Boards and Members

Director

Huan X Nguyen (Middlesex University) is a Professor of Digital Communication Engineering. He leads research activities in Digital Twin, 5G/6G systems, machine-type communication and machine learning within his department.

He has been leading major council/industry funded projects, publishing 120+ peer-reviewed research papers, and serving as chairs for international conferences (e.g., the recent PIMRC’20, ICT’19-’20-‘21, Heritech2021, SHM&ES2021, FoNeS-IoT’20). He is currently serving as the Technical Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Research and Development on ICT, Editor for the KSII Transactions on Internet & Information Systems and the REV Journal on Electronics and Communications. His current/recent relevant major research grants: i) Digital twin for Open RAN towards 5G/6G (EPSRC / UKI-FNI); ii) Digital twin modelling for automation, maintenance and monitoring in Industry 4.0 Smart Factory (UKIERI) which focuses on predictive maintenance and monitoring in cyber physical system/manufacturing; iii) Digital twin model for structural health monitoring of lifeline infrastructures (Newton Fund) to implement damage assessment/prediction for structural health monitoring (SHM) of important infrastructures (bridges, ports, roads and/or dams); iv) Disaster management & safety warning system (Newton Fund) where machine learning and latest 5G mobile technologies are employed to facilitate a smart location database to assist recovery in the events of (human/natural) disasters such as pandemic, flood, and earthquakes with case study being in Turkey; and v) Public safety and monitoring for smart transportation (Newton Fund) with case study/beneficiaries from Vietnam.

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Advisory Board

Mallik Tatipamula is the CTO of Ericsson Group Function Technologies & Architectures in Silicon Valley (US), focusing on 5G, distributed cloud/edge compute, SDN/NFV, AI/ML and IoT. Prior to Ericsson, he was VP/GM and CTO of Service Provider, Cloud & IoT solutions at F5 Networks and held various leadership positions at Juniper, Cisco, Motorola, Nortel and Indian Telephone Industries

Mallik is a pioneer in networking industry, delivering many 1st proof of concepts, products/solutions across 5G, Networking, Wireless, Application & Security. He received Executive of the Year Award in 2016 for contributions to Telco NFV. Mallik received PhD, Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from University of Tokyo, IIT (Chennai) and NIT (Warangal) India, correspondingly. He is a coauthor of 2 books, 100+ patents and publications. Mallik is a Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of IET (UK), senior member of IEEE, and his biography appeared in Who’s who in science and engineering. Mallik has delivered lectures at Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Tokyo.

Azad M. Madni is a University Professor of Astronautics, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering in the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering, USA. He is the holder of the Northrop Grumman Fred O’Green Chair in Engineering and the Executive Director of USC’s Systems Architecting and Engineering Programme. He is the Founding Director of USC’s Distributed Autonomy and Intelligent Systems Laboratory.

