Ayton Willow has already a good start venturing into R&D projects carried over from the research backgrounds of the team at Cornell University, USA, Cranfield University, University of Hertfordshire UK, University of Genova, Dublin City University, Kings College and IIT. The research team that are working on current projects for and with Ayton Willow have been listed for the three different areas of interest 

Automotive Development & Design

Dr. Aazir Khan

Aazir has obtained a masters in mechanical engineering from Cornell University (USA) in 1999, and masters in automobile engineering from University of Hertfordshire (UK) (stages at University of Genova (Italy) and Fachhochshule Hamburg (GER) 1996. He received his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from University of Genova in 2008. His Bachelors Degree is in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering in 1994. He has a racing and automotive background working in SCCA Pro-Spec racing in the US and has won  international design awards for his GTR spec. racing cars and has a production car design on the road running and design registration and patents on the electric motorcycle (Javelin). He has envisioned a personal vehicle that works on pedestrian areas able to traverse multiple terrains. He put this proposal ahed with the University of Genova and has been funded as a European FP7 project PICAV (started August 2009) During a period with Dublin City University, has concentrated on renewable energies for automotive systems and involved in a European FP7 project BIOWELL and an Enterprise Ireland project CELLRUPT therefore starting the concept of electric/hybrid Niche super vehicles. Other EU projects include LEAPFROG, SwarmItFix, TECMAR Towfish. He also has two Unmanned ariel vehicles designed and test flown and a concept for a disseminative UAV system. Working full time on automotive development at Ayton Willow.

 Dr. Mohammad Aamir Khan 

With a Masters in Automotive Product Engineering (Cranfield University, U.K.) and PhD in Mechanics and Machine Design (University of Genoa, Italy), his expertise and interest are in design and synthesis of innovative and smart mechanisms, dynamics, vehicle concept design, packaging, suspension design and vehicle structures. He has worked as Chief Engineer Vehicles Division and Research Fellow at a design company and a research laboratory, respectively. His development work includes the development of new C-class car (on road), specialized racing vehicles (presented in Hanover Messe), underwater vehicles, UAVs and innovative parallel mechanisms for tele-robotics and intelligent personal mobility vehicles for which he has several publications concerning them.

European Projects: PICAV, TECMAR Towfish, SwarmItFix. Working full time on automotive development at Ayton Willow.

Dr. Enrico Carca

Obtained his PhD from the University of Genova in 2009. Currently he is working at Technospamec in Italy as a project and design engineer. He has a background in Automotive Engineering and is part of the legacy of Carca Motors that has been detailed in the Niche Car section of Engineering development.

He has worked on European Projects including LEAPFROG and will work with Ayton Willow as a resident researcher / design and development team. 

 Dr. Felix Schäfer

He received his Master in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Paderborn (Germany) and obtained his PhD degree in Mechanics and Machine Design from University of Genoa (Italy). He was awarded the "Ansaldo Nuclear PhD Thesis Award" for his thesis work. One of his research areas is vehicle obstacle avoidance using the potential field path planning approach. He has a strong background in kinematic mechanism analysis, Vehicle Dynamics and detailed mechanical design. Recently he spent one year in the URobotics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University (USA) doing research in the field of image guided surgical robotics. Currently he is working as a Researcher at University of Genoa on the European Research Project SwarmItFix, focusing on the design of a mobile base and a highly adaptable fixture for metal sheets. He will be working with Ayton Willow as a resident researcher/ design and development team.

