Research and activities

Recently Awarded Grants

Department for Transport (DfT) / Innovate UK: Green corridor at Short Straits (GCSS)
Dr Ramin Raeesi (PI), Professor Thanos Papadopoulos (Co-I), Professor Tri-Dung Nguyen (Co-I) | 2023 | Value: £809,895 (£180,529 share)

NERC: Core principles for integrated models for ecosystem management
Professor Jesse O’Hanley (CO-I) | 2022 | Value: £37,508 (£3,080 share)

Kent County Council: Kent Coffee Cup
Dr Preetam Basu (PI), Professor Thanos Papadopoulos (Co-I) | 2022 | Value: £5000

UK Community Renewal Fund: Net-zero toolkit and training for SMEs
Dr Lina Simeonova (PI), Professor Thanos Papadopoulos (Co-I) | 2022 | Value: £10,000

Department for Transport (DfT): Maritime hydrogen highway: Land, sea and port integration of a smart hydrogen highway
Dr Ramin Raeesi (PI) | 2021 – 2024 | Value: £2,132,233 (£93,521 share)

Department for Transport (DfT) / Department for Transport (DfT): Dover clean ferry power (DCFP)
Dr Ramin Raeesi (PI) | 2021 – 2022 | Value: £438,326 (£93,621 share)

EPSRC: Techno-economic feasibility study of hydrogen-fuelled freight transport
Dr Ramin Raeesi (PI) | 2021 – 2022 | Value: £62,230 (£19,220 share)

EPSRC Network-H2: Techno-economic feasibility study of hydrogen-fuelled freight transport
Dr Ramin Raeesi (PI) | 2021 | Value: £62,230

Innovate UK: Dover Clean Ferry Power (DCFP): Techno-economic feasibility analysis of electric power solutions for Port of Dover ferries
Dr Ramin Raeesi (PI) | 2021 – 2022 | Value: £438,326

EPSRC: Formulation and Solution Techniques for Integrated Charging Network Design under Risk of Disruption (FAST-ICNET)
Professor Jesse O’Hanley (Co-I, Kent PI) | 2021 – 2022 | Value: £63,614 (£7,047 share)

EPSRC-GCRF: Improving Community Resilience and Sustainability Through Operational Research Capacity Building in Southeast Asia (CREST-OR)
Professor Maria Paola Scaparra (PI), Professor Jesse O’Hanley (CO-I), Dr Kathy Kotiadis (CO-I) | 2020 – 2021 | Value: £265,127

European Commission H2020: Re-Evaluating the Transition to the Circular Economy: Models, Methods and Applications (ReTraCE)
Dr Virginia Spiegler (CO-I) | November 2019 – November 2023 | Value: €303,173 share

CONICYT: Fishway technologies for small hydropower plants: What, where, when?
Professor Jesse O’Hanley (CO-I) |2019 – 2020 | Value: CLP$ 16,000,000 (£2,610 share)

British Academy: Optimal investment strategies to minimise flood impact on road infrastructure in Vietnam (GCRF-OSIRIS)
Professor Maria– Paola Scaparra (PI) | 2018 – 2019 | Value: £299,106

Newton Fund: Enhancing fisheries resilience and hydropower development: The road to sustainable energy-water-food NEXUS in Brazil
Professor Jesse O’Hanley (CO-I) | 2018 – 2019 | Value: £59,993 (£4,250 share)

ESRC: Smart Data Analytics for Business and Local Government
Professor Shaomin Wu | 2014-19 | £54,000 share

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Dover Harbour Board
January 2023 – January 2025 | Value: £190,929

Eurostar International Limited
May 2018 – December 2019 | Value: £176,514

ParkerSteel
June 2016 – May 2019 | Value: £185,262

Priority Freight Ltd
July 2015 – April 2018 | Value: £175,896

Dover Harbour Board
July 2015 – November 2017 | Value: £144,532

Impact

CREST-OR

This GCRF-EPSRC project funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) is being led by Professor Maria Paola (PI) Scaparra and supported by Co-Is Professor Jesse O’Hanley and Dr Kathy Kotiadis. The project, which brings together academics from Kent, Lancaster, Southampton and five Southeast Asian countries, aims at building research capacity in operational research in Southeast Asia to address UN sustainable development goals.

