COMEH

A forum for academic leaders in manufacturing engineering

The Consortium of UK University Manufacturing and Engineering Heads (COMEH) is an independent body established in 1978. Its main aim is to promote manufacturing engineering education, training and research. To achieve this, the consortium maintains a close liaison with government bodies concerned with the training and continuing development of professional engineers, while responding to appropriate consultative and discussion documents and other initiatives. COMEH is represented on the Engineering Professors’ Council (EPC) and it organises and supports national manufacturing engineering education research conferences and symposia. The key event in the COMEH calendar is the annual ‘International Conference on Manufacturing Research’ (ICMR). Details of the 2022 ICMR.

The ICMR is normally held in the early part of September. For many years, it was a UK National Conference that had successfully brought academics and industrialists together to share their knowledge and experiences. The conference has developed as a major international event with a growing number of international delegates participating to exchange their research findings with UK researchers and practitioners.

By emailing…

Dr Linda Newnes (L.B.Newnes@bath.ac.uk)

By post…

Dr Linda Newnes
Faculty of Engineering and Design
University of Bath
Bath
BA2 7AY

By telephone…

+44 (0)1225 386291

The COMEH Committee consists of a Chair, Deputy Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and members drawn from across universities in the UK.

Chair

Professor Andrew Thomas, Aberystwyth University (ant42@aber.ac.uk)

Telephone    01970622725

Andrew Thomas is a Professor of Engineering Management and Head of Aberystwyth Business School,  Aberystwyth University. He entered academia after following an industrial career in aerospace, manufacturing and production engineering and previously served in the Royal Air Force and worked at B/E Aerospace. He has worked for a number of academic institutions including: Cardiff University, University of South Wales and, Cardiff Metropolitan University. His main research interests include; industrial engineering and management, maintenance management, production systems design, performance management, manufacturing strategy and operations management. He has published over 200 research articles, journal papers and delivered a number of key note speeches in these areas. He has led and managed KTP, EPSRC, EU FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects and is a member of the EPSRC peer review College. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

 

Deputy Chair

Dr Fayaz Rehman, Solent University (Fayyaz.rehman@solent.ac.uk)

Telephone  023 8201 3328

Dr Fayyaz Rehman is an Associate Professor (Engineering Design) in Solent’s Faculty of Creative Industries, Architecture and Engineering. He graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology (Pakistan) in 1995. He has over five years’ industrial experience of working as a mechanical/structural designer and design manager, both in the UK and overseas. Fayyaz has over 15 years’ experience of teaching and research in the fields of engineering design and manufacture, both in UK and in overseas. In 2000, he obtained his MSc in Computer Aided Engineering Design from the University of Strathclyde and PhD in Engineering Design from the same university in 2005. He worked as project Coordinator on a European Commission funded project entitled ‘Strengthening Asian Higher Education in Advanced Design and Manufacture’ worth over 1 million Euros at the University of Strathclyde. He is a Fellow of Higher Education Academy, a Chartered Engineer from the Engineering Council and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering Designers. He is also vice chair and committee member of the Consortium of UK Manufacturing Engineering Heads (COMEH), a UK-based body responsible for promoting manufacturing engineering education and research, as well as organising the International Conference on Manufacturing Research (ICMR) conference series annually. Fayyaz is also a regional member of interviewing panel for CEng/IEng applications of the Engineering Council, and for membership applications for the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED). He is the external examiner for various undergraduate and postgraduate courses of different UK higher education institutions, as well as a PhD external examiner. He is also a reviewer of various international conferences and peer reviewed journal papers in the fields of engineering design and manufacture.

