Nahavandi, Saeid

Summary

Saeid Nahavandi is a Distinguished Professor, Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, and Chief of Defence Innovation, at Swinburne University of Technology. He was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor (Defence Technologies) and Founding Director of the Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation, Deakin University.

He is recognised internationally for his research in artificial intelligence-empowered technologies encompassing robotics and haptics, modelling and simulation, and autonomous systems. Having been awarded many Australian Research Council (ARC) grants, he has led teams that have pioneered several world-first haptically-enabled robotic and mixed-reality systems for use in contested environments. Many of these innovations have successfully been transitioned into products for both civilian and defence applications, including an immersive mixed-reality fire-fighting training system, a haptically-enabled Universal Motion Simulator, and a low-cost high-G centrifuge for pilot G-force training.

His distinguished contributions to engineering have been recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE) in 2019; as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (FIEEE) in 2020; and by being awarded the Researcher of the Year for Australian Space Awards in 2021; Innovator of the year - individual academic of the year 2021, Australian Defence Industry Awards; Professional Engineer of the Year 2021, Engineers Australia; the Clunies Ross Technology Innovation Award - Entrepreneur of the Year in 2022; and was awarded the Ray Page Lifetime Achievement Award, Simulation Australasia in 2025.

Details

Chronology

c. 1985

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), Mechanical Engineering, Teesside Polytechnic, Middlesborough, United Kingdom

c. 1986

Education - Master of Science (MSc), Computer-aided engineering, Teesside Polytechnic, Middlesborough, United Kingdom

1986 - 1991

Career position - Teaching / Research Assistant, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom

1991

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Automation and Control, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom

1991 - 1998

Career position - Lecturer / Senior Lecturer, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

1994

Award - Prince & Princess of Wales Science Award

1995

Patent - Improvements relating to application of adhesive tape [22689/1995]

1996

Award - Young Engineer of The Year Medal, Institution of Professional Engineers NZ

1998 - 2002

Career event - Associate Professor, School of Engineering and IT, Deakin University

2002

Career position - Consultant, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

2002 - 2023

Career position - Professor (Chair in Engineering), Deakin University

2006 - 2023

Career position - Alfred Deakin Professor, Deakin University

2007

Patent - Method and apparatus for haptic control [335256/2007, with Ben Horan, Zoran Najdovski, Asim Bhatti]

c. 2008 - 2020

Career position - Member of IEEE Press Editorial Board

2008 - 2023

Career position - Founding Director, Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation, Deakin University

2009

Award - Episode winner, New Inventors, ABC TV

2011

Award - Outstanding Contribution Award, IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (SMC)

2011 - 2020

Career position - Board Member, Simulation Australasia Limited

2013 - 2020

Career position - Associate Editor, IEEE Access

2013 - 2020

Career position - Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems

2015

Patent - Firefighter Training Unit [900587/2015, with James Mullin, Matthew Watson, Michael Fielding]

2015

Patent - Universal motion simulator [US20160096276A1 with Zorn Najdovski, Ben Horan, Asim Bhatti]

2015

Patent - Positioning device [WO2015135029A1, with James Mullins, Michael Robert Fielding]

2016

Patent - Firefighter Training Unit [222290/2016, with James Mullins, Matthew Watson, Michael Fielding]

2016

Patent - Apparatus, system and method for controlling motion of a robotic manipulator [WO2017020081A1, with Michael Fielding, Zoran Najdovski, James Mullins, Hamid Abdi]

2016

Award - Mobility Engineering Excellence Gold Award, Society of Automotive Engineers, Australasia

2016 - 2023

Career position - Pro Vice-Chancellor (Defence Technologies), Deakin University

2018

Award - Best Chapter Award, IEEE Systems, Man, Cybernetics Society

2019

Career position - Senior Associate Editor, IEEE Systems Journal

2019

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE)

2020 -

Career position - Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics

2020

Award - Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (FIEEE)

2021

Award - Essington Lewis Award for Excellence, Australian Defence Magazine [AI-Powered Leader-Follower Convoy of Autonomous Vehicles with Obstacle Avoidance]

