C-MORE staff and students
The researchers in C-MORE come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and perform research in a range of fields.
Our team is made up of PhD students, MASc and MEng students, visiting scholars and postdoctoral fellows.
If you are interested in joining our team, get in touch with us.
Our team
Professor Andrew Jardine, Founding director
Professor Emeritus Andrew Jardine is an internationally recognized expert in engineering asset management whose research and teaching have impacted reliability engineering and industry best practices globally. As Chair of the University of Toronto's Department of Industrial Engineering from 1986-1995, he spearheaded its development into a world leader in academic/industrial collaborations through his creation of the Chair’s Advisory Board. He is also Founding Director of the Centre for Maintenance Optimization and Reliability Engineering (C-MORE), where, with the support of a worldwide network of companies, his group produced journal publications, commercialized software packages, and provided postgraduate training to dozens of research students. In his efforts to make academic research accessible to industry practitioners, he has regularly offered training in physical asset management.
Although officially retired, Jardine continues to teach, consult with industry professionals, and work with C-MORE. His outstanding work represents the perfect marriage of academic rigor with industrial application. Jardine is a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. His numerous awards, including the Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada’s Sergio Guy Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to the maintenance profession, indicate the tremendous respect accorded him in his field.
Dr. Dragan Banjevic, Research associate
Dr. Banjevic holds BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in statistics from the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He directs the theoretical research component of C-MORE projects, including approaches to reliability and the establishment of mathematical procedures for the implementation of functional routines for maintenance decision-making. Dr. Banjevic’s past non-academic work includes the automotive industry, hospital research, and statistical consulting to civil engineers engaged in road building. Currently he teaches in both the University’s Department of Statistics and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.
Dr. Janet Lam, Assistant director
Dr. Janet Lam holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto. She has been working in the field of maintenance optimization since 2008 with an emphasis on optimal scheduling of inspections for condition-based maintenance. More recently, her research interests have extended to machine learning approaches for maintenance and asset management.
Through her work at C-MORE, she has had the unique opportunity to apply academic research directly with industry partners, including those in mining, utilities, transportation and military. As the assistant director of C-MORE, Janet is involved with cultivating strong relationships with industry partners and developing maintenance engineering resources that are both useful and current.
Dr. Ali Zuashkiani, Educational programs director
Ali Zuashkiani, PhD, is CEO of PAMCo, a Canadian Consulting Company with projects across the globe. Ali is a graduate of Harvard Kennedy School of Policy, Said Business School of Oxford, Wits Business School (South Africa), and INCAE business school (Costa Rica) and holds a PhD from the University of Toronto. He has been Director of Educational Programs at C-MORE for 13 years.
Ali has more than 20 years of practical experience combined with scientific rigour in optimizing asset management decisions in more than 200 plants in 30+ countries. His consulting endeavours include numerous Life Cycle Costing management projects for utility and gas distribution companies in North America, RCM implementation projects in power plants, oil and gas companies, and the electricity distribution industry, and assignments dealing with asset management practices in 85 plants in the Middle East and South America.
Ali is the author of Expert Knowledge Based Reliability Models and a frequent global speaker on a range of topics in asset management. He has been Chair of the International Physical Asset Management Conference for the last 14 years. Ali was named by the Asia Society as one of the world’s most dynamic young leaders in 2008 and was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader of 2013.
Kuilin Chen, PhD student
Kuilin Chen is currently a Ph.D. student supervised by Prof. Chi-Guhn Lee at University of Toronto. His research interests are development of digital twins for manufacturing processes using deep learning and advanced optimization methods.
Kuilin is also a senior process automation engineer at ArcelorMittal Dofasco with more than five years’ experience of statistical model development, big data analytics and C++ software development. Before joining ArcelorMittal Dofasco, Kuilin obtained his M.A.Sc degree in statistical process control from McMaster University.
Seyedvahid Najafi, PhD student
Vahid is a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Professor Chi-Guhn Lee and currently focused on the maintenance optimization of multi-unit systems using Reinforcement Learning. His research interests center on the application of Artificial Intelligence in decision-making.
Before joining the University of Toronto, Vahid has worked as a project management officer and business analyst in telecommunication and logistics companies.
Avi Sokol, PhD student
Avi is a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Professor Chi-Guhn Lee with a research interest in Reinforcement Learning and Inventory Control to reduce waste in supply chains. With a background in Machine Learning and Operations Research, Avi is currently working as a Data Scientist.
Songci Xu, PhD student
Songci is a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Professor Chi-Guhn Lee with research interests in Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning, Transfer Learning and data-driven RUL predictions.
Sophie Tian, MASc student
Sophie is a MASc. student under the supervision of Prof. Chi-Guhn Lee at the University of Toronto with a research interest in applied machine learning. Prior to joining C-MORE, she obtained her BASc. degree in industrial engineering also at the University of Toronto
Katie Xu, MASc student
Katie is an MASc student working under the supervision of Professor Chi-Guhn Lee at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include computer vision and reinforcement learning, for closed-loop control of additive manufacturing processes.
Prior to joining the group, Katie completed her BASc degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia.
Zihan Zhang, MASc student
Zihan Zhang is currently a MASc student supervised by Prof. Chi-Guhn Lee at University of Toronto. Her research interests are prognosis and maintenance optimization.
Before joining C-MORE, Zihan obtained her B.Eng degree from Beihang University.