Treasurer

Professor Peter Ball, The York Management School, University of York (peter.ball@york.ac.uk)

Tel: 01904325302

Peter Ball is Professor of Operations Management.  Peter joined The York School of Management in January 2016 from Cranfield University where he was Director of Education for his school. His research focuses on how operations can be designed and improved. Application areas span manufacturing, supply chain and service. There are two strands to his work. First, the research takes a ‘hard’ view of processes by developing and applying modelling and simulation techniques to understand performance. Second, the research takes a ‘soft’ view of processes by creating and capturing methods and practices that underpin performance. Environmental sustainability and resource efficiency feature strongly. Peter has published this work in numerous papers globally in journals, conferences and practitioner publications. As a result of this he has co-chaired three international conferences. He has delivered short courses on manufacturing to the banking sector with the EEF, sits on the IET Design & Production Sector panel executive and is judge for the EEF and IET awards. He is a Chartered Engineer (IET) and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

 

Secretary

Professor Yi Qin, Strathclyde University (qin.yi@strath.ac.uk)

Professor Yi Qin, currently, is Chair in Manufacturing Technology and Systems, Director of the Centre for Micro-Manufacturing, Leader of Knowledge Exchanges of the Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management, The University of Strathclyde, UK.  Prof. Qin’s expertise is in material forming and micro-manufacturing and has published over 170 technical papers on various subjects in those fields. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Manufacturing Review, a member of both editorial board of the International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture and advisory board of International Commercial Magazine on Micro-Manufacturing. Prof. Qin took lead in several large collaborative RTD programmes, including EU FP6 MASMICRO project, FP7 POLYTUBES project and Micro-FAST project. He gave plenary addresses/keynotes and invited lectures at more than 30 international conferences and workshops. He is a fellow of both Institute of Nanotechnology and Higher Education Academy (HEA), chartered engineer with the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. For more information, please visit: https://www.strath.ac.uk/staff/qinyiprof/.

 

Members

Professor Linda Newnes, University of Bath (L.B.Newnes@bath.ac.uk)

Telephone   +44 (0)1225 386291

Professor Newnes is Head of Costing Research within the Department of Mechanical Engineering.  Her research focuses on through life costing from concept design through to the in-service/in-use phases.  The sectors/application areas for her activities include for example; aerospace, defence, oil & gas, water and  medical device design.

Typical industrial linked projects, which illustrate her current research include;

  • Costing for Avionic Through life Availability (CATA)
  • Uncertainty in Through Life Costing.
  • In-Service Cost Estimating feedback to the concept design cost modelling process
  • Modelling and managing uncertainty in the bidding process for in-service contracts – probability of winning the contract and making a profit!
  • Optimisation between performance and cost

Dr Essam Shehab, Cranfield University

Dr Shehab leads a research group of 15 researchers in manufacturing engineering at Cranfield University. He has sustained his strong research leadership with Airbus and Rolls-Royce by collaborating consistently with both companies over the past 10 years and has generated an impressive 70 research projects with both companies.

Dr Shehab produced 207 research publications including 55 journal papers (plus 11 journal and conference papers have been submitted). He has successfully completed the supervision of 20 PhD theses and 5 MSc by Research theses, 99 MSc theses, 14 MSc group projects and 3 PgCert dissertations. 19 of Dr Shehab’s 50 EngD/PhD and MSc students who have been sponsored by Rolls-Royce have been employed by the company before or immediately after completing their projects. Seven of Dr Shehab’s MSc students have won Best Thesis, Panasonic and Rolls-Royce Manufacturing Excellence awards.

Dr Shehab has secured 103 research projects (£11.1m in total of which £4.3m as Principal Investigator) from Government grants (UK, EU and overseas) and industry. As principal investigator, his research projects include a €11.7m EU-FP7 project, £2m Innovate UK, 5 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) EngD/PhD research projects with Rolls-Royce, 86 MSc projects with industry, one of five core projects funded by the EPSRC Centre in Through-Life Engineering Services (TES) project, a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project, and seven PhD projects with overseas governments. Dr Shehab is the co-investigator of £10.5m EPSRC Centre in TES, €7.5m EU-FP7, 6 Cranfield EPSRC Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (IMRC) projects and 4 EPSRC studentships.

Dr Shehab is currently serving as an External Examiner for Queens University Belfast and Teesside University over a 4-year period for MEng/BEng Mechanical and Manufacturing programmes. He acted as external examiner for over 20 PhD theses. He was elected as Vice-Chair of Kimberley 16-19 STEM College Advisory Board. He is a CEng, Fellow of IET, ACostE, the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and a member of the Egyptian Engineers Syndicate.

