, Ireland.
Read about his SSPC industry placement experience:
My background is on thermal and fluid sciences, and my research focuses on the digitization of the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector through state-of-the-art modelling techniques as well as experimentation. The purpose of my research is to develop effective computational fluid dynamics models to simulate the high-pressure atomization applications involved in pharmaceutical manufacturing, making the process more sustainable. By creating new efficient digital twins for the manufacturing systems, a significant part of the testing process can be carried out through modelling while minimizing on-site experimentation. This is believed to help bring down the cost of commercializing new drug products, which currently costs 1-2 billion USD per product and more than a decade of product development and testing.
I did my placement at the Applied Process Company (APC) in Dublin, Ireland where I worked as a process development engineer in the digitization team. My duties included carrying out in-silico optimization studies for clients from the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector. I had the chance to work on 3 commercial projects for top pharmaceutical manufacturers in Ireland, in addition to 1 internal project that involved data analytics of the company’s carbon footprint data. Since the placement involved simulating applications different than the application I’m studying at UL, I was able to discover new potential of the modelling tools and apply this to simulations needed for my PhD studies.
Additionally, the pace of the commercial projects I was involved in was faster than that of an academic PhD project. This was an eye-opener on skills I need to further develop in order to keep up with such a fast pace of deliverables. At APC, employees are normally involved in the strategic plans and are made aware of the business plan through meetings and communications. Exposure to this kind of business environment was essential to me as it satisfied my curiosity about the mechanisms of starting and running companies in a competitive market as that of Ireland.
Overall, this experience was a valuable addition to my career, and it certainly encouraged me to consider a job in the industry. I highly recommend PhD candidates to engage themselves in this experience as it is an excellent opportunity to discover the market. That said, exerting the best of efforts while on placement will further strengthen your profile and boost your employability.
