Professor Mahdi Mahfouf
Ing.Dipl. (Hons), MPhil, PhD, FIMA, CEng, CMath, FIET, FInstMC
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Head of the Intelligent Systems Research Laboratory
Full contact details
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Amy Johnson Building
Portobello Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
- Profile
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Professor Mahfouf Obtained the MPhil (1988) and PhD (1991) Degrees from the University of Sheffield (UK), all in Control Systems. He worked as a PDRA from 1992 until 1996 on two Leverhulme sponsored research projects in the areas of Model-Predictive Control and Fuzzy Logic based Systems. In February 1997, he was appointed Lecturer in Control Systems at the School of Engineering, The University of Manchester. In October 1997, he took up the post of a Lecturer in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, The University of Sheffield, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2000 (Top of the List), Reader in 2002, and Professor in 2005. Professor Mahfouf is the Recipient of Several Paper Prizes and Awards, including the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) Hartree Premium Award for a Paper on Predictive Control published in 1992, and the MEDIPEX Innovation Award for successfully integrating Fuzzy Logic Technology in a Decision-Support System implemented in Cardiac Intensive Care Units. He is the author of more than 370 Papers, 130 or so of these being Journal Papers.
- Research interests
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Fundamental Research
- Fuzzy Logic, Fuzzy Sets, and Fuzzy Systems: modelling and Control (Decision Support Systems)
- Artificial Intelligence
- Self-Organising Fuzzy Logic Control
- Neural-Fuzzy Systems
- Machine Learning & Big Data
- Model-Based Predictive Control: Algorithms and Applications
- Evolutionary Based Optimisation- Single and Multi-Objective
Application Areas
- Manufacturing: Materials, Surface Metrology, & Pharmaceuticals (in collaboration with Professor A.D. Salman from the Sheffield University Department of CBE)
- Human-Machine Interface (HMI) or Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), Operator Breakdown
- Transportation Systems
- Aerospace Systems
- Biomedicine: ICU, CICU, Neonates
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Learning-based robotic machining error prediction for high precision manufacturing. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 100, 103217-103217.
- Image-based Metrics for Characterizing Drilling Induced Defects in Fibre-Reinforced Composite. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 1-1.
- Spatial domain mapping from in-process sensor signals for visual inspection of multi-material stack drilling. Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 155, 231-241.
- A plant wide modelling framework for the multistage processes of the continuous manufacturing of pharmaceutical tablets. Journal of Pharmaceutical Innovation, 20(4). View this article in WRRO
- A Type-1 Fuzzy Fusion Model based on the Dempster-Shafer Theory for the simulation of 3D Fused Deposition. Journal of Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems, 49(5), 1160-1174.
- A real-time fuzzy interacting multiple-model velocity obstacle avoidance approach for unmanned aerial vehicles. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, 110(2). View this article in WRRO
- RACFIS: A new rapid adaptive complex fuzzy inference system for regression modelling. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, 8(2), 1238-1252. View this article in WRRO
- Serial artificial neural networks characterized by Gaussian mixture for the modelling of the Consigma25 continuous manufacturing line. Powder Technology, 434, 119296-119296.
- Fuzzy particle swarm for the right-first-time of fused deposition. Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, 45(6), 11977-11991. View this article in WRRO
- ENCFIS: An exclusionary neural complex fuzzy inference system for robust regression learning. IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems. View this article in WRRO
- Real-time interval type-2 fuzzy control of an unmanned aerial vehicle with flexible cable-connected payload. Algorithms, 16(6). View this article in WRRO
Book chapters
- Moisture content prediction model of a wet granulator - fluid bed drier system based on LSTM networks, Computer Aided Chemical Engineering (pp. 697-702). Elsevier
- An Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) Based System for Optimal Taxiing Navigation of a BOEING-747 Aircraft, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (pp. 250-260). Springer Nature Switzerland
- A New Data-Driven Modelling Framework for Moisture Content Prediction in Continuous Pharmaceutical Tablet Manufacturing, Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (pp. 107-120). Springer Nature Switzerland
- Fuzzy Hidden Markov Chain Based Models for Time-Series Data, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (pp. 13-23). Springer Nature Switzerland
Conference proceedings
- Real-Time Fatigue Detection in Simulated Driving Using Facial Landmark-Based Deep Metrics. 2025 10th International Conference on Automation, Control and Robotics Engineering (CACRE) (pp 221-225), 16 July 2025 - 19 July 2025.
- A Novel Spindle Speed and Angle Estimation Strategy in Multi-material Robotic Drilling. 2024 IEEE 20th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) (pp 1222-1227), 28 August 2024 - 1 September 2024.
- Pixel-based Hole Quality Evaluation in Robot Drilling Manufacturing Process. 2024 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN) (pp 1-6), 18 August 2024 - 20 August 2024.
- Learning-based robotic machining error prediction for high precision manufacturing. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 100, 103217-103217.
- Grants
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Professor Mahfouf was and is the PI/CI of several Research Grants mainly from the UK-EPSRC, the EU and the Royal Academy of Engineering. Particularly, he was the ACSE Departmental Lead on 3 major EPSRC-sponsored Grants in 2002 (£3.9M), 2008 (£4.5M), a Platform Grant in 2008 (£870K). He is currently the PI on TRANSIT, an EPSRC sponsored Research Grant investigating Efficient Aircraft Taxiing at Airports (£234K), and CI on an EPSRC sponsored Hub in Manufacturing (£10M), which focuses on Data Informatics, including Machine Learning, for Surface Metrology (in Manufacturing).
- Professional activities and memberships
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- 2014 REF Recognition - Professor Mahfouf submitted an Impact Case Study to REF, which was recognised by the REF Panel as having demonstrated considerable impact.
- Member of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Technical Committee on Mining, Mineral, and Metal Processing (MMM).
- Member of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Technical Committee on Biomedical Engineering.
- Member of the EPSRC College System For 'General Engineering' (2003-).
- Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Simulation Systems Science and Technology.
- External Examiner for UK and overseas PhD, MPhil Degrees; BSc (BEng), and MSc Courses.
- Member of several Conference IPC's.
- Advisor to UK and overseas Institutions on Senior Academic Appointments and Promotions.