When AI meets Design/Manufacture – Dr A Panesar : Annual Azad Ayub Lecture
Event Location:
Sir Alexander Fleming Building South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BX
FREE public in-person lecture
From aircraft parts to bone implants - discover how teaching computers the laws of physics is transforming the way we design and manufacture the products of the future.
For our annual Azad Ayub Lecture* hear from Ajit Panesar - Associate Professor (Reader) in Computational Design for Advanced Manufacturing at Imperial and founder and Director of the IDEA Lab.
Artificial Intelligence is changing how engineers design and make things — not by replacing human judgement, but by exploring billions of possible designs far faster than any person could, and by learning to predict how a product will behave before it's ever built. This lecture sheds light on how AI, when combined with the fundamental laws of physics, is helping engineers design better products and manufacture them right the first time.
Fusing machine learning with structural optimisation makes it possible to rapidly discover lightweight "architectured" materials — intricate lattice structures engineered across multiple scales — and even to design in reverse, starting from a target property such as stiffness or energy absorption and inventing the structure needed to achieve it, with applications from aircraft components to 3D-printed bone implants. Crucially, rather than treating AI as an unexplainable "black box", these models are grounded in the physical laws governing materials and manufacturing processes — an approach known as Scientific Machine Learning, exemplified by neural networks that predict the thermal history of metal 3D printing to catch defects before they happen, enabling "first-time-right" manufacturing.
Ajit Panesar is an Associate Professor (Reader) in Computational Design for Advanced Manufacturing at Imperial College London. He is the Director of IDEA Lab — developing computational tools that help engineers design and 3D-print parts that are lighter, stiffer and more reliable, for sectors spanning aerospace, automotive and energy.
*The Azad Ayub Lecture
Azad Ayub has been a sustaining benefactor of Friends of Imperial College as well as an active Member and Trustee for many years. In order to honour his vital support and generosity, Friends launched the annual Azad Ayub Lecture in December 2025. Azad is himself an engineering alumnus at Imperial, so it is fitting for research in the engineering faculty to feature on the inaugural event.
To reflect Azad’s gift in communicating the engineering research and STEM education at Imperial College, this lecture is FREE to all. A gift to you from Azad and Friends!
You can book places below. We do not issue tickets, the email sent to you upon booking will act as your confirmation. The location for this lecture is in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London, SW7 2BX.
