Ali Zalzala is a lecturer in control engineering at the University of Sheffield with particular interest in industrial automation. Through the Robotics Research Group, he manages an active programme on the advanced real-time control of intelligent systems. In addition to the development of industry-supported systems, research is carried out on the applications of soft computing techniques and distributed processing in robotics, manufacturing processes and prosthetic devices. His work is supported by grants from EPSRC, ESPRIT as well as industry. Over the last few years, he has published over 70 papers in journals and international conference proceedings.

Peter Fleming is a professor of industrial systems and control at the University of Sheffield and head of the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering. His control and systems engineering interests include control applications of genetic algorithms and optimisation, software for control system design and implementation, and distributed and parallel processing for real-time control and instrumentation. These interests have led to the development of close links with a variety of industries in sectors such as aerospace, power generation, food processing and manufacturing. He is director of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre for Control and Systems Engineeringand has authored over 150 publications, including four books.