Research Interests:

  • Aerospace Design and Manufacturing
  • Cost Modelling and Knowledge Engineering for Innovative Product Development
  • System Design
  • Enterprise Resource Planning for Manufacturing

For more information: https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/people/professor-essam-shehab-839715

Dr Mehmet Karamanoglu, Middlesex University (M.Karamanoglu@mdx.ac.uk)

Prof Karamanoglu graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 1986 and progressed onto completing his doctorate in Boundary Element Method in 1992. He has completed both his undergraduate and postgraduate education at Middlesex University, London, where he is currently a member of senior academic staff.

His current post is Head of Department of Design Engineering and Mathematics in the School of Science and Technology and Professor of Design Engineering. He also holds a visiting professorship at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He is a member of several professional bodies and societies, including a Fellowship at both the Royal Society of Arts, and the Higher Education Academy in the UK. He has spent significant length of time working in collaboration with industry in a variety of sectors and has managed numerous Knowledge Transfer projects and partnerships.

His research interest includes engineering education, interplay between art, design and engineering, advanced manufacturing including discrete event simulation, optimisation and mechatronics and robotics. His recent work included mass customisation, developing autonomous systems and he is currently working on mathematical optimisation and cognitive manufacturing.

In his wider area of work, he is the UK expert for Mechatronics for WorldSkills UK competitions and  is serving on the Engineering Steering Committee for SEMTA, the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies. He is also serving on the management board for a TEMPUS project for implementing Quality Engineering Education in Central Asia.

 

Dr Yee Mey Goh, Loughborough University

Dr Yee Mey Goh has BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia and a PhD from University of Bristol, UK. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough University. Her inter-disciplinary research focusses on the development of data and knowledge-driven models and methods to support through-life engineering of Product-Service Systems and Intelligent automation. Her expertise includes uncertainty analysis, machine learning, decision modelling, engineering design methods and through-life information management with broad application in engineering design, energy systems and manufacturing operations. She has been academic investigator on research grants from the Innovative Electronics Manufacturing Research Centre (IeMRC) and EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Intelligent Automation, in collaboration with aerospace, defence, energy and automotive sectors. Her research projects have won Impact Acceleration awards. She is a member of the Design Society and the scientific committee for DESIGN, EP&DE, ICED and ASME IDETC international conferences. She chaired the International Conference on Manufacturing Research (ICMR2016)

Aydin Nassehi, University of Bristol

Aydin Nassehi is a Reader in Manufacturing Systems at the University of Bristol. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bath. In 2007, Dr Nassehi was appointed to a Research Council UK Research Fellowship and has gained promotions to Lecturer in 2012, and Senior Lecturer in 2013. He also gained an MSc in Software Engineering with distinction from the University of Oxford in 2013. His expertise is in agent based manufacturing systems, manufacturing interoperability, computational informatics including energy efficiency modelling and analysis of manufacturing processes and knowledge based CAD/CAM and CAx systems. He has received national and international research funding and taken part in two FP7 projects namely DEMAT and, as the technical leader, STEPMAN. He has published over 90 refereed papers and been on technical & scientific committees of a number of international conferences including the FAIM series of conferences since 2008. He is a CIRP Associate Member, the convener of ISO standards group in charge of developing ISO14649 for cyber physical manufacturing resources (ISO TC184/SC1/wg7) and the Managing Editor of the International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing.

Professor Keith Case, Loughborough University

Keith Case is Professor of Computer Aided Engineering in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough University and is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Ergonomics Society and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. He is also director of SAMMIE CAD Limited a company that develops and markets the digital human modelling tool SAMMIE.
In 1994 he received the Ergonomics Society Otto Edholm Award in recognition of his significant contribution to the development and application of ergonomics, primarily in the area of digital human modelling.

Current research interests include inclusive design, human aspects of automation, cognitive ergonomics in manufacturing assembly, the ageing workforce, human behavioural modelling, digital human modelling, knowledge-based design and manufacture, feature-based design and process planning.
He is the author of over 300 papers and is publishing a series of books relating to the diaries from the Matabele, Boer and First World Wars.