Professor Madni is also a Professor in USC’s Keck School of Medicine and Rossier School of Education. He is a faculty affiliate of the Keck School’s Ginsberg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics. He is the founder and CEO of Intelligent Systems Technology, Inc., a hi-tech company specialising in transdisciplinary model-based approaches for tackling complex sociotechnical systems problems. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society, and Omega Alpha Association, an international systems engineering honour society. Madni is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and recipient of the prestigious 2023 NAE Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. A Life Fellow of IEEE, he is also the recipient of the 2023 IEEE Simo Ramo Medal. He is an Honorary Member of ASME and a Life Fellow/Fellow of AAAS, AIAA, INCOSE, IISE, AIMBE, IETE, AAIA, SDPS, and the Washington Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of approximately 80 prestigious international and national awards from eleven different professional societies. These include the 2019 IEEE AESS Pioneer Award and the 2011 INCOSE Pioneer Award. He has 400+ publications comprising authored and edited books, book chapters, journal articles, peer-reviewed conference publications, and research reports. He has given more than 75 keynotes and invited talks in international conferences and workshops. He is a member of two NAE Lifetime Giving Societies: the Marie Curie Society and the Albert Einstein Society. He pioneered the field of transdisciplinary systems engineering and wrote an award-winning book, Transdisciplinary Systems Engineering: Exploiting Convergence in a Hyperconnected World (Springer, 2018) that presented the founding principles of transdisciplinary systems engineering. He is also the creator of TRASEETM, a new engineering education paradigm based on transdisciplinary systems engineering principles. He is also the co-author of Tradeoff Decisions in System Design (Springer, 2016), Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Springer series on Systems Engineering Research, and co-author of 3 Ds of Deep Learning – Design, Development, and Deployment (Springer, 2023). He is the Co-Editor-in-Chief with Norm Augustine of the Handbook on Model Based Systems Engineering (Springer, 2023). He has served as Principal Investigator on 97 R&D contracts and grants totalling more than $100M. His research areas are Theory of Digital Twins, AI and Machine Learning in Adaptive Cyber-Physical-Human Systems, Model Based Systems Engineering, and Green Learning. Previously, he was the Executive Vice President for R&D and the Chief Technology Officer of Perceptronics Inc., a simulation-based training and AI company that went public in 1982. Prior to that, as a lead simulation engineer at Rockwell International on NASA’s Space Shuttle Program, he led the development of a model-based testing approach that generated substantial savings in navigation system performance testing for the Shuttle Programme. He received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in Engineering from UCLA with a major in Engineering Systems and minors in Computer Methodology and AI. He is also a graduate of AEA/Stanford Executive Institute.

Guido de Roeck is Professor emeritus of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium), past head of the Structural Mechanics Section and author of more than 500 scientific journal and conference papers. He is a world-famous expert in vibration based damage detection, dynamic system identification and soil structure interaction and vehicle bridge interaction

More specifically, the research of Structural Mechanics Section is notorious for the pioneering work in operational modal analysis, combined deterministic-stochastic subspace identification, fully automated (operational) modal analysis, derivation of uncertainty bounds on modal parameters from stochastic subspace identification, damage assessment by model updating. The Section has been and is a key partner in the following EC funded projects and networks: SIMCES (Brite-Euram), ENOVNET, SINOPSYS, EFCT, CONVURT (FP5-Growth), IMAC (FP5-Growth), CONVIB (ESF Scientific Programme), DETAILS (EC RFCS– STEEL), SAMCO, SH3M (ESF- Eurocores), NERA (FP7). Professor Guido De Roeck was coordinator of EC Brite Euram project “System Identification to Monitor Civil Engineering Structures (SIMCES)”, participated to the European projects RFCS “Fatigue damage control and assessment for road and railways bridges (FADLESS)” (2009-2012) and RFCS “DEsign for opTimal life cycle costs (LCC) of high-speed rAILway bridges by enhanced monitoring systems (DETAILS)”, and was lecturer in the Marie Curie course SICON TC3 on ”Experimental dynamics model identification and damage detection” (2008) and the CISM course on ”New trends in vibration based structural health monitoring” (2008).

Senior Members

Prof. Mehmet Karamanoglu (Middlesex University) is currently serving as the Head of Department of Design Engineering and Mathematics in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Middlesex University and Professor of Design Engineering.

He is a member of several professional bodies and societies, including a Fellowship at Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Society of Arts. He has spent significant length of time working in collaboration with industry in a variety of sectors and has managed numerous Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects in the field of Manufacturing Engineering and Automation. His research interest includes engineering education, interplay between art, design and engineering, advanced manufacturing including optimisation, mechatronics and robotics. His recent work included mass customisation, developing autonomous systems and he is currently working on mathematical optimisation techniques and cognitive manufacturing. In his wider area of work, he is the UK national expert for Mechatronics and Automation competitions for WorldSkills UK.

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Prof. Balbir S. Barn, BSc (Hons), PhD, (Middlesex University) is Professor of Software Engineering in the Computer Science Department at Middlesex University. Balbir has extensive commercial research experience working in research centres at Texas Instruments and JP Morgan Chase as well as leading on academic funded research (Over ÂŁ2.5 million).

