SFI CELECT is pleased to welcome its first two PhD candidates, marking an important milestone in building the centre's research capacity.
Gabriele Castagnetti (NTNU)
His research project, "Knowledge-Based Development (KBD) for Enhanced Project Decision Support in Digitally Supported New Product Development (NPD) Processes," addresses a growing challenge in modern product development.
As products and services become increasingly complex and development teams work across global environments, organizations must handle larger volumes of information than ever before. Despite this, many established new product development methods have changed little in how they support decision-making.
Gabriele's research aims to bridge the gap between the vast amount of available knowledge and the ability of teams to use that knowledge effectively when making critical decisions. Working closely with industrial partners, he will develop knowledge-based strategies that improve decision support throughout new product development processes.
The project contributes directly to SFI CLECT's ambition of creating smarter, more efficient engineering and development processes through advanced digital technologies.
Ole Tobias Næss (UiA)
His project, "Agentic AI Methods for Parallel Hardware-Software Co-design of Mechatronic Systems," investigates how artificial intelligence can transform engineering design processes.
The research focuses on developing agentic AI methods that enable the simultaneous design of hardware and software components for mechatronic systems. AI agents will orchestrate engineering tools and formalized design knowledge to support systematic design-space exploration, component selection and sizing, traceability, and engineering decision-making.
The methods developed in the project will be validated through industrial design use cases, ensuring that the research remains closely connected to real-world engineering challenges.
By combining artificial intelligence with engineering expertise, the project has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency and quality of future product development processes.
Building the next generation of researchers
The recruitment of the first PhD candidates represents an important step for SFI CLECT. Over the coming years, the candidates will collaborate with researchers and industry partners across the centre, helping to advance cutting-edge research while developing expertise that will be valuable for both academia and industry.
We look forward to following their research journeys and the contributions they will make to the future of digital engineering and innovation