Professor Ali Meghdari received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1987. He then joined the robotics group of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) as a Post-Doctoral research collaborator. In 1988, he accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology (SUT) in Tehran. In 1992, he organized and chaired the 1st International Mechanical Engineering Conference in Iran. In 1997, he was granted the rank of Full-Professor of Mechanical Engineering at SUT, and recognized by the Iranian Society of Mechanical Engineers (ISME) as the youngest (at age 37) ME full-professor in Iran. During 1996-1999, he chaired the Department of Mechanical Engineering at SUT. During 1993-94, he was a visiting research faculty at the AHMCT centre of the University of California-Davis, and from 1999-2000 he served the IBDMS research centre at the Colorado School of Mines, and the Rocky Mountain Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory (RMMRL) as a visiting research professor. Professor Meghdari has performed extensive research in the areas of robotics, social and cognitive robotics, mechatronics, bio-robotics/nano-manipulation,and modelling of biomechanical systems. He has supervised over 75 M.Sc. Theses and 18 Ph.D. Dissertations, 5 Post-Docs and has published over 250 technical papers in refereed international journals and conferences. He has been the recipient of various scholarships and awards, the latest being: the 2012 Allameh Tabatabaei distinguished professorship award by the National Elites Foundation of Iran (BMN), the 2001 Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Professorship Award from the Ministry of Science, Research & Technology (MSRT) in Iran, and the 1997 ISESCO Award in Technology from Morocco. He was nominated and elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 2001. From 2001-2010, he was the Vice-President of Academic Affairs at Sharif University of Technology. During this period he also had a key role on the establishment of SUT's International Campus in Kish Island. He was the founder and Director of the newly established Department of Languages and Linguistics (LLC) in SUT from 2009-2012. From 2013-2015 he served as the Project Manager for the SUT's new (under construction) Research & Technology Campus(RTC), and the Dean of Centre for Faculty Hiring and Promotions at the Islamic Azad University (IAU). He is currently the Director of the Centre of Excellence in Design, Robotics and Automation (CEDRA), and the General Director for Office of Education, Research, and Technology (Ministry of Energy, M.o.E). He is on the editorial board of various engineering journals, and since 2005 has been elected as an affiliate member of the Iranian Academy of Sciences (IAS). 

Robotics Automation