Dr Asefe Forghani

Background

Asefe Forghani holds a BSc, MSc, and PhD in Industrial Engineering, specialising in data-driven optimisation, simulation, and maritime logistics. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Cranfield University, contributing to the UK National Clean Maritime Research Hub—a collaboration involving 13 universities and over 70 industry partners.

Her research focuses on developing optimisation and decision support models to support emission reduction in port and vessel operations. She is currently involved in designing an energy-aware decision support system that incorporates machine learning-based forecasting, mathematical modelling, heuristic optimisation, and simulation. This work is being explored through case studies inspired by operational challenges at two busy UK ports. In the next phase, she will be working on integrating a digital twin of inland port traffic with ferry scheduling optimisation to enable real-time, AI-driven decision-making.

Previously, she worked on a postdoctoral project funded by Innovation Fund Denmark, focusing on the decarbonisation of loading and discharging operations at Roll-on/Roll-off terminals under uncertainty, in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark and Roskilde University.

She also has over six years of teaching experience in Operational Research and Applied Mathematics and supervised more than 30 industry-driven undergraduate dissertations.

Research opportunities

Data-Driven Optimisation in Maritime Logistics

Simulation Modelling for Port and Vessel Operations

Digital Twin Integration with Optimisation Models

AI-Driven Decision-Making in Shipping Operations

Decarbonisation Strategies for Maritime Transport