Siavash Haroun Mahdavi
Encyclopedia
Siavash Haroun Mahdavi is an inventor and entrepreneur living and based in London. His work in the fields of Engineering
and Design
have revolutionized many products and design paradigms. His work in robotics resulted in the world's first intelligent robot that was able to autonomously recover from damage. He also invented the world's first antenna that tunes itself by changing its shape to achieve the best reception. More recently his work has focused on the design and complex lattice structures that are now being used in many industries including Orthopaedics, Aerospace
, Product design
and Formula one
.
, Iran
on February 18, 1980 to parents Mohammad and Mahshid. He left Iran aged 2 during the Iran-Iraq war and lived in the US for a couple of years before moving to London, where he made his home. Siavash's creativity blossomed from a very young age where he excelled in Science and Design.
At age 11 he was accepted into Dulwich College
where he became even more fascinated with Science and in particular Artificial Intelligence
. He founded the school's first Artificial Intelligence
Society in 1997.
. He followed on to study a M.Sc. in Intelligent Systems at University College London
and continued his research to complete a doctorate in Evolutionary robotics
under the supervision of Dr. Peter J. Bentley
.
It was during his doctoral research that he first embarked upon developing a system of customising a material's properties using Artificial Intelligence
and Additive Layer Manufacturing. Since then, Siavash has published 10+ papers on the 'Microstructure Optimisation' and has given lectures at numerous international conferences including one at NASA
.
High profile works in design include the Osteon Chair, AI Stool and AI Light. These products were designed in collaboration with world renowned product designer Assa Ashuach.
Hanna S. and Haroun Mahdavi S. (2006) Inductive Machine Learning of Structures: Estimating a Finite Element Optimisation Using Support Vector Machines, In Gero, JS (ed) Design Computing and Cognition '06, Springer.
Hanna, S., Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J. (2005) Creativity Through Embodiment: A Computational Model Exemplified By Microstructure Design. In the Journal of Design Studies.
Haroun Mahdavi S. and Hanna S. (2004) Blurring the Boundaries between Actuator and Structure: Investigating the use of Stereolithography to build Adaptive Robots, Proceedings of ICARCV 2004.
Hanna S. and Haroun Mahdavi S. (2004) Modularity and Flexibility at the Small Scale: Evolving Continuous Material Variation with Stereolithography. In Beesley P. et al. (Eds.) Fabrication: examining the digital practice of architecture.
Haroun Mahdavi S. and Hanna S. (2004) Optimising Continuous Microstructures: A Comparison of Gradient-Based and Stochastic Methods, Proceedings of SCIS & ISIS 2004, the joint International Conference on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems and International Symposium on Advanced Intelligent Systems.
Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J. (2004) Innately adaptive robotics through embodied evolution. (extended version). Submitted to Journal of Adaptive Robotics.
Haroun Mahdavi S. and Hanna S. (2003) An evolutionary approach to microstructure optimisation of stereolithographic models, Proceedings of CEC2003, the Congress on Evolutionary Computation.
Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J. (2004) Innately Adaptive Robotics Through Embodied Evolution. In Proc. of Robosphere 2004, the 2nd Workshop on Self-Sustaining Robotic Systems, NASA Ames Research Center, Nov. 9-10, 2004.
Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J. (2003) Evolving Noise Tolerant Antenna Configurations using Shape Memory Alloys. In Proc of the Second International Conference on Computational Intelligence, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CIRAS 2003), December 15–18, 2003, Singapore.
Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J. (2003) An Evolutionary Approach to Damage Recovery of Robot Motion with Muscles. In Proc. of the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2003). W. Banzhaf, T. Christaller, P. Dittrich, J. T. Kim and J. Zieglre (eds), Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg: Berlin, pp. 248–255.
Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J.(2003) Evolving Motion of Robots with Muscles. In Proc. of EvoROB2003, the 2nd European Workshop on Evolutionary Robotics, EuroGP 2003. pp. 655–664.
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
and Design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
have revolutionized many products and design paradigms. His work in robotics resulted in the world's first intelligent robot that was able to autonomously recover from damage. He also invented the world's first antenna that tunes itself by changing its shape to achieve the best reception. More recently his work has focused on the design and complex lattice structures that are now being used in many industries including Orthopaedics, Aerospace
Aerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
, Product design
Product design
-Introduction:Product design is the process of creating a new product to be sold by a business or enterprise to its customers. It is concerned with the efficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products.Product designers conceptualize and...
and Formula one
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
.
Early life
Mahdavi was born in TehranTehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
on February 18, 1980 to parents Mohammad and Mahshid. He left Iran aged 2 during the Iran-Iraq war and lived in the US for a couple of years before moving to London, where he made his home. Siavash's creativity blossomed from a very young age where he excelled in Science and Design.
