Professor Lesley Walls

Management Science

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Personal statement

My research involves the creation and evaluation of models to support risk-informed decisions taken under uncertainty, particularly for decisions related to the introduction of innovative technologies and engineering systems within socio-technical contexts. I am a Chartered Statistician and a Fellow of the UK Safety and Reliability Society.

My research output includes novel methodologies created in response to challenging operational decision problems arising in different domains, including Maritime, Energy, Aerospace, Defence, Manufacturing and Financial Services. The methodologies developed encompass stochastic models, statistical methods and elicitation processes for problem and model structuring as well as probability assessment of model parameters. The projects underpinning my research – both basic and applied – have been funded by UK research agencies (EPSRC, NERC), the European Commission (H2020), the Royal Society, Innovate UK and industrial sponsors.

I am committed to making an impact through my research and knowledge exchange. I received a 1906 Award from the International Electrotechnical Commission in recognition of exceptional achievement and contribution to standardisation for dependability methods. I have successfully engaged in multiple industry-driven projects (including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships), outreach events and consultancies for a range of organisations. I have created and delivered educational learning material for post-experience, post-graduate and undergraduate programmes on topics including management science, stochastic processes, risk analysis, statistical modelling, decision analysis and operational research.

 

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Publications

Addressing the challenges to search and rescue operations caused by ice conditions in Nunavut, Canada
Kikkert Peter, Quigley John, Belton Ian, Brown Robert, Ennis Kerri-Ann, Goerlandt Floris, Howick Susan, Lackenbauer P Whitney, Mak Lawrence, Pedersen Calvin, Pelot Ronald, Shan Desai, Walls Lesley, Wright George
27th International Conference on Port and Ocean Engineering under Arctic Conditions (2023)
Data augmentation to improve the performance of ensemble learning for system failure prediction with limited observations
Shi Guo, Liu Bin, Walls Lesley
2022 13th International Conference on Reliability, Maintainability, and Safety (ICRMS) 13th International Conference on Reliability, Maintainability, and Safety: Reliability and Safety of Intelligent Systems, ICRMS 2022, pp. 296-300 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRMS55680.2022.9944577
A data driven approach to elicit causal links between performance shaping factors and human failure events
Johnson Karl, Morais Caroline, Patelli Edoardo, Walls Lesley
Proceedings of the 32nd European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL 2022) European Safety and Reliability Conference, pp. 520-527 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.3850/978-981-18-5183-4_R12-12-372-cd
Modelling epistemic uncertainty in offshore wind farm production capacity to reduce risk
Zitrou Athena, Bedford Tim, Walls Lesley
Risk Analysis Vol 42, pp. 1524-1540 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13846
Is eliciting dependency worth the effort? A study for the multivariate Poisson-Gamma probability model
Schwarzenegger Rafael, Quigley John, Walls Lesley
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part O: Journal of Risk and Reliability Vol 237, pp. 858-867 (2021)
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748006X211059417
A performance-centred approach to optimising maintenance of complex systems
Barlow E, Bedford T, Revie M, Tan J, Walls L
European Journal of Operational Research Vol 292, pp. 579-595 (2021)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2020.11.005

More publications

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Professional Activities

European Safety and Reliability Conference ESREL 2016
Chair
2016
European Safety and Reliability Conference, ESREL 2013
Keynote/plenary speaker
2013
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) (External organisation)
Member
2013
International Conference on Mathematical Methods in Reliability
Keynote/plenary speaker
2011
International Conference on Quality and Reliability
Keynote/plenary speaker
2011
Consultancy with Doosan Babcock Power Systems
Advisor
2010

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Projects

Technology Innovation in Defence-platform Energy-efficiency
Turan, Osman (Principal Investigator) Aktas, Batuhan (Co-investigator) Atlar, Mehmet (Co-investigator) Barlow, Euan (Co-investigator) Boulougouris, Evangelos (Co-investigator) Jennett, Kyle (Co-investigator) Paton, Steve (Co-investigator) Revie, Matthew (Co-investigator) Seth, Sampan (Co-investigator) Tapinos, Efstathios (Co-investigator) Theotokatos, Gerasimos (Co-investigator) Walls, Lesley (Co-investigator) Wright, George (Co-investigator)
01-Jul-2023 - 30-Jun-2026
HYPOBATT Hyper powered vessel battery charging system (Horizon Europe)
Walls, Lesley (Principal Investigator) Revie, Matthew (Co-investigator) Tapinos, Efstathios (Co-investigator)
01-Jun-2022 - 30-Nov-2025
Nunavut Search and Rescue (NSAR) Project: Supporting Inuit Health and Well-Being, Food Security, Economic Development, and Community Resilience
Quigley, John (Principal Investigator) Howick, Susan (Co-investigator) Walls, Lesley (Co-investigator) Wright, George (Co-investigator)
06-May-2022 - 05-May-2025
Deep Transfer learning for Diagnosis, Prognosis and Maintenance of Sludge Bulking in Wastewater Treatment (International Exchange Cost Share)
Walls, Lesley (Principal Investigator) Liu, Bin (Co-investigator)
30-Mar-2021 - 29-Mar-2023
KTP - JWF Process Solutions Ltd. Business model transition from sensor supply, to provision of a software-based data and information service sales solution.
Paton, Steve (Principal Investigator) Sminia, Harry (Co-investigator) Wallace, William (Co-investigator) Walls, Lesley (Co-investigator)
01-Mar-2021 - 28-Feb-2023
Doctoral Training Partnership 2020-2021 University of Strathclyde | Johnson, Karl
Patelli, Edoardo (Principal Investigator) Walls, Lesley (Co-investigator) Johnson, Karl (Research Co-investigator)
01-Oct-2020 - 01-Jul-2024

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Contact

Professor Lesley Walls
Management Science

Email: lesley.walls@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3616