SimoTech, a Cork-based engineering and automation company, has completed an 18-month innovation project with North West Regional College to strengthen its AI capabilities. The project matters to the sector because it built AI, software development and digital transformation capability inside the company itself.

SimoTech is an Irish-owned process automation services and manufacturing IT systems company for the pharma and biotech sector, headquartered in Carrigaline, Co Cork, and founded in 2000 as PDAS Ltd. Its clients have included Amgen, Pfizer, Merck, Abbott and Eli Lilly on capital projects in Europe, the US and Singapore.

The collaboration combined SimoTech’s engineering expertise with specialist knowledge from the college’s Industry 4.0 Centre and XR Hub to explore applying AI and emerging digital technologies within the business. Throughout the project the two teams worked on developing and evaluating AI-enabled technologies, with knowledge transfer between the company and the academic team.

A key outcome was the appointment of Rohit Rishav, who joined SimoTech as Innovation Boost Project Manager, to a permanent position, after he led the technical development activities and worked with both teams to deliver the project’s objectives.

Ross O’Neill, Information Systems Manager at SimoTech, said: “Rohit’s continued full-time involvement with SimoTech helped ensure that this capability was embedded directly within our team and aligned with our long-term innovation goals.”

Cathal Ferry, Manager of NWRC’s Industry 4.0 Centre, said: “Working with SimoTech enabled our team to apply emerging technologies within a commercial environment while strengthening our expertise in Artificial Intelligence and digital technologies.”

The project ran across the island of Ireland, linking a Cork engineering company with a college in the north-west of Northern Ireland.

The structural driver is the need for engineering and automation firms to build AI and software skills in-house, which this project addressed by pairing a company team with specialist academic expertise and keeping the project manager on permanently.

For the sector, the project shows industry and academic partners transferring AI knowledge into a commercial engineering business, with the knowledge retained in the team once the project ends.

Source: derrynow.com / linkedin.com / derrydaily.net