Dr. Umer is a full Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KUST), Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Auckland, New Zealand, and was with the Composite Vehicle Research Center (CVRC), Michigan State University, USA, as post-doctoral research fellow. Dr. Umer is a leader and an innovator in the field of advanced manufacturing of composite structures. Dr. Umer has worked in industries, research institutes and universities in Europe, Australasia, USA, Asia and the Middle East. He possesses vast experience in establishing composites and advanced manufacturing facilities from scratch. He is one of the founding members of the Aerospace Engineering Department at KUST. He was also instrumental in finding the joint research center between STRATA manufacturing and KUST called Aerospace Research and Innovation Center (ARIC). Currently, he is the group leader of the Composites Manufacturing Lab at KUST along with leading a theme and a project in the $100M center in collaboration with the University of Manchester, UK, called the Research and Innovation Center for Graphene and 2D Materials (RIC2D). Dr Umer also served as Acting Department Chair, Aerospace Engineering, KUST, in 2021. Dr. Umer has good industrial experience as well, and was the member of the founding team that developed the Airbus Helicopter manufacturing site in Brisbane, Australia.
Since 2002, Dr. Umer is involved in pure and applied research, teaching, management of research projects and activities related to aeronautical, space, defense, civil, and automotive sectors. Dr. Umer has a proven teaching and research record of accomplishment with an excellent history of publications. Dr. Umer has published three books; many refereed journal and conference articles and holds few US patents. Dr. Umer has several industrial collaborations and is an associate editor of a Q1 journal. He has been leading or been part of the team who received funding of over USD 30 million. Dr. Umer has led several international composites processing benchmarking and standardization exercises, and is a key member of the management and scientific committee on the conference series of “Flow Processes in Composite Materials” (FPCM). He has organized conferences and minisymposia in his field including as lead conference chair for the 16th International Conference of Flow Processes in Composite Materials (FPCM-16) being held in Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2025. Dr. Umer is currently listed in the top 2% most cited scientists globally (according to the Stanford list) in Aerospace and Aeronautics.
Dr. Umer promoted faculty collaboration efforts for increased interdisciplinary research funding, and led efforts to accreditation and growth of the undergraduate and graduate programs, developed several courses and represented the department at the College and University level meetings and actively interacted with the advisory board of the department.
Dr. Umer specializes in the digital design and processing of high-value composite components and structures for aircrafts, space vehicles, automotive, defense, and civil applications. His main focus is on; experimental process development, process modeling and simulations, process monitoring, innovative and automated manufacturing of composites using robotics, 2D materials for sensing and radiation shielding of space structures, production of Hydrogen storage tanks, additive manufacturing in space, manufacturing and repair of aerospace composite structures, lightweight lattice structures and high temperature materials for re-entry vehicles, artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality and digital twinning of advanced composites manufacturing in Industry 4.0.
2D materials enhanced fiber reinforced composites for aerospace and defense applications.
Smart manufacturing of smart aircraft skins.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence in aerospace composites manufacturing
- Post Doc. Research Asscosite in composites manufacturing with strong backgraound in 2D materials processing.
