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Biochemical Engineering

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Sofia Simaria

Decisional Tools Post-doctoral Research Associate

Phone:+44 (0)20 7679 7745 (Internal 37745)

a.simaria@ucl.ac.uk

Education

• PhD (Industrial Management) University of Aveiro, Portugal  (2006)
• MSc (Quantitative Methods for Management) University of Porto, Portugal (2001)
• 5 year undergraduate degree (Management and Industrial Engineering) University of Aveiro, Portugal (1998)

Research Interests

Sofia’s current research interests focus on the development of computer-based decision-support tools models that capture the process-business interface of biopharmaceutical manufacture. She works in the Decisional Tools research group with Dr Suzanne Farid

Sofia has extensive experience in the development of simulation models and optimisation algorithms for improving the efficiency of assembly line production systems and now she is bringing that experience into the biopharmaceutical production area.

Currently she works on a collaborative TSB-EPSRC funded research project between UCL and Medimmune with Dr Suzanne Farid. The research focuses on creating a tool that integrates multi-objective decision analysis and combinatorial optimisation techniques to allow for a holistic assessment of the process-business interactions of alternative production strategies. The tool is being applied to the production of antibodies derived from cell culture processes.

She also works on a recently awarded TSB Technology Programme which is enabling research into decision-support tools that help devise successful business models for novel regenerative medicine therapies such as stem cells and cell-based vaccine cancer therapy. This is in collaboration with Lonza Biologics, UCL Dept. of Management Science & Innovation, the NHS Technology Adoption Centre, LGC and Future Medicine.

Teaching and Training Activities

Sofia has provided Mathematics tutorials for MSc and undergraduate students of Biochemical Engineering. She co-supervises Masters-level research projects in the decisional tools area.

Selected Publications

Simaria, AS, Gao, Y, Turner, R and Farid, SS (2011) “Designing multi-product biopharmaceutical facilities using evolutionary algorithms” Proceedings of ESCAPE21 - 21st European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering, May 29- June 1, Chalikidiki, Greece.

Simaria, AS and Farid, SS (2010) “Process intensification of antibody purification processes: a comparison of MILP versus evolutionary algorithms”, Proceedings of the ESCAPE20 – 20th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering, 6-9 June, Ischia, Naples, Italy.

Simaria, AS, Xambre, AR, Filipe, NA, Vilarinho, PM (2010) "A Decision Support System for Assembly and Production Line Balancing", Handbook on Business Information Systems, Gunasekaran, A and Sandhu, M (eds), World Scientific Books.

Simaria, AS and Vilarinho, PM (2009) “2-ANTBAL: An ant colony optimisation algorithm for balancing two-sided assembly lines”, Computers & Industrial Engineering, 56, 489 -506.

Simaria AS, Zanella de Sa, M, Vilarinho, PM (2009) “Meeting demand variations using flexible U-shaped assembly lines”, International Journal of Production Research, 47, 3937-3955.

Vilarinho, PM and Simaria, AS (2006) “ANTBAL: an ant colony optimization approach for balancing mixed model assembly lines with parallel workstations”, International Journal of Production Research, 44, 291-303.

Mendes, AR, Ramos, AL, Simaria, AS and Vilarinho, PM (2005) “Combining heuristic procedures and simulation models for balancing a PC camera assembly line”, Computers & Industrial Engineering, 49, 413-431.

Simaria, AS and Vilarinho, PM (2004) “A genetic algorithm based approach to the mixed model assembly line balancing problem of type II”, Computers & Industrial Engineering, 47, 391-407.

Vilarinho, PM and Simaria, AS (2002) “A two-stage heuristic method for balancing mixed-model assembly lines with parallel workstations and zoning constraints”, International Journal of Production Research, 40, 1405-1420.

Simaria, AS and Vilarinho, PM (2001) “The simple assembly line balancing problem with parallel workstations - a simulated annealing approach”, International Journal of Industrial Engineering – Theory, Applications and Practice, 8, 230-240.

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