Professor James Gao, University of Greenwich

James Gao holds the Medway Chair of Manufacturing Engineering, and leads the Centre for Innovative Product Development and Manufacturing (iPDM) in the Faculty of Engineering and Science, University of Greenwich. He obtained BSc in mechanical engineering in 1984 from Dalian Institute of Technology (China), MSc in and PhD in advanced manufacturing and digital technologies from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UK) in 1987 and 1989 respectively. He worked for Loughborough and Cranfield Universities before his current employer. He has over 190 publications and directed a large number of research projects in the areas of information, communication and knowledge management for collaborative product development, manufacturing and servicing across the supply chain. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and member of the editorial board of several international journals .

Professor Tim Baines, Aston University

Professor Tim Baines specialises in the realisation of competitive manufacturing operations. He works extensively across the disciplines of management and engineering, is highly active in post-graduate and executive teaching and supervision, has a strong track record of raising research funding, and has consistently published his work in the leading journals of his field.  He has experience of a wide range of industrial engineering, technology management, and manufacturing management disciplines, and works with the leading companies in his field including Rolls-Royce, Caterpillar, Alstom, MAN and Xerox.  His career started with a technician apprenticeship, and has progressed through a variety of industrial and academic positions, including that of Visiting Scholar within the Centre for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He holds a variety of positions, including membership of EPSRC College of Peers, a Fellow of both the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and Institution of Engineers and Technologists, and is a Chartered Engineer.

Emily Carey, is a Research Associate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath. Her PhD studies have focussed upon the visual re-representation of Knowledge for Design Engineering, with particular interest in Knowledge and Information types to support effective management (KIM).  Emily’s work has predominantly been industry facing and establishes the needs and information behaviour of engineers. This has included investigating the challenges faced by engineers in automating manufacturing and exploring the application of higher disciplinary approaches.  She has an interest in the value that people contribute to projects and aims to reduce the time engineers need to spend on information to support better and faster design decisions, improving industrial productivity and quality.  Emily’s current research focusses upon managing and realising the benefits of purposeful higher disciplinary methods to support transdisciplinary projects. This current work is part of the TRansdisciplinary ENgineering Research team optimising the industrial benefits from Transdisciplinary Engineering.

 

 

Professor Diane Mynors, University of Sussex

Dr Mozafar Saadat, University of Birmingham

Professor David Harrison, Glasgow Caledonian University (dha2@gcal.ac.uk)

Sameh Saad, Sheffield Hallam University (S.Saad@shu.ac.uk)

Riham Khalil, De Montfort University (rkhalil@dmu.ac.uk)

Nick Woodfine, Solent University (nick.woodfine@solent.ac.uk)

Kai Cheng, Brunel University (Kai.Cheng@brunel.ac.uk)

Alan Crispin, Manchester Metropolitan University (a.crispin@mmu.ac.uk)

The key event in the COMEH calendar is the annual ‘International Conference on Manufacturing Research’ (ICMR).  For over two decades it has been the main manufacturing research conference organised in the UK, successfully bringing researchers, academics and industrialists together to share their knowledge and experiences.  Initiated as a National Conference by the Consortium of UK University Manufacturing Engineering (COMEH) it became an International Conference in 2003.  COMEH is an independent body established in 1978. Its main aim is to promote manufacturing engineering education, training and research.  To achieve this, the Consortium maintains a close liaison with government bodies concerned with the training and continuing development of professional engineers, while responding to appropriate consultative and discussion documents and other initiatives.  COMEH is represented on the Engineering Professors’ Council (EPC) and it organises and supports national manufacturing engineering education research conferences and symposia.

In 2002 the conference was accorded the title International (ICMR) to reflect the current trends in manufacturing engineering and to promote the exchange of research and engineering application experiences internationally. The ICMR, has since its introduction, incorporated the NCMR. The 13th international conference, ICMR2015, incorporates the 30th NCMR. The host universities for ICMR have been:

2003 Strathclyde 2004 Sheffield Hallam
2005 Cranfield 2006 Liverpool John  Moores
2007 De Montfort 2008 Brunel
2009 Warwick 2010 Durham
2011 Glasgow Caledonian 2012 Aston
2013 Cranfield 2014 Southampton Solent
2015 Bath 2018 Skövde, Sweden
2019 Belfast 2021 Derby

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