ReTraCe

Dr Virginia Spiegler is a Co-I for this Horizon 2020 funded project involving 9 different international research institutions. The project looks is looking at potential strategies to shift consumption patterns that re-use materials to generate production and consumption patterns which improve environmental sustainability.

GCRF–OSIRIS

This multi-disciplinary GCRF British Academy funded project, led by Professor Maria Paola Scaparra, looked at minimising flood impacts on urban transport in the city of Hanoi, Vietnam. The project is currently being scaled up to help transport planners make more sound infrastructure investment decisions in the Mekong Delta region.

Industry engagement

The group has an excellent record of securing funding from industry through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) and industrial CASE studentships. These include: Eurostar, the Port of Dover, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Parker Steel, Priority Freight, South East Water and the NHS. Three KTPs, funded by Innovate UK recently received an ‘outstanding’ rating by the KTP Grading Panel.

Editorships

Professor Said Salhi is an Editor-in-Chief for Journal of the Operational Research Society.

Dr Kathy Kotiadis is an Editor-in-Chief for the journal Health Systems.

Professor Thanos Papadopoulos is an Associate Editor for the British Journal of Management and International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

Professor Maria Paola Scaparra is an Associate Editor for Networks and Spatial Economics.

Professor Shaomin Wu is an Associate Editor for IMA Journal of Management Mathematic and Journal of Risk and Reliability.

Professor Tri-Dung Nguyen is Associate Editor for the Journal of Operational Research Society and Asia Pacific Journal of Operations Research.

Dr Zhen Zhu is an Associate Editor for Journal of Data Science.

In addition, members of the department serve on the editorial/advisory boards for Journal of Simulation, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Probability and Statistics Theory, International Journal of Reliability (Quality and Safety Engineering), Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, International Journal of Information Management, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Health Science Reports, and Health & Social Care in the Community.

Plenary/Key-Note Talks

Professor Thanos Papadopoulos
Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (ICOSCM 2022) | Nashik (India) | 22 January 2022 (virtual)
11th International Workshop on Advanced Manufacturing and Automation (IWAMA 2021) | Zhengzhou, Henan (China) | 11 October 2021 (virtual)

Professor Shaomin Wu
IEEE Global Reliability & Prognostics and Health Management Conference (PHM 2021) | Nanjing (China) | 15-17 October 2021 (virtual)
Symposium on Recent Trends in Engineering Research | Muscat (Oman) | 23 May 2021 (virtual)
10th International Conference on Quality, Reliability, Risk, Maintenance, and Safety Engineering (QR2MSE 2020) | Xi’an, Shaanxi (China) | 8-11 October 2020
International conference in Mathematical Modeling in Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Technology (ICMM-21) | Bhiwani (India) | 17 December 2021 (virtual)

Professor Jesse O’Hanley
Decision support tools for balancing multiple objectives in river infrastructure planning (AMBER Summer Camp) | Groningen (The Netherlands) | 17 July 2020 (virtual)
Where We Work and Why: Fish Passage
Digital twins and the circular economy (KBS Business Soundbites) | Canterbury | 16 June 2021 (virtual)
Prioritization (NOAA Science Seminar Series) | Washington, DC (USA) 28 September 2021 (virtual)

Professor Maria Paola Scaparra
Conference on Optimization and Decision Science | Florence (Italy) | 2 September 2022 (virtual)

Professor Tri-Dung Nguyen
Vietnam Operations Research Network Meeting | Vietnam | 26 November 2021 (Virtual)
LMS Prospective OR Students Workshop | UK | 10 September 2021 (Virtual)

Conference Hosting

September 2019
UK OR Society Annual Conference OR61

June 2019
Data Envelopment Analysis International Conference

September 2016
International Symposium on Combinatorial Optimisation

Additional Esteem Factors

Professor Kathy Kotiadis
EPSRC Mathematical Sciences Prioritisation Panel, May 2022.

Professor Jesse O’Hanley
Winner of the 2015 Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO) Excellence in Practice Award.

Professor Maria Paola Scaparra
Scientific Committee Member of the CABS Academic Journal Guide 2024.

Professor Shaomin Wu
Ranked in Stanford University’s 2% most influential researchers in the world for 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Professor Thanos Papadopoulos
Ranked in Stanford University’s 2% most influential researchers in the world for 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Among Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers for 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Elected twice as Chair of the Special Interest Group ‘eBusiness and eGovernment’ of British Academy of Management.

Department of Analytics, Operations and Systems

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