Wasif Naeem

Dr Wasif Naeem is currently a Reader (Associate Professor) in the Centre for Energy, Power and Intelligent Control (EPIC) within the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). He is also one of the core members of the Centre for Intelligent Autonomous Manufacturing Systems (iAMS) at QUB. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan in 1998. He then worked as a R&D engineer before commencing  his  MSc in Electrical Engineering on a full scholarship from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia.

In 2001, he was awarded the prestigious EPSRC studentship to pursue a PhD in Mechanical and Marine Engineering from the University of Plymouth, UK. There, his doctoral research involved developing an autonomous underwater vehicle in collaboration with Cranfield University, QinetiQ, Subsea7 and South West Water plc. His postdoctoral research was also funded by the EPSRC on developing guidance and control strategies for unmanned surface vehicles.

He has specific interest in improving the autonomy of uninhabited vehicles and has been a Principle Investigator/Co-Investigator on EPSRC, InnovateUK and UKRI Strength in Places Fund grants on developing collision avoidance strategies for marine craft. He has also been a coordinator on a Erasmusplus grant as well as a co-investigator on a project funded by the European Commission. His research interests span optimal and robust control, system identification, multi-vehicle formation control and systems engineering. He is the author of over 80 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and three IET book chapters. Two journal papers in the area of marine navigation and control were awarded the Michael Richey medal and the Denny Medal in 2008 and 2010, by the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) and Institution of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) respectively. Another paper in the area of formation control algorithms for unmanned vehicles was shortlisted for best paper prize at the UKACC control conference in 2012. Dr Naeem is a member of the prestigious EPSRC Peer Review College as well as IFAC technical committee on marine systems. He was the

• General Chair of the 29^th Irish Signals and Systems Conference,
• Local Organizing Chair of 11^th UKACC International Control Conference and
• Co-Chair of the 5^th IFAC Conference on Intelligent Control and Automation Sciences

all held in Belfast. Moreover, he also served/serving on the committee of a number of international conferences.

I have significant expertise in the development of unmanned vehicles specifically in the maritime domain. My current research area includes development of formation control systems for land, aerial and marine vehicles. Cooperative control of a dual arm system such as a humanoid is also an active area of research. Additionally, I am actively involved in developing navigation systems for uninhabited vehicles which includes obstacles detection and avoidance and simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) systems.