About the Group
About the group
Prof David Zhang
Prof David Zhang is the academic lead of the Engineering Management group. The group has been initiated in 2000 when Prof David Zhang joined Exeter as Chair of Manufacturing Systems.
Professor Zhang’s research interests over a period of 30 years, have covered many areas of research in design and manufacturing. His current research focuses on supply chain modelling and optimisation, manufacturing strategies and agility, distributed systems, sustainable low-carbon manufacturing, additive manufacturing, product design methodologies, and digital inventory.
Professor Zhang has published over 230 articles in refereed international journals and conference proceedings. His research in the last 15 years has been supported by over £10 million research grants from the EPSRC, EU, Innovate UK and industry. His contribution to research/industry has been recognised by various regional, national, and international awards, including the 1998 Merseyside Innovation Award, the 2001 IMechE Thatcher Brothers Prize, the 2002 Emerald Highly Commended Award, 2018 Emerald Citation Excellence Award, and TCS/KTP Certificates of Excellence (1998, 2005). As an international expert in his field, he frequently serves on programme committees or as keynote speakers of major international conferences, and as grant reviewer for various UK and overseas research funding bodies (e.g., EPSRC, Canada, Singapore, Sweden, etc) and programme reviewer and external examiner for UK and overseas postgraduate/undergraduate programmes (e.g. Cranfield, Hong Kong University), as well as as senior corporate strategy advisors for large multinational companies. Regionally, he served as a founding Director of Southwest Manufacturing Advisory Service (SWMAS) from 2001-2009. Prof Zhang is a Senior Member of IEEE, and a Member of Technical Committee of IASTED.
Prof Voicu Ion Sucala
I'm interested in looking at a wide range of topics all revolving around digital technology innovation, manufacturing processes, industrial development, and on how the required skills and abilities are developed through innovative engineering education. I'm working closely with industrial and academic partners to develop and apply these innovations in a sustainable manner.
For further details, please see my staff profile.
Feel free to reach out if you want to chat about a PhD.
Dr Corrina Cory
Corrina is a Chartered Engineer with over 20 years’ experience in education, engineering and entrepreneurship and an ambition to build a reputation in educational leadership and become an Edupreneur. As Co-Director of Education (Strategic Curriculum Development), her educational research focusses on Gold Standard Project Based Learning (GSPBL) and EntreComp to prepare graduates for the 4IR so they can adapt to rapidly changing technology, develop 21st Century Skills and apply entrepreneurial competence to solve complex problems.
She wants our students to become talented technology innovators of the future and is involved in the digital transformation aspects of the education strategy. She is striving to optimise the use of technology in both the delivery and content of modules to improve digital literacy and her blended GSPBL creates vibrant and inclusive digital learning communities where students feel connected and engage in learning dialogue and enquiry.
Corrina both proposed and is leading the design and construction of the new maker space in engineering, which will be the largest maker space on campus (60 capacity) by 2022. This effective learning environment is a key factor in our vision of ‘Engineering the Future’ and improving inclusivity by addressing gender imbalance in practical skills.
Dr Mahdieh Dibaj
Email: M.Dibaj3@Exeter.ac.uk
Madi is a Lecturer in Engineering Management. She did her BSc studies in Mechanical Engineering, MSc in Business Management and her PhD in Engineering at the University of Exeter. Her interests are more relied on managing engineering projects to develop sustainable cities and communities, developing novel products and technologies mainly to tackle climate change. She also has interests in analysing life cycle assessments of new technologies, and linking waste, food, energy, water and environment through sustainable material developments and manufacturing.
Dr Allen He
I am a lecturer in Engineering Management. My research topics mainly cover production planning and scheduling, multi-project management, agent-based modelling and simulation, digital tools development and applications for smart manufacturing.
I am currently leading the research of an EU Interreg project (CoRoT) with regard to smart manufacturing. Liaising with several French partners, our aims are to develop a reconfigurable mobile robot hardware platform and a dynamic supervision, control and simulation platform to facilitate digital applications in SMEs. A lightweight web-based application for dynamic supervision and simulation will be released by March 2021. Please contact me if you would like to know more information about CoRoT. I am also interested in ROS (Robot Operating System) application development and looking forward to collaborations.
