Biography
Dr Gokula Vasantha is an Associate Professor and sub-group leader in Engineering Design and CAD in the School of Engineering and the Built Environment. Dr Gokula Vasantha is a senior academic with 12 years of teaching and research experience, and worked at two major UK universities (Cranfield University and the University of Strathclyde) before joining the Edinburgh Napier University. He completed his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India (One of the best research institutes in India) in Engineering Design Informatics. He is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), a Member of the Design Society, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Dr Vasantha focuses on teaching engineering design, computer-aided engineering, and mechanics modules to graduate and postgraduate students. He also has experience teaching engineering innovation and management, product costing and financial measurement, and engineering collaborative system development modules. He completed postgraduate certification in academic studies to develop and deliver teaching with an academic scholarship and professional practice.
Dr Vasantha's research interests include Predictive Engineering Design modelling, Analysis of Engineering Design Informatics, Designing Integrated Product-Service Systems, Developing Collaborative Product Development Environment, Modelling and Management of Engineering Design, and Crowdsourcing Design and Manufacturing Processes. He is interested in developing new methods and tools for helping designers and industries to design novel and sustainable products and services. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journals and conferences, and the research papers are well cited within the academic community.
Currently, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and the University of Strathclyde, he received a major EPSRC grant to develop advanced digital twin systems for responsive manufacturing. As a lead researcher, he has completed the following major EPSRC funded projects:
o Capability-based Product-Service Systems Design, Cranfield University, 2009-2011.
o Distributing Industrial Optimization Tasks to Rural Workers, University of Strathclyde, 2012-2015.
o Quantifying patent commercialisation to support design, University of Strathclyde, 2015-2017.
o Enabling Design Re-use through Predictive CAD, University of Strathclyde, 2015-2020.
He is the recipient of the following awards:
• Awarded' Young Researcher Award' at the 4th International Conference on Product-Service Systems, Tokyo, Japan, 2012.
• Received Certificate of Merits for both of my presented papers titled "Designers' Perception on Information Processes" and "Requirements for Computer-Aided Conceptual Product-Service Systems Design" in the International Conference on Research into Design held at IIT Madras, Chennai, India, 2013.
• Received Certificate of Merit for the presented paper titled "A Stakeholders' Integrated Framework for Designing Product-Service Systems" in the 22nd CIRP Design Conference at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, 2011.
• Awarded National Doctoral Fellowship from All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi, which awarded to the best 50 young researchers within India, 2004.