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Dr Rob Ward holds a joint academic position between the department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering (ACSE) and the University of º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). As an Industrial Research Fellow, he develops, leads and supervises research programmes in self-optimising autonomous manufacturing. Rob is a Chartered Engineer and he brings a wealth of project and operational management experience to support the undergraduate teaching and postgraduate supervision in the dept.

Rob has an MEng(Hons) degree in Avionics and Aerospace Systems from the University of Manchester and a Engineering Doctorate in Machining Science and Control Engineering from the University of º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½. Prior to joining the University of º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ and the AMRC in 2017, Rob served as an Engineering Officer in the UK Military.

At the AMRC Rob sits within Digital Machining Research Team and heads up the control of subtractive manufacturing operations theme. Rob collaborates and consults on both higher technology readiness level (TRL) industrial projects and lower TRL HVMC and EPSRC funded projects. He is particularly interested in the domains of CNC machine tool control, machining digital twins, robotic machining and CNC interpolation.

At ACSE, Rob is the module leader on 3rd and 4th year undergraduate courses in Rapid Control Prototyping. He supervises UG and PG students and is passionate about preparing them for professional engineering careers. Rob is the impact and innovation lead for the Department and the UG admissions tutor.

Rob welcomes applications from potential undergraduate, masters and PhD students to join the team and undertake industry focused projects. 

As part of the joint role, Rob is keen to narrow the gap between the Faculty and the Advanced Manufacturing Group, promote opportunities for academic staff collaboration, increase the number of UG/PGT/PGR projects and promote summer placements, industrial placements and SURE schemes.