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

m.mahfouf@sheffield.ac.uk
Amy Johnson Building

Full contact details

Professor Mahdi Mahfouf
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Amy Johnson Building
Portobello Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

Professor Mahfouf Obtained the MPhil (1988) and PhD (1991) Degrees from the ±¬ÁÏTV (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, ±¬ÁÏTV, 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

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

Journal articles

  • Niu C, Chen B, Fletcher S, Onawumi P, Ozturk E, Mahfouf M & Kadirkamanathan V (2026) . Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 100, 103217-103217.
  • Niu C, Chen B, Smith E, Bramley R, Hayes O, Crawforth P, Kerrigan K, Mahfouf M & Kadirkamanathan V (2026) . IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 1-1.
  • Chen B, Niu C, Smith E, Bramley R, Crawforth P, Mahfouf M & Kadirkamanathan V (2025) . Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 155, 231-241.
  • Deebes M, Mahfouf M, Omar C, Islam S & Morgan B (2025) . Journal of Pharmaceutical Innovation, 20(4).
  • AlAlaween WH, AlAlawin AH, Gharaibeh BMY, Mahfouf M, Alsoussi A, AbuHamour SO & AbuKaraky AE (2025) . Journal of Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems, 49(5), 1160-1174.
  • Candan F, Beke A, Mahfouf M & Mihaylova L (2024) . Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, 110(2).
  • Xue C & Mahfouf M (2024) . IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, 8(2), 1238-1252.
  • AlAlaween WH, Mahfouf M, Omar C, Al-Asady RB, Monaco D & Salman AD (2024) . Powder Technology, 434, 119296-119296.
  • AlAlaween WH, AlAlawin AH, AbuHamour SO, Gharaibeh BMY, Mahfouf M, Alsoussi A & AbuKaraky AE (2023) . Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, 45(6), 11977-11991.
  • Xue C & Mahfouf M (2023) . IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems.
  • Candan F, Dik OF, Kumbasar T, Mahfouf M & Mihaylova L (2023) . Algorithms, 16(6).

Book chapters

  • (2024) , Computer Aided Chemical Engineering (pp. 697-702). Elsevier
  • Al-Hindi A, Mahfouf M, Chen J & Obajemu O (2024) , Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (pp. 250-260). Springer Nature Switzerland
  • Deebes M, Mahfouf M & Omar C (2024) , Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (pp. 107-120). Springer Nature Switzerland
  • Tao Y & Mahfouf M (2024) , Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (pp. 13-23). Springer Nature Switzerland

Conference proceedings

  • Yueyang H, Ahmad SA, Rahman NIA, Mahfouf M, Md SH & Kamal N (2025) . 2025 10th International Conference on Automation, Control and Robotics Engineering (CACRE) (pp 221-225), 16 July 2025 - 19 July 2025.
  • Chen B, Niu C, Smith E, Bramley R, Crawforth P, Mahfouf M & Kadirkamanathan V (2024) . 2024 IEEE 20th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) (pp 1222-1227), 28 August 2024 - 1 September 2024.
  • Niu C, Chen B, Smith E, Bramley R, Crawforth P, Mahfouf M & Kadirkamanathan V (2024) . 2024 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN) (pp 1-6), 18 August 2024 - 20 August 2024.
Grants

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
  • 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.

Links

Information and Communication Engineering Group