 Chin-Hsing Kuo

Chin-Hsing KUO received his BEng in 2002 from Tamkang Universityand MSc in 2004 from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan in Mechanical Engineering. After his one-and-half years military service, he was appointed by National Cheng Kung University as the full-time research assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering from January 2006 to July 2007. In September 2007, he joined the Centre for Mechatronics & Manufacturing Systems (CMMS) at King’s College London, UK to pursue his PhD. His research includes medical robotics, parallel robots, reconfigurable mechanism and robotic system, creative mechanism design. In  2008, Mr. KUO was a visiting research student in the Laboratory of Design and Measurement for Automation and Robotics (PMAR Lab) at the University of Genoa, Italy. From September 2008 to June 2009, he was a visiting research student in the Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology (ERC-CISST) at The Johns Hopkins University, USA. Mr. KUO is the recipient of several scholarships and awards. He will work with Ayton Willow for Mechatronic design and vehicle dynamics on finishing his PhD.

 Alternative Fuels / Smart Materials Development

Dr. Ai Lien Ong

Ai Lien has a Ph.D in Chemistry and Materials from the University of Genoa, Italy and a masters in Bio-process and Chemical Engineering in 2006 and a Bachelors in Chemical Process Engineering from Malaysia in 2003.

She has focused her research on PEM fuel cells through fabrication of MEA and study of its characteristics of ABPBI based high temperature PEM fuel cells carried out at the Fuel Cell Research Center (Yuan Ze University, Taiwan) and Gas Diffusion Media for PEM Fuel Cells at the University of Genoa, Italy and currently working as a Post Doctorate researcher at Heriat Watt University in Edinburgh. Currently  consultant for Ayton Willow on Fuel Cells for development of a European Consortium on Fuel Cell development for Automotive use.

Andrew Clarke

Andrew Clarke presently holds a Bachelors Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering (2007) and a research Masters Degree in Computational Fluid Dynamiques specialising in Hydraulics Optimisation (2009). Gained business startup experience formerly with AcadReviewer.com in its years of operation between 2008 and 2010. Served as Chairman of the Science and Technology Society based in Dublin City University (2007-2009). Currently based in Paris with Veolia Water Systems Research Centre until December 2010 working in renewable energy technology analysis and development

He has been a vital part for the business development of Ayton Willow in its earliest stage and will be part of the team for alternative fuel systems and vehicle developement from Janruary 2011.

 Dr. Tim Prescott

 Retired from Enterprise Ireland while working at DCU as senior research officer. Obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1968. Worked on BIOWELL CELLRUPT. Working as  Full time researcher with Ayton Willow. More information to be Updated soon.

 Dr. Abdul Olabi

Graduated from Damascus Univerisity in 1984, then working for 4 years in R&D,between 1889 and 1990 working on research project leading to Master degree-Dublin, between 1990-1993 working on research project leading to PhD degree-Dublin, between 1994-1998 lecturing at HIAST (Higher Instituate of Applied science and Technology)-Damascus, 1999-2002 working at the research centre of FIAT on the development of new generation of feeding and injection component.From Oct. 2002 working at DCU. His background in Materials are in MRF(Magnetic Rheology Fluid) and electromagnetic field, magnetostrictive materials. CAD/CAM/CAE Alternative Fuel System "Design and Simulation" Manfacturing and Materials. Currently he heads Sustainable energy projects and Chaired the 2009 SEEP (international conference on sustainable energy and environment protection and was part of European FP7 BIOWELL and CELLRUPT. He is a non-resident scholar for Ayton Willow and will be working representing DCU under a European Consortium. 

 Ashfaq Khokhar

 Ashfaq khokhar has a degree in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering in 1995, and is a professional incorporated engineering (IEng) membership and is currently working as a Consultant Metallurgist at The Welding Institute (Cambridge, England). His areas of interest are failure investigation cases for the petro-chemical, automotive, construction and marine industries. He is also an active team member of the Materials Testing Laboratory which is an UKAS accredited laboratory.

He is a non-resident consultant for Ayton Willow for Materials and Metallurgical Engineering especially powder metallurgy for smart material development.

 Manufacturing / Controls Systems

Dr. Arijit Bhattacharya

PhD from IIT in India, and Post doctorate research officer at Dublin City University in Manufacturing System Engineering. More information will be uploaded soon.