At age 11 he was accepted into Dulwich College
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is an independent school for boys in Dulwich, southeast London, England. The college was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn, a successful Elizabethan actor, with the original purpose of educating 12 poor scholars as the foundation of "God's Gift". It currently has about 1,600 boys,...
where he became even more fascinated with Science and in particular Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
. He founded the school's first Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
Society in 1997.
Academic Achievements
Mahdavi studied a B.Sc. in Mechatronics Engineering at King's College LondonKing's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
. He followed on to study a M.Sc. in Intelligent Systems at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
and continued his research to complete a doctorate in Evolutionary robotics
Evolutionary robotics
Evolutionary robotics is a methodology that uses evolutionary computation to develop controllers for autonomous robots. Algorithms in ER frequently operate on populations of candidate controllers, initially selected from some distribution. This population is then repeatedly modified according to...
under the supervision of Dr. Peter J. Bentley
Peter J. Bentley
Dr Peter John Bentley is a British author and computer scientist based at University College London.Peter J. Bentley is an Honorary Reader and College Fellow at UCL and a Collaborating Professor at KAIST. He is also a popular science author and consultant...
.
It was during his doctoral research that he first embarked upon developing a system of customising a material's properties using Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
and Additive Layer Manufacturing. Since then, Siavash has published 10+ papers on the 'Microstructure Optimisation' and has given lectures at numerous international conferences including one at NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
.
Media
Mahdavi has made several television and radio appearances discussing the topics of robotics, mass customisation and rapid manufacturing. He first appeared on the Iranian science program 'Parto' where he was interviewed live for 30 minutes about his research as a PhD student and on his ambitions for the future. He later appeared on the Discovery Channel where he discussed rapid manufacturing and product customisation; this led to an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live. He most recently appeared on BBC's Working Lunch where his technology and its wide applications were covered in detail. Both Within Technologies and Digital Forming were featured on the front cover of the Economist in February 2011 in an article entitled: How a new manufacturing technology will change the world.Entrepreneur
With support from UCL Business, Mahdavi started Complex Matters Ltd in 2005, a design consultancy that works with designers and engineers in creating objects with optimised structures that enable them to exhibited unparalleled material properties. He has recently moved on to work at Within Technologies Ltd, specialising in higher-end engineering applications. In 2008, Mahdavi launched Digital Forming, a company that specializes in the development of software for the mass customization of 3D Printed consumer products.High profile works in design include the Osteon Chair, AI Stool and AI Light. These products were designed in collaboration with world renowned product designer Assa Ashuach.
Published Papers
Haroun Mahdavi S. and Ashuach A. (2007) Digital Forming: Making of the Osteon Chair and AI Stool. TCT Conference Proceedings 2007.Hanna S. and Haroun Mahdavi S. (2006) Inductive Machine Learning of Structures: Estimating a Finite Element Optimisation Using Support Vector Machines, In Gero, JS (ed) Design Computing and Cognition '06, Springer.
Hanna, S., Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J. (2005) Creativity Through Embodiment: A Computational Model Exemplified By Microstructure Design. In the Journal of Design Studies.
Haroun Mahdavi S. and Hanna S. (2004) Blurring the Boundaries between Actuator and Structure: Investigating the use of Stereolithography to build Adaptive Robots, Proceedings of ICARCV 2004.
Hanna S. and Haroun Mahdavi S. (2004) Modularity and Flexibility at the Small Scale: Evolving Continuous Material Variation with Stereolithography. In Beesley P. et al. (Eds.) Fabrication: examining the digital practice of architecture.
Haroun Mahdavi S. and Hanna S. (2004) Optimising Continuous Microstructures: A Comparison of Gradient-Based and Stochastic Methods, Proceedings of SCIS & ISIS 2004, the joint International Conference on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems and International Symposium on Advanced Intelligent Systems.
Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J. (2004) Innately adaptive robotics through embodied evolution. (extended version). Submitted to Journal of Adaptive Robotics.
Haroun Mahdavi S. and Hanna S. (2003) An evolutionary approach to microstructure optimisation of stereolithographic models, Proceedings of CEC2003, the Congress on Evolutionary Computation.
Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J. (2004) Innately Adaptive Robotics Through Embodied Evolution. In Proc. of Robosphere 2004, the 2nd Workshop on Self-Sustaining Robotic Systems, NASA Ames Research Center, Nov. 9-10, 2004.
Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J. (2003) Evolving Noise Tolerant Antenna Configurations using Shape Memory Alloys. In Proc of the Second International Conference on Computational Intelligence, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CIRAS 2003), December 15–18, 2003, Singapore.
Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J. (2003) An Evolutionary Approach to Damage Recovery of Robot Motion with Muscles. In Proc. of the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2003). W. Banzhaf, T. Christaller, P. Dittrich, J. T. Kim and J. Zieglre (eds), Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg: Berlin, pp. 248–255.
Haroun Mahdavi, S. and Bentley, P. J.(2003) Evolving Motion of Robots with Muscles. In Proc. of EvoROB2003, the 2nd European Workshop on Evolutionary Robotics, EuroGP 2003. pp. 655–664.