Dr Dhaval Thakker

Dr. Dhaval Thakker joined the Faculty of Engineering and Informatics at the University of Bradford in May 2015 and is an Associate Professor. He is currently the Director of Postgraduate Research (DPGR) in the faculty and leads the Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation Lab. Dhaval has over fifteen years of working experience in the European Union(EU) and industrial projects researching and delivering innovative solutions. He is also part of the University’s Research Practice Innovation Group led by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Transfer) to help shape the university’s research and innovation (R&I) strategy.  

His broad area of research interest and expertise is interdisciplinary focusing on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things(IoT) technologies for the betterment of society. His current and evolving research interests include exploring the role of AI and IoT technologies in the context of Smart Cities, Digital Health, and the Circular Economy. He actively publishes in leading high impact factor journals such as the Semantic Web Journal, Elsevier Journal of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies. He regularly reviews for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). ​

To date, he has been successful as Principal and Co-investigator in over £1 million worth of R&I projects (UoB share) funded by national, international funding bodies and commercial organisations. Some of the notable funders have been the European Commission, Innovate UK, HFCE, and GCRF focusing on projects addressing societal challenges surrounding themes such as Smart Cities, Air Quality Monitoring, Flood Monitoring,  Children's Health, Industry 4.0(Smart Factories), and Archeological & Drone-based surveys in Worn-torn areas. ​

He was awarded Ph.D. in computer science by the Nottingham Trent University in 2008 for his work on 'An intelligent framework for dynamic web services composition in the semantic web'. He has completed his MSc in Data Communication Systems from Brunel University, London.  Prior to joining Bradford, he worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Leeds from 2011 to 2015 and was leading semantic web/AI related research in several EU projects. Before Leeds, he worked in the industry with UK's national news agency (Press Association, now PA media group) as a Research & Development Consultant to provide strategic and technical leadership in implementing Semantic Web/AI and Linked data related projects to improve access to their media repositories.​Details of the group Dhaval leads at Bradford, it's research staff, and Ph.D. students are available here. Google Scholar profile provides an extensive publication track record.  His research has been rewarded with multiple best paper awards (2019 at the 10th IEEE conference on IoT, Big Data and AI for a Smart and Safe Future; 2015 at 12th the European Semantic Web Conference). 

He is the Programme Leader(Director) for two of the Computer Science MSc courses,  MSc course on the Internet of Things(IoT), MSc Big Data Science and Technology. 

Below are details on some of his research and academic responsibilities. A more up to date, biography, and details are maintained on personal website here. 

Personal Website