Balbir’s research is focused on model driven software engineering where the goal is to use models as abstractions and execution environments to support complex decision making.  In collaboration with TCS research labs, Balbir is working on model driven approaches for supporting Manufacturing 4.0 contexts through the design and implementation of a simulation environment for Digital Twins that accommodates value sensitive design principles. Balbir has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers in leading international conferences and journals and is currently editing a book on the “Digital Enterprise” with IGI-Global.

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Dr. Ramona Trestian (Middlesex University) is a Senior Lecturer with the Design Engineering and Mathematics Dept., Middlesex Univ., London, UK. She received her Ph.D. degree from Dublin City Univ., Ireland in 2012. She was with Dublin City University as an IBM/IRCSET Exascale Postdoctoral Researcher.

She published in prestigious international conferences and journals and has five edited books. Her research interests include mobile and wireless communications, user perceived quality of experience, multimedia streaming, handover and network selection strategies. She has active collaborations with India, Turkey, Ireland and within UK in the area of machine learning and wireless communications. She is Co-PI on UKIERI-DST project on Digital Twin Modelling for Automation, Maintenance and Monitoring in Industry 4.0 Smart Factory (ÂŁ161K).

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Dr. Noha Saleeb is an Associate Professor in Creative Technologies, Digital Creativity and Construction at Middlesex University UK.

She is Programme Leader for the MSc Building Information Modelling programmes at the university, working on international projects and grants in Architecture, Construction and IT that specialise in 3D integrated digital delivery and implementation of Industry-4.0 technologies in design/construction, e.g. Digital Twins, BIM and AI. Dr Saleeb is a practicing architect providing consultancy in design, construction and onsite project management, is Business Development Group Lead of BIMAfrica Organisation, and board member on several professional body steering committees. She is Editor in Chief of several journals and conferences, with over 60 peer-reviewed publications, and has achieved several national/international awards.  

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Dr. Purav Shah (Middlesex University) is a Senior Lecturer in the Design Engineering and Mathematics Department at Middlesex University London. Prior to that, he was an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Exeter on EU-FP6 PROTEM project on scanning probe-based memories from 2008 to 2010.

His work included read channel design; noise modelling and signal processing for probe storage. He received his PhD in Communication and Electronics Engineering from University of Plymouth, UK, in 2008. He is also a UK HEA Fellow. He did his MSc in Personal and Mobile Radio Communications from Lancaster University, UK, in 2003 and his BEng degree in Electronics Engineering from Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, India, in 2002.

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Dr. Quoc-Tuan Vien (Middlesex University) received his BSc (Hons) degree from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam, in 2005; his MSc degree from Kyung Hee University, South Korea, in 2009; and his PhD degree from Glasgow Caledonian University, UK, in 2012, all in telecommunications.

From 2005 to 2007, he was with Fujikura Fiber Optics Vietnam Company, Binh Duong, Vietnam, as a Production-System Engineer. From 2010 to 2012, he worked as a Research and Teaching Assistant with the School of Engineering and Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University. In Spring 2013, he worked as Postdoctoral Research Assistant with the School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK. In June 2013, he joined Middlesex University, London, UK, as a Lecturer in Computing and Communications Engineering, where he is currently a Senior Lecturer with the Faculty of Science and Technology.

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Dr. Tuan Anh Le (Middlesex University) received his B.Eng. and M.Sc. degrees both in electronics and telecommunications from Hanoi University of Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2002 and 2004, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in telecommunications research from King’s College London, The University of London, UK, in 2012. He was the recipient of the prestigious Ph.D. scholarship jointly awarded by the Virtual Center of Excellence in Mobile & Personal Communications (Mobile VCE) and the UK Government’s Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

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Researchers and Associate Members

Dang Viet Hung is a postdoctoral fellow at Middlesex University London, received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree in Structural Dynamics from the University of Lyon, France in 2009 and 2013. His research interests include structural dynamic, numerical simulation, structural health monitoring, data analysis, machine learning. He has published his research works internationally in France, Italy, USA, HongKong, Morocco. Besides, he has participated in designs and construction of various complex structures, including highrise buildings and large scale infrastructures.

