My current research agenda focuses primarily on advancing industry-relevant systems and technologies and integrating human needs within these developments to enhance quality-of-life and ensure inclusivity and sustainability. My main expertise revolves around the IoT systems, edge intelligence, federated learning, autonomous robots, and cloud/fog computing with a wide range of applications in various domains including digital health, smart grids, transportation systems, data analysis, smart cities, and education. This integration of cyber and physical fields demonstrates the interdisciplinary nature of my research.

Thar Baker (Senior Member, IEEE) (Senior Fellow, HEA) is Professor of Industry 4.0/5.0 and Associate Dean (Research and Knowledge Exchange) at the School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering. Prior to joining UoB, Prof Baker spent a few years in the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Before then, he was Reader in Cloud Engineering and Head of the Applied Computing Research Group (ACRG) in the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.

To date, he has published over 250 Scopus-indexed scientific papers and articles. He is the Editor-in-Chief and Associate-/Editor of many international journals of IGI, ACM, Elsevier, Springer, IET, and Wiley. Thar was appointed as an Expert Evaluator for Horizon EU, EU-FP7, British Council, Newton Funds, and UNISCO funds. He serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of the eSystems Engineering Society (eSES), a member of BCS, and a member of ACM. Prof Baker had also completed the strategic executive development programme for diverse leaders in Higher Education (StellarHE) and became a member of the Institute of Leadership and Management (iLM). For many years, he was a member of two prestigious and internationally influential committees of the British Computer Society (BCS): the Higher Education Qualifications (HEQ) panel and the Professional Examination Board (PEB).

In terms of REF2029 submission preparation, Prof. Baker leads UoA 12 (engineering) and serves on the leadership teams of UoA 11 (computer science and informatics) and UoA 32 (art and design).

Prof. Baker has supervised 15+ PhD students to successful completion. He has also established a track record of PhD research degree examination, both in the UK and abroad.

I am currently seeking motivated and innovative PhD students to join my research team, focusing on cutting-edge projects in IoT, edge AI, blockchain, and federated learning for Industry 4.0/5.0. Such projects include, but are not limited to, (i) enhancing industrial production and/or operational efficiency in smart factories via IoT and federated learning, (ii) scalable and extensible fog network for intelligent transportation system, (iii) AIoT and blockchain for supply chain track and trace, and (iv) AI-driven solution for SDN security. If you are passionate about these dynamic fields, eager to tackle real-world problems, and ready to engage in multidisciplinary research, please contact me.