2021

Award - Researcher of the Year Award, Space Connect - Australian Space Awards [Low-cost, High-G Centrifuge for Pilot Training]

2021

Award - Professional Engineer of the Year, Australia, Engineers Australia

2021

Award - Professional Engineer of the Year, Victoria, Engineers Australia

2021

Award - Innovator of the Year, Defence Connect - Australian Defence Industry

2022 -

Career position - Co-Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Systems Journal

2022

Award - Clunies Ross Technology Innovation Award - Entrepreneur of the Year, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering

2022

Award - Best paper - International Journal of Information Fusion

2022

Award - Outstanding Contribution Award, IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society

2022 - 2024

Career position - Vice-president, IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society

2022 - 2025

Award - IEEE Distinguished Lecture

2023 -

Career position - Chief of Defence Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology

2023 -

Career position - Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Swinburne University of Technology

2023

Award - IEEE Most Active Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Technical Committee Award

2024 -

Career position - Chair of Assembly, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering

2025 -

Career position - President-elect, IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society

2025

Award - Ray Page Lifetime Simulation Achievement Award, Simulation Australasia

2026

Award - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to tertiary education, to engineering, to robotics and haptics research and innovation, and to defence capability development

Related entries

Published resources

Journal Articles

• 'Firefighters are using VR and haptics to train how to face the real thing [FLAIM immersive mixed-reality training systems]', Create / Engineers Australia (2019), https://createdigital.org.au/firefighters-using-vr-haptics-train-face-real-thing/. Details
• 'Devising self-driving technology for the Army requires military precision', Create / Engineers Australia (2020), https://createdigital.org.au/devising-self-driving-technology-military-precision/. Details
• 'Feeling the full force of haptic technology [Universal Motion Simulator]', Create / Engineers Australia (2022), https://createdigital.org.au/feeling-the-full-force-of-haptic-technology/. Details
• 'Meet the winners of Australia's top engineering awards for 2021', Create / Engineers Australia (2022), https://createdigital.org.au/winners-of-australias-top-engineering-awards-2021/. Details
• Nahavandi, S., 'Saeid Nahavandi: Academic, Innovator, Technopreneur, and Thought Leader [Society News]', IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Magazine, 9 (4) (2023), 80-82, https://doi.org/10.1109/MSMC.2023.3284811. Details
• Nahavandi, Saeid, 'Industry 5.0 - A human-centric solution', Sustainability, 11 (16) (2019), https://doi.org/10.3390/su11164371. Details
• Nahavandi, Saeid; Alizadehsani, Roohallah; Nahavandi, Darius; Lim, Chee Peng; Kelly, Kevin; Bello, Fernando, 'Machine learning meets advanced robotic manipulation', Information Fusion, 105 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inffus.2023.102221. Details
• Nahavandi, Saeid; Alizadehsani, Roohallah; Nahavandi, Darius; Mohamed, Shady; Mohajer, Navid; Rokonuzzaman, Mohammad; Hossain, Ibrahim, 'A comprehensive review on autonomous navigation', ACM Computing Surveys, 57 (9) (2025), 1-67, https://doi.org/10.1145/3727642. Details
• Nahavandi, Saeid; Mohamed, Shady; Hossain, Ibrahim; Nahavandi, Darius; Moshfeq Salaken, Syed; Rokonuzzaman, Mohammad, 'Autonomous convoying: a survey on current research and development,', IEEE Access, 10 (2022), 13663-13683, https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3147251. Details

Resources

• 'Dist. Professor Saeid Nahavandi - Biography at time of election', Fellows of the Academy, 2024, https://www.atse.org.au/who-we-are/our-fellows/all-fellows/saeid-nahavandi/. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 335256/2007. Title: Method and apparatus for haptic control', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/2007335256. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 222290/2016. Title: Firefighter Training Unit', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/2016222290. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 22689/1995. Title: Improvements relating to application of adhesive tape [Lapsed]', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1995022689. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 900587/2015. Title: Firefighter Training Unit', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/2015900587. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Distinguished Professor Saeid Nahavandi: Officer of the Order of Australia', in It's an Honour, Australian Awards and Honours Secretariat, Australian Government, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2026. https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/search?searchText=saeid%20nahavandi. Details