Dr. Vibhor Pandhare

My research focuses on developing distributed and collaborative decision-making models across digital twins with applications in Smart Manufacturing. The broader research theme includes the development of Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS), Data Privacy Protection, and Asset Life Cycle Management, with the aim of contributing to the faster adoption of INDUSTRY 4.0. Another aspect of my research is to address the lack of systematic labeled data for training machine learning models in real-life manufacturing problems by developing automatic asset state detection and contextual-data mapping methods.

I have completed my Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, USA, with Prof. Jay Lee (now at the University of Maryland), at the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS). For my Ph.D., I developed a domain-based collaborative learning methodology for enhanced health management of distributed industrial assets. At the IMS Center, I implemented machine learning and deep learning approaches for estimation, prediction, and classification on multifarious industrial datasets. I have also worked as a researcher on sponsored projects with NIST, Mazak, P&G, Foxconn, Plastic Omnium, etc. as a part of the IMS Center.

After my Ph.D., I worked as a Smart Factory Engineer in the Advance Manufacturing Engineering (AME) Department for Kennametal Inc., USA. I designed a real-time production monitoring tool for the insert precision grinding department to increase throughput. I also developed a spindle health monitoring system using vibration data for round tools grinding.

Before my Ph.D., I led the Systems Engineering group at the National Center for Aerospace Innovation and Research (NCAIR) at IIT Mumbai for one year. Our team designed a statistical web tool for estimating the reliability of an asset. The tool considers extrinsic factors, as well as cases from data abundance to data scarcity, by employing systematic expert judgment. It is currently under Phase II of development for the Indian Naval Ship Maintenance Authority (INSMA).

I have completed my B.Tech and M.Tech as a dual degree program from IIT Indore. Here, I designed a Cyber-Physical Systems-based social network of machines for intelligent planning in manufacturing industries. My thesis is the winner of the Innovative Student Projects Award 2016, conferred on the five most innovative theses in engineering across India. I also won the Institute Silver Medal for Best All-Rounder for the 2016 graduating batch. I am happy to be the first alumni of the institute to return as a faculty.