Professor Stephen McArthur
Principal
Principal's Office
Personal statement
Stephen McArthur is Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Strathclyde. He also holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Intelligent Energy Systems. His main area of expertise is applying artificial intelligence in power and energy systems. He has delivered solutions for a range of smart grid, asset management and data analytic challenges. His research now concerns the customisation of artificial intelligence techniques combined with distributed intelligence architectures to provide decision support for energy and wider industrial applications.
Professor McArthur won the 2021 IEEE Richard Harold Kaufmann Award for outstanding contributions in industrial systems engineering, “for innovative contributions to the advancement of intelligent systems for power engineering applications”.
He was the Principal Investigator leading the UKRI EnergyREV programme. This brought together 22 universities and 32 investigators to deliver novel research and innovation aimed at accelerating the uptake, value and impact of Smart Local Energy Systems. EnergyREV was a key component of the UK Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution (PFER) programme. PFER championed investable and scalable local business models using integrated approaches to deliver cleaner and cheaper energy services.
He was also the Director of the joint Strathclyde and Imperial College EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Power Networks and Smart Grids. This trained doctoral level engineers who can realise the future low carbon smart grid. Professor McArthur was also Academic Director of the Advanced Nuclear Research Centre at Strathclyde, which delivers academic and industry collaborative programmes focused on plant lifetime extension and improved operations in the nuclear industry.
As co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Bellrock Technology, he has helped design and create the Deckchair product. This supports the effective and rapid deployment of intelligent system, AI and data analytic products and services, and is being used by customers across eight different industry sectors including energy, healthcare and rail transport.
Area of Expertise
- Intelligent systems, with a focus on power and energy applications.
- Research and development of diagnostic and prognostic decision support systems.
- Decision support frameworks and architectures, using distributed intelligence methods and platforms.
- Smart Grid applications.
- Plant lifetime extension in the civil nuclear industry.
Prize And Awards
- 2021 IEEE Richard Harold Kaufmann Award
- Recipient
- 6/2020
- Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards: Multi–Party Collaboration Award
- Recipient
- 2016
- IEEE Power & Energy Society Technical Committee Prize Paper Award.
- Recipient
- 7/2010
- IEEE Power & Energy Society Technical Committee Working Group Recognition Award
- Recipient
- 7/2008
Publications
- Machine learning and knowledge-driven approaches for automated Calandria Tubesheet Bore Inspection in CANDU reactors
- Young Andrew, Manning Callum Paul, Zabalza Jaime, West Graeme, Murray Paul, McArthur Stephen, Kennedy Chris, Barpugga Harpreet
- Sixth Annual Conference on Disruptive, Innovative, and Emerging Technologies in the Nuclear Industry: DIET 2025 (2025)
- Multi-modal machine learning prediction of fleetwide switchgear SF6 escape from historical maintenance records, online monitors and domain expertise
- Liu Ting, Irwin Fiona, de la Barba Luis, Holton Allan, Jones Dan, Terret-Hensman Rob, Wilson Gordon, Riccardi Annalisa, Brown Blair David, McArthur Stephen, Stewart Brian, Stephen Bruce
- CIGRE 2025 International Symposium (2025)
- Temperature measurement uncertainty quantification in condition monitoring of critical infrastructure using complex timeseries dependency modeling
- Blair Jennifer, Liu Ting, Storey Thomas, Wong Timothy, McArthur Stephen, Brown Blair, Lu Ernest, Forbes Alistair, Stephen Bruce
- Measurement: Energy Vol 8 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meaene.2025.100068
- Domain-adapted explainability for machine learning predictions of rotodynamic pump degradation in safety-critical industrial sectors
- Amin Omnia, Brown Blair David, Stephen Bruce, Livina Valerie, McArthur Stephen
- Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1177/09576509251387765
- Localized gas equivalent model of electrical heat demand for urban LV distribution network impact analysis
- Anderson Amy, McGarry Connor, Galloway Stuart, Stephen Bruce, McArthur Stephen
- IEEE Access Vol 13, pp. 158776-158788 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3608478
- Multi-agent negotiation and architecture for voltage control and flexibility on minimally monitored last mile distribution systems
- Storey Thomas, Stephen Bruce, Brown Blair David, McArthur Stephen
- IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Europe 2025 (2025)
Teaching
My teaching activities cover intelligent systems, distributed intelligence in power systems, smart grids, condition monitoring, and diagnostic systems.
Research Interests
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and intelligent system applications in the power and energy fields
- Industrial application of AI, data science and data analytics
- Condition monitoring, diagnostics and prognostics for equipment, plant and power networks
- Distributed intelligence in electric power systems, active network management and Smart Grids
- Nuclear power plant monitoring, diagnosis, prediction, and lifetime extension
- Intelligent system methods: knowledge based systems; model based reasoning; machine learning
- Multi-Agent Systems and Intelligent Agents: multi-agent methods, models, techniques and architectures for power engineering applications
- Explainable AI
- Decision support environments
Professional Activities
- 2nd Joint China-UK Experts Symposium on Sustainable Development and Decarbonisation (S2D2)
- Speaker
- 2/11/2024
- Visit of a Chancellor-led delegation group of Guangzhou Medical University to Strathclyde
- Participant
- 29/5/2024
- Scottish Enterprise (External organisation)
- Advisor
- 1/1/2024
- Scottish Power Energy Networks Holdings Limited SPEN (External organisation)
- Advisor
- 1/3/2023
- KUKA Strategic Partnership Foundation
- Participant
- 24/11/2022
- Nanyang Technological University
- Visiting researcher
- 1/1/2022
Projects
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Nuclear Energy- SATURN (Skills And Training Underpinning a Renaissance in Nuclear) | Pathak, Jagriti
- West, Graeme (Principal Investigator) McArthur, Stephen (Co-investigator) Pathak, Jagriti (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 01-Jan-2028
- Asset Data Analytics
- Stewart, Brian (Principal Investigator) McArthur, Stephen (Co-investigator) Stephen, Bruce (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 15-Jan-2024
- SF6 Escape Prediction for NGET HV Switchgear
- Stephen, Bruce (Principal Investigator) Akartunali, Kerem (Co-investigator) Brown, Blair David (Co-investigator) McArthur, Stephen (Co-investigator) Riccardi, Annalisa (Co-investigator) Stewart, Brian (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 27-Jan-2026
- Advanced Substation Partial Discharge Monitoring (NGET Framework Agreement)
- Stewart, Brian (Principal Investigator) McArthur, Stephen (Co-investigator) Stephen, Bruce (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2026
- DTP 2224 University of Strathclyde | Cassidy, Maria
- Stephen, Bruce (Principal Investigator) Brown, Blair David (Co-investigator) McArthur, Stephen (Co-investigator) Cassidy, Maria (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2027
- DIGF-CRAD-06294: Data-driven Manufacturing Colab Innovation Accelerator
- Sherlock, Andrew (Principal Investigator) McArthur, Stephen (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2025
Contact
Professor
Stephen
McArthur
Principal
Principal's Office
Email: s.mcarthur@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 4838