Ajith Kumar Parlikad is a University Senior Lecturer at Cambridge University Engineering Department. He is based at the Institute for Manufacturing, where he is the Deputy Director of the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory.

Ajith leads research activities on engineering asset management and maintenance. His particular focus is examining how asset information can be used to improve asset performance through effective decision-making. He actively engages with industry through research and consulting projects. He is a member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Technical Professional Network Committee on Asset Management and sits on the judging panel for the IET/IAM Awards in Asset Management. He is also a member of the IFAC Working Group on "Advanced Maintenance Engineering, Services and Technology". He also founded the IAM Academic and Research Network and currently holds the chair position of the network.

Current Research Activities

• Value-based approach for infrastructure asset management decisions - funded by the EPSRC Innovative Knowledge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction.
• Value-based approach for identifying information requirements for infrastructure asset management - funded by the EPSRC Innovative Knowledge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction.
• Futureproofing of infrastructure - funded by the EPSRC Innovative Knowledge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction.
• Smart fault diagnostic system for locomotives - funded by Hitachi Rail
• Performance measurement of asset management systems - funded by Costain
• Maintenance optimisation of complex systems with interacting components - PhD projects

Background

Ajith joined Cambridge University to read for his PhD degree, which he successfully completed in August 2006. For his PhD, he developed a methodology for quantifying the benefits of improving product information availability and quality on the effectiveness of product recovery processes. Ajith has also been involved in consulting to logistics companies on RFID. 

Before coming to Cambridge, Ajith obtained his bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering with honours from Govt. Engineering College, Trichur. After working with Steel Industries Kerala Ltd.(SILK) for a couple of months, he did his Masters in Industrial Production & Management at Birla Institute of Technology & Science , Pilani. During the same period, he also worked as an Industrial Engineer at Grasim Industries, which is one of the leading textiles manufacturer in India. He then completed his second Masters in Industrial Engineering at North Carolina State University . During this period he worked on projects with Nortel Networks and IBM eServer manufacturing facilities in Raleigh, NC, USA.