Dr Rafiq Ahmad

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

University of Alberta

Biography

Dr. Rafiq Ahmad is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta.
He is the founder and director of the “Smart & Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Laboratory (SMART Lab)” and
“Aquaponics 4.0 Learning Factory (AllFactory)”, which focuses on advanced sustainable manufacturing systems
design and engineering. Dr. Ahmad is the Faculty Associate for the Nasser School of Building Sciences and Associate
Director of Experiential Learning for Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include smart engineering
systems design and development, digitization, learning factories design and development, large-scale
additive manufacturing and industrial robotics, lean manufacturing, and green technologies (3Rs: recycling,
remanufacturing, and repair). Dr. Ahmad has a Ph.D. in advanced manufacturing from Ecole Centrale de Nantes,
France, and a Master’s in design and manufacturing from ENSAM-Paris, France. He holds a BSc. Degree in Mechanical
Engineering from the UET-Peshawar, Pakistan. Dr. Ahmad completed a two-year Postdoctoral fellowship at the
University of Luxembourg. Dr. Ahmad has authored over 170 publications in top-tier journals and conferences and
has delivered presentations at more than 50 professional conferences. Dr. Ahmad is the recipient of the prestigious
Edmonton’s Edify 2022 Top 40 under 40 Award by Edify Magazine for his “serial innovation and streamlined
technology development to impact our society”. He also received the 2023 Alberta Science and Technology Award
(ASTech) for “Digital Technology Innovation”. He is also the director and founder of the Canadian not-for-profit
ProBEEs Digital Education Society (https://probees.ca/) and PiTech Academy (https://pitechacademy.ca/). Dr.
Ahmad is also a board member of the International Association of Learning Factories (IALF).

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