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Will Davis (Middlesex University) is currently a Master by Research Student working on the Digital Twin Modelling for Automation, Maintenance and Monitoring in Industry 4.0 Smart Factory project. He received his BEng degree in Mechatronics Engineering. His current research interests include Blockchain, Digital Twin, Mechatronics Systems.

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Stefan V. Mihai (Middlesex University) is currently a a PhD student working on the Digital Twin Modelling for Automation, Maintenance and Monitoring in Industry 4.0 Smart Factory project. He received his BSc degree in Telecommunications from Politehnica University of Bucharest, and his MSc degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Middlesex University. His research interests include machine learning, Digital Twin, and Predictive Maintenance.

Mahnoor Yaqoob (Middlesex University) received her BSc degree in Software Engineering from Fatima Jinnah Women University Pakistan in 2016 and an MSc degree in Computer Engineering from Middle East Technical University Northern Cyprus Campus in 2020. She is currently pursuing a PhD within the discipline of Design Engineering at Middlesex University London. Her current research interests include Digital Twin, blockchain, machine learning and artificial intelligence, wireless cellular communications, computer networks, analytical modelling and queueing theory.

Ciaran Sinclair (Middlesex University) is currently a final year Integrated Masters Student studying Robotics and working on the Digital Twin Modelling for Automation, Maintenance and Monitoring in Industry 4.0 Smart Factory project. His current research interests involve computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence, mobile robotics, robotics arms, and general robotics systems.

International Collaborators, Project Partners and Visiting Researchers

Souvik Barat is a principal scientist at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Research India. He has 20+ years of experience in industrial research and his research interests include Digital Twin technology, Modelling and simulation of complex systems, Reinforcement Learning, Model Driven Engineering, Software Product Lines, and Business Process Management.

At present, he is actively involved in developing digital twins for complex business and societal systems. One of his work on digital twin of a business system has won the best Innovation award 2019 in TCS and Gold Stevie award 2021 in the category of AI/ML.  His effort in modelling a city to evaluate the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical interventions for controlling Covid19 infections is extensively used by city-based health care organizations and municipality corporation.  Earlier, he was a lead architect of a model driven toolset that has been used for delivering large IT systems over a decade and led a research initiative to develop a platform for product line architecture. Souvik has several patents to his credit and has authored several book chapters, journal and conference papers. He holds PhD from Middlesex University London and Master degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. Souvik leads the TCS partner in our project “Digital Twin for Healthcare Resilience” and has been a Visiting Research Fellow at Middlesex University London since March 2022.

Hrishikesh Venkataraman completed his MTech from IIT Kanpur, from 2002-04 and his MTech thesis from Vodafone Chair for Mobile Communications, TU Dresden, Germany in 2003-04.Subsequently, he did his PhD from Jacobs University Bremen, Germany where he was awarded the best Graduate Student in September 2007.

Venkataraman’s area of interest is in wireless communication, connected cars and device-to-device communication. Dr. Venkataraman has more than 13 years of industry and research experience, having worked with Irish national centre–RINCE (Research Institute for Networks and Communication Engineering), CTO Office of Tech Mahindra and Microverse Automation Pvt. Ltd. Dr. Venkataraman is currently an Associate Professor and Faculty-in-Charge for R&D activities at Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Sri City, AP, India. He has 3 PhD students and several research Honours students working under him. Dr. Venkataraman has more than 60 publications in different international conferences and journals, including in ACM, Elsevier, IEEE, IET and Springer. He has edited 3 books, has one granted US patent, one contribution in European Telecom Standards Institute (ETSI) and has been an Editor of European Transactions of Telecommunications (ETT) for 5 years.Dr. Venkataraman’s area of interest is in wireless communication, connected cars and device-to-device communication. Dr. Venkataraman has more than 13 years of industry and research experience, having worked with Irish national centre–RINCE (Research Institute for Networks and Communication Engineering), CTO Office of Tech Mahindra and Microverse Automation Pvt. Ltd. Dr. Venkataraman is currently an Associate Professor and Faculty-in-Charge for R&D activities at Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Sri City, AP, India. He has 3 PhD students and several research Honours students working under him. Dr. Venkataraman has more than 60 publications in different international conferences and journals, including in ACM, Elsevier, IEEE, IET and Springer. He has edited 3 books, has one granted US patent, one contribution in European Telecom Standards Institute (ETSI) and has been an Editor of European Transactions of Telecommunications (ETT) for 5 years.

