Master's Thesis "AI-powered formulation development for a PLA-based plastic"

We want an earth that is worth living on. Our applied research in Circular Economy, Carbon Management, Green Hydrogen and Local Energy Systems makes concrete contributions to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. As an institute of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, we show how to not only master challenges, but grow with them. We push boundaries, think ahead and shape the future with applied research. Diverse perspectives and approaches strengthen creativity and innovation in our scientific work. Would you like to help us shape a sustainable world? We are looking for reinforcement! In the department “Circular and Bio-based Plastics”, we develop customized bio-based plastics for a wide range of applications. Polylactide (PLA) is one of the most promising bio-based and biodegradable thermoplastics for engineering applications and packaging. Tailoring the property profile requires careful optimization of the compound formulation and processing conditions. Data-driven artificial intelligence approaches make it possible to derive optimal formulation-process combinations from existing experimental data, thereby significantly reducing development effort.

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Literature Review and State of the Art: Familiarization with the state of the art regarding PLA compounds, materials informatics, and Bayesian optimization for formulation problems Data Preparation and Analysis: Review, cleaning, and structuring of existing datasets (formulation components, process parameters, material properties), including identification of relevant influencing factors Model Development as a Surrogate Model: Development of ML models (e.g., Gaussian process regression) to predict material properties as a function of formulation and process parameters Multi-criteria optimization: Implementation of a Bayesian optimization strategy using an open-source framework, including the definition of objective functions and constraints to derive concrete, improved formulation and process proposals Experimental validation and evaluation: Production of selected compounds proposed by the model, materials characterization, comparison of measured properties with model predictions, as well as critical evaluation and derivation of recommendations for further use