Dr Martino Luis
Martino is interested in optimisation, meta-heuristic, hybrid methods and simulations to design sustainable operations and supply chain network, as well as, to construct integrated scheduling of production and distribution models.
His research assists companies to optimise and integrate production, supply chain network and operations, to be more environmentally and socially sustainable.
Dr Peter Melville-Shreeve
An enthusiastic entrepreneurial researcher, who thrives on exploring and addressing the barriers to innovation.
I believe strongly in experiential learning and enjoy nurturing engineers and scientists to focus their efforts on impactful research and business services. I hold an Engineering Doctorate, and have experience in commercial roles having worked for over a decade in engineering consultancies and founded start up enterprises. I have experience developing products and services and have successfully bid for and executed EU funded R&D projects. I am currently seeking partners to support further research activities around innovation in the water & environmental sectors.
Dr Dong Wang
As a highly motived researcher, entrepreneur and educator, I am actively contributing to the translational healthcare technology field via developing and commercialising biomedical instruments for clinical applications and inspiring engineering students to tackle global healthcare problems.
My research focuses on three-core themes crossing over medical instrumentation, biomechanics and advanced manufacturing. The multi-disciplinary research was developed through collaborations with consultants/surgeons, academics and industrial partners, involving developing laboratory prototypes and taking them through commercialisation, clinical validation and human testing to make a real-world impact.
Dr Baris Yuce
Baris Yuce is a Lecturer at the Engineering department, University of Exeter since March 2017. Prior to this, he worked as a Research Associate at Cardiff University between 2012 and 2017. Baris has a large variety of research interests that focus on intelligent systems and their applications in the fields of smart grids, smart city, industry 4.0 framework, digital twins, robotics and smart logistic systems, further, he has also wide range of expertise in forecasting systems, energy modelling, mathematical and simulation modelling, stochastic optimisation algorithms like the Bees Algorithm, Genetic Algorithm, Ant Colony Optimisation, Hill Climbing, and Simulated Annealing. Baris has also participated in several EU-FP6 and7, EU-H2020; Innovate-UK; KTP funded projects such as KnoHolEM, SPORTE2, MASTERING, WANDA, he has also conducted a collaborative project between University of Exeter and University of British Columbia on Smart Energy Forecasting Systems and funded by Global Partnership. He has also published more than 40 papers in the fields of intelligent systems, robotics, digital twins and their applications in smart buildings, smart energy management systems, smart factory and supply chain management.
Dr Yulin Shao
Dr. Yulin Shao is a Lecturer in Engineering in the Department of Engineering, University of Exeter. He is also a visiting researcher at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London.
Dr. Shao received the Ph.D. degree in Information Engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2020. He was a research assistant with the Institute of Network Coding from March 2015 to August 2016, a visiting scholar with the Research Laboratory of Electronics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from September 2018 to March 2019, and a research associate with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London from January 2021 to Nov. 2022.
Dr. Shao's research interests include wireless communications and networking, signal processing, stochastic control, and machine learning. He is a Series Editor of IEEE Communications Magazine (the world’s most recognized magazine in Telecommunications) for the series: Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for Communications.
Dr Xijin Hua
Xijin is a Lecturer in Biomechanics in the Engineering Management Group. His research interests encompass musculoskeletal and tissue biomechanics, human movement sciences, biomaterials, 3D printing and medical devices (including joint replacements, ankle-foot orthotics and lower-limb exoskeletons). Specifically, his researches focus on developing advanced computational modelling and simulation, and integrating the simulation with 3D printing technology for investigating the biomechanics and biotribology of the musculoskeletal system, soft tissue, muscle function and dysfunction, and for supporting the design, development and manufacturing of medical devices for musculoskeletal disorders prevention and rehabilitation.
Prior to joining the University of Exeter, he obtained his PhD in the Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (iMBE) at Univesity of Leeds, and worked as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie (MSCA) Individual Fellow firstly in the Institute for Biomechanics (IfB) at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and then in the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) at University of Cambridge.