Raja Vara Prasad obtained his Ph.D. degree from Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad in the year 2016 under the supervision of Dr.P. Rajalakshmi. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor with Indian Institute of Information Technology, Sri City.

His research areas are centered on Wireless Sensor Networks, Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks, Smart Buildings, Net Zero Energy Buildings, Wireless Protocols for IoT applications, Smart Cities automated wireless sensor networks, Green networks, and Internet of Things.

Tien Thanh BUI received his BS in Bridge Engineering, Design and Construction from the University of Transport and Communications (UTC) in 2000 with First Class Honors and the University Medal. In 2007, he obtained his PhD in Civil Engineering from The University of New South Wales (UNSW). From 2008 to 2013, he conducted his Postdoctoral Research at Department of Civil Engineering, KU Leuven and the University of LiĂšge.

He currently is the Dean of Faculty of Civil Engineering and Head of Bridge and Tunnel Engineering Department of UTC. He is also expert in Structural Health Monitoring, structural mechanics, dynamics. His professional experiences include being: the Secretary of the national commission of inquiry into the collapse of Can Tho Bridge (2007), Key member — The State Authority for Construction Quality Inspection (2015-now).

Professor Bui Tien Thanh was the coordinator of various projects: Bilateral Belgium-Vietnam project: “Damage assessment tools for Structural Health Monitoring of Vietnamese infrastructures”-The Flemish Inter-University Council (VLIR-UOS); Bilateral UK-Vietnam project: “Bridge periodic health monitoring system by ambient vibration using wireless sensors”; Newton Fund project: “Digital twin model for Structural Health Monitoring of Lifeline Infrastructures in Vietnam”. Professor Bui Tien Thanh has achieved the following awards: Bursaries for excellence, Wallonia Brussels International, Belgium (2008-2009), Engineering Postgraduate Award, Faculty of Engineering, UNSW(2003-2006), Gold Medal (Loa Thanh Prize), “Design of Continuous Prestressed Concrete Bridge Using Balanced Cantilever Method”, and Honorary Mention in Mechanics of Solids, National Olympics in Engineering Mechanics, Vietnamese Mechanics Association.

Ngoc Dung Bui received BS and MS degrees in information technology from Military Technical Academy, Vietnam in 2002 and 2004, respectively, and the Ph.D degree in Informatics from Malaysia University of Science and Technolgy, Malaysia, in 2015.

He is currently a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Transport and Communications. From 2007 to 2011, he was Ph.D candidate in the Computer Science and Engineering, Korea University. From 2011 to 2012 he was a visiting researcher in the Division of Physics and Applied Physics, Nanyang Technological University. He had completed the postdoctoral research in the Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems, Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) in 2016. His current research interests include machine learning, computer vision, neuroimaging analysis, complex network and structural health monitoring.

Tran Hieu Nguyen received BS degree in Electronics and Telecommunications and MS degree in Telecommunication Engineering from Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), Vietnam in 2002 and 2018, respectively. He has been a Ph.D student in Ghent University, Belgium since 2019.

He worked for Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC) from 2004 to 2018. He has been a lecturer at Network and Information Systems Department – Faculty of Information Technology – University of Transport and Communications since 2018. His current research interests include machine learning, deep learning, structural health monitoring, Internet network, IoT, IPv6, DNS.