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Professor Ashutosh Tiwari is currently a Professor of Manufacturing Informatics and Head of the Product and Service Innovation Centre at Cranfield University. The Product and Service Innovation Centre focuses on engineering optimisation, cost engineering and design information/knowledge management. It consists of 5 academic staff, 8 research staff, 4 Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) associates and 30 PhD/EngD students and has an annual turnover of around £2.3m (2009/10). Professor Tiwari leads a research group in engineering optimisation within the Product and Service Innovation Centre. Over the last ten years, he has established Cranfield as one of the centres of excellence in the application of computing techniques to process and product design optimisation. Within this area, he has developed two novel internationally recognised research themes that focus on production and business process optimisation and micro/nanoscale design optimisation. His research group in engineering optimisation is one of Europe’s largest applied optimisation research groups and consists of 20 researchers including 3 research staff, 2 KTP associates, 12 PhD students, and 3 MSc by Research and MPhil students.

Professor  Tiwari has developed a strong research track record by leading (as principal investigator) 6 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) projects, 2 Cranfield Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (IMRC) projects, 3 KTP projects, and several EPSRC PhD/EngD studentships and MSc projects with industry. He has also successfully completed the supervision of 50 MSc theses, 6 MSc by Research theses, 9 PhD/EngD theses and 7 Chevening Fellows. He has secured around £3.5m of research funding in cash (as principal investigator) from Government grants (UK and overseas) and industry. He has also developed strong research collaborations with a number of companies including EADS, Airbus, BAE Systems, Unilever, Edwards, Dathan Tools, Nissan, Toyota, Honda Research, Arup, BT, Learning Resources International, EnginSoft and Lanner Group. He has published extensively in his research career with around 150 research publications as refereed journal papers, conference papers, book chapters, edited books, workshop papers and research reports. He was awarded the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Thatcher Bros Prize 2008/09 for the best journal paper in manufacturing. He was also awarded the best paper and presentation award in the WSC5-2000 international conference. His research team won the Technology Strategy Board’s Grid Computing Competition (2006).

Professor  Tiwari won the Best Teacher Award (2008), voted by the MSc students of the School of Applied Sciences (SAS).  He is also a member of the main Faculty Board and has served on the Faculty Sub-committees on Taught Courses and Research.

Key areas of competence

• Manufacturing process optimisation
• Business process optimisation
• Business process mining
• Engineering design optimisation
• Multi-objective optimisation using evolutionary computing
• Process modelling using tools such as IDEF0, IDEF3 and fractal modelling

Recent projects

• Principal Investigator of EPSRC project (EP/C54899X/1, 2005-2008) on ‘Intelligent Decision Support for Process Re-design and Conformance’, sponsored by BT and Engineous
• Principal Investigator of EPSRC project (EP/F012926/1, 2007-2008) on ‘Expanding the Boundary of Optimisation Algorithms to Micro/Nano Scale Designs’
• Principal Investigator of KTP project (KTP6465, 2007-09) on ‘CAD/CAM System for Gear Cutting Tool Design and Manufacture’, sponsored by TSB, EPSRC and Dathan Tools
• Principal Investigator of IMRC project (IMRC125, 2008-2011) on ‘Designing a Product-Service System (PSS) for Complex Micro-Integrated Devices’
• Principal Investigator of IMRC project (IMRC135, 2008-2011) on ‘Optimising Micro/Nanosystems Biomimetically’, sponsored by Unilever, Asylum Research and EnginSoft
• Co-investigator of EPSRC / BAE Systems project (EP/F038526/1, 2008-2010) on ‘Support Service Solutions: Strategy and Transition’ (led by the University of Cambridge)
• Principal Investigator of EPSRC project (EP/G005451/1, 2009-2010) on ‘A Business Process Miner for Industry: A Genetic Programming Based Tool’
• Principal Investigator of KTP project (KTP7647, 2009-11) on ‘Process Optimisation using Lean Principles in Product Lifecycle’, sponsored by TSB, EPSRC and Airbus CIMPA Limited
• Principal Investigator of EPSRC project (EP/H006826/1, 2010-2011) on ‘A Web Business Process Optimiser’
• Principal Investigator of KTP project (KTP7876, 2010-12) on ‘Optimisation of E-learning Solutions through Componentisation: Knowledge Transfer from Engineering Design’, sponsored by TSB, EPSRC and Learning Resources International (LRI) Limited
• Principal Investigator of EPSRC project (EP/I006087/1, 2011-2012) on ‘A Discrete Event Simulator for Modelling Support Services in an Engineering Environment’, sponsored by Lanner Group Limited and Cranfield-Boeing Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) Centre of Excellence.

Prof Tiwari has a strong academic, research and industrial background in engineering optimisation. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Kanpur, which is one of the best engineering universities in India. He was awarded the Academic Excellence Award for his achievements in the course. In 1998, Prof Tiwari joined Cranfield University from where he successfully attained his MSc in Manufacturing (Commonwealth Scholarship) and PhD degrees. He obtained the award for Best MSc Student in Manufacturing. His PhD research was carried out as part of an EPSRC project and was successfully completed in 2001 within the two-year duration of the project.

Completed PhD supervision

• PhD (2007-2010) on ‘Analytical Approaches for Solving Multi-objective Optimisation Problems’, sponsored by Egyptian Government [Student: Mr S Askar]
• PhD (2008-2010) on ‘Service-oriented Design of Microfluidic Devices’, sponsored by IMRC project (IMRC125) [Student: Ms K Panikowska]
• EngD (2005-2010) on ‘A Methodology for Cost and Risk Reduction in Purchasing and Supply Management’, sponsored by EPSRC and Toyota [Student: Mr K Younis]
• PhD (2006-2009) on ‘Development of a Grid Service for Multi-objective Design Optimisation’, sponsored by Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) [Student: Mr G Goteng]
• PhD (2005-2009) on ‘A Genetic Programming Based Business Process Mining Approach’, sponsored by EPSRC project (EP/C54899X) with BT and Engineous [Student: Mr C Turner]
• PhD (2005-2008) on ‘Business Process Optimisation using an Evolutionary Multi-objective Framework’, sponsored by EPSRC project (EP/C54899X) with BT and Engineous [Student: Mr K Vergidis]
• PhD (2005-2008) on ‘Automated Cost and Customer Based Business Process Reengineering in the Service Sector’, sponsored by EPSRC and BT [Student: Mr M Stelling]
• PhD (2004-2008) on ‘A Customer Profiling Methodology for Churn Prediction’, sponsored by EPSRC and BT [Student: Mr J Hadden]
• PhD (2003-2007) on ‘The Development of an Intelligent Decision Support Framework in the Contact Centre Environment’, sponsored by EPSRC and BT [Student: Mr S Shah].