Prof. Ing. Philip Farrugia received the B. Eng. (Hons) degree from the University of Malta in 2001 with First Class Honours. He joined the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (DIME) at the University of Malta in 2001, as a Research Assistant. In February 2003, he was appointed as an Assistant Lecturer with the same department. In September 2008 Philip was appointed as a lecturer after completion of Ph.D. with research related to ‘Computer-Aided Early Form Modelling’. Currently he is a senior lecturer with DIME. Since 2008, Dr Ing. Farrugia has been coordinating the taught masters’ course in integrated product development.

Prof. Farrugia provided expertise in the development of a number of customised CAD support tools.  Dr Farrugia has successfully coordinated an R&I Project titled “Exploiting Multi-Material Micro Injection Moulding for Enhancing Manufacturing Competitiveness (EX-MMIM)” funded by MCST under the R&I2012 programme (project ref. no. R&I-2012-002). This project was led by DIME and the consortium partners were Tek-Moulds Precision Engineering Ltd., Techniplast Ltd and Playmobil Malta Ltd. A community registered design titled “A novel design of an optical component for endoscope applications” is at the time of submitting this proposal, being validated, as a result of the work conducted in the EX-MMIM project.  In addition, two peer-reviewed research papers titled “Design of an endoscopic micro optical part for fabrication with micro two shot injection moulding” and “Design Optimisation of an Optical Component Used in an Endoscopic Micro Distal End Fabricated with Two-Shot Injection Moulding” were published in 2014 and 2018 respectively. Furthermore, Dr Farrugia was involved in the supervision of an M.Sc. by Research student, Mr. Christian Camilleri, who conducted research work as part of the EX-MMIM project. The thesis which was successfully defended by Mr. Camilleri was titled “Design and fabrication of endoscopic micro optical components using two component micro injection moulding”.

Besides the EX-MMIM project, Dr Ing. Farrugia acted as principal and co-investigator in other funded projects, such as the SPEECHIE, aimed at developing a smart toy to support children with language impairment (www.speechieproject.com). SPEECHIE is funded by MCST’s 2016 TDP funding programme. Currently, a patent stemming from this project is being drafted. In addition, Dr Ing. Farrugia possesses other community registered designs/patents.

See further details at: https://www.um.edu.mt/profile/philipfarrugia

Prof. Ing. Farrugia’s current research interests include the design and manufacture of high-value added products, the development of product-service systems and Computer Aided Design customisation. He is currently the regional coordinator of the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED) UK and member of the Design Society. Dr Ing. Farrugia has published over forty-five peer reviewed research papers in fields related to product development. Refer to the above link for further details on sample publications.

Roles/duties in the project: Overall project management. To provide expertise in compiling product design specifications, user-centred design, DFX, KI-CAD development, product modularity etc. Organise and chair project internal meetings and consortium meetings, preparing and compiling end of stage, end of project technical reports, liaise with MCST etc.