Research students
I am Abdulaziz Alageel, an Engineering PhD candidate in the University of Exeter, focusing on optimising sustainable supply chain network designs.
I hold a Master of Science degree in International Supply Chain Management from the College of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter. Prior to that, I graduated from Jouf University with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering.
I worked for many years in an electrical engineering and retail supply chain. Currently, I’m delivering the ENGM027 Engineering Management Science lab sessions in the Exeter Digital Enterprise Systems lab.
I am presently an M.Phil. student with CEMPS, working on Knowledge Management and Capability Development in SMEs.
I was previously a New Product Development Associate (KTP) working with SMART Manufacturing Ltd. My KTP sought to develop a dual-production business model and a simulation tool to enable SMART to deliver bespoke industrial equipment while simultaneously allowing it to deliver standardised batches of new specialist products. I was also engaged in developing a Knowledge Mangement tool that seeks to capture and extend knowledge regarding certain specialist product lines.
Prior to joining the University, I completed my Masters in Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management from the University of Bath.
Dr Mingtao Fu joined the University of Exeter in 2018 as PGR. Prior to this, he obtained his PhD degree in management at the Neoma Business School (France) in June 2017. His primary academic interests are sustainable business ecosystem and sustainable business model. His current research is focused on simulation of business ecosystem performance, enhancement of sustainable business models and business ecosystems in manufacturing industries, the quantitative and qualitative studies on business ecosystem. For example, how business model innovation can adapt to business ecosystem changing, how various digitalized components, like big data application, digital manufacturing, artificial intelligence, etc., can contribute to the adaptation process. Combination of circular economy related innovative business model and dynamic capabilities is used to explore the adaptable methodologies to confront the constantly changing of business ecosystem, thereby enhancing sustainability of businesses and business ecosystems.
Mingtao has also been working as consultant and project manager in many fields, such as information and management consulting, manufacturing, public administration and policy, supply chain finance, international and internal trade, e-commerce, culture and art etc., thereby accumulating a wealth of practical experience, especially for the Chinese market.
I’m Lama Soliman Khaled, a second year PhD student in Engineering department at Exeter. I have joined University of Exeter in 2019, as an MSc student in International Supply Chain Management. Prior to Exeter, I have obtained my bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
My PhD research aims to Integrate Simulation-Optimisation approach to solve Bi-objective Blood Supply Chain Network Design with uncertainty and disruption. My research outcome will aim to develop a novel mathematical model that will identify an ideal supply chain location, taking into consideration other vital elements such as cost, and environmental aspects. A simulation approach using AnyLogic software, and a metaheuristic approach will be hybridized to create a novel solution method.
I am a postgraduate researcher at University of Exeter. I have a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Design, Manufacture and Automation from Southwest Jiaotong University, and a master's degree in Engineering Business Management from the University of Exeter. My current research is focused on developing digital twinning solutions for the maintenance of machine-tools.
I am postgraduate researcher at the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences. I graduated from the University College London (UK) in 2021 with an MSc in Digital Innovation in Built Asset Management. During my master's degree, I investigated whether big data and artificial intelligence can help improve service quality. I am currently focused on Industry4.0 technologies applied to project management.
I graduated Sichuan University (China) in 2016 with a MEng degree. During my previous studies I investigated two main research areas: plasma enhanced magnetron sputtering coating and electroless plating technology. In my current research programme (funded by China Scholarship Council), I am studying modelling and implementation of digital twin based on physics simulation for intelligent manufacturing factory.
I am currently a PhD student at the Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences College at the University of Exeter. My research focuses on modelling sustainable closed-loop supply chain network designs using mathematical formulations. The models take into consideration elements of uncertainties, risks, and disruptions that may affect the performance of the entire closed-loop supply chain. Meta-heuristics based method is applied to solve the aforementioned closed-loop models.
I hold a Master of Science degree with distinction in International Supply Chain Management from the University of Exeter and a Master of Science degree in Engineering and Management from Coventry University.