Professor Nav Mustafee

About me:

Nav Mustafee is Professor of Analytics and Operations Management at the University of Exeter Business School. He joined Exeter in 2013 and is based at the Centre for Simulation, Analytics and Modelling (CSAM). He served as the Director of Research for the Department of Science, Innovation, Technology & Entrepreneurship (SITE) from August 2018 to July 2022. He has a PhD in information systems and computing and an MSc in distributed systems (distinction) from Brunel University. Previously, he had posts at Warwick Business School, Brunel University and Swansea University. Nav comes from Kolkata in India.

Research: Nav's research focuses on modelling & simulation (M&S) methodologies and their application in areas such as healthcare, supply chain management, climate resilience and the circular economy. A particular area of interest is hybrid M&S. The objective is to develop the best possible representation of the system under scrutiny by leveraging not only the strengths of individual M&S techniques (e.g., system dynamics, agent-based and discrete-event simulation) but also methods and techniques from wider disciplines such as Operational Research (OR), Applied Computing and Data Science. Another strand of Nav's research is on the bibliometric analysis of knowledge domains. He uses methods like co-citation and meta-data analysis for this body of work. Nav publishes in the European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of the Operational Research Society, ACM Transactions on Modelling and Computer Simulation, Simulation: Transactions of SCS, Expert Systems with Applications, Concurrency and Computation: Practice & Experience, Computers & Operations Research, Technology Forecasting & Social Change and Health Systems.

Grants: Nav has received grants from UK funding bodies such as EPSRC, NIHR and ESRC (impact acceleration), charities such as The Leuvrehulme Trust and Torbay Medical Research Funds, and industry funding from the NHS. A couple of projects are also funded through the EU Horizon Programme. He is the Principal Investigator for the NHSquicker project (NHS Devon ICB) and Co-investigator for ULTIMATE and ARSINOE (EU Horizon), STARS (MRC-NIHR) and SPHERE (NIHR-EPSRC). He is a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College.

Impact: Nav is the Founder and Co-chair of the Health and Care IMPACT (Information, Modelling, Prediction and Evaluation to inform ACTion) Network, which started as a collaboration between the University of Exeter Business School and Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, and has since expanded to include several healthcare partners in Devon and Cornwall. A major academic and impact-related output of the Network has been developing a real-time solution informing attendance choices for urgent care - the NHS Quicker platform. The work led to a REF 2021 impact study (UOA17 Business and Management Studies) on "Designing and implementing a digital platform to reduce A&E peak time demand across the South West", which was awarded the UK Operational Research Society's Lyn Thomas Impact Medal award for 2022. Find out more about the Impact Medal here.

Service: Nav is a Joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Simulation (a journal of the UK OR Society published by Taylor & Francis) and Vice-President of Publications at The Society of Modeling and Simulation International (SCS). The SCS publication portfolio includes two journals published by SAGE - Simulation: The Transactions of the SCS and the Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation. He is a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College.

PhD queries are welcome in areas related to simulation methodologies (e.g., hybrid modelling and simulation, real-time and symbiotic simulation, data-driven/Industry 4.0 simulation), data science and predictive analytics, health and social care simulation, supply chain simulation, modelling for climate resilient development, sustainability and the circular economy.

• Hybrid Modelling and Simulation
• Real-time Simulation and Digital Twins
• Simulation methodologies and its application in areas such as healthcare and supply chain management
• Hybrid Modelling for climate resilient development
• Modelling for sustainability and the circular economy
• Real-time analytics and its application in Emergency Departments (NHSquicker)
• Parallel and Distributed Simulation (PADS) and the High Level Architecture (IEEE 1560)
• Bibliometric and Meta-data Analysis of Research Domains

Research in Hybrid Simulation investigates the methodological aspects related to the combined application of multiple M&S methods (e.g., synchronisation of models developed using system dynamics, agent-based and discrete-event simulations) and also the application of the conjoined simulation techniques to real-world problems. A review paper on hybrid simulation provides further examples of the current state-of-the-art.

Hybrid Modelling, on the other hand, incorporates methods and techniques from disciplines such as Economics, Computer Science, Applied Computing and Data Science (e.g., faster simulation execution using grid computing and distributed simulation, Soft OR with discrete-event simulation, optimisation algorithms with agent-based simulation, forecasting with M&S, simulations using real-time data feeds). As such, hybrid models can enable transdisciplinary research.

BA (Calcutta University), MSc (Brunel), PhD (Brunel)