Open PhD Defense Fatemeh Besharati Moghaddam

Fatemeh's open PhD defense

We are pleased to invite you to the public defense of Fatemeh Besharati Moghaddam's doctoral dissertation on "Data-Driven Operator Support in Industry 4.0".

🗓️ Thursday 11th of June 2026.
🕔 Start at 16:00, followed by a reception.
📍 Auditorium A03, Metallurgie, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 46 9052 Gent-Zwijnaarde.
🗣️ Spoken language: English.

Attendance registrations open until the 25th of May via this registration link.

There will also be a livestream for those who cannot attend in person via this Teams link.

We warmly welcome colleagues, researchers and anyone interested to join us for this milestone moment.

Get directly involved on this topic and share your thoughts on Fatemeh's open PhD defense on LinkedIn. You can also read more about Fatemeh's background, history and her work.

Data-Driven Operator Support in Industry 4.0

This PhD research focuses on adaptive operator support systems in Industry 4.0 manufacturing environments. As industrial systems become more digitalized and connected, operators are expected to interact with increasingly complex information and technologies. The dissertation investigates how data-driven approaches can be used to provide more responsive and context-aware support to operators during assembly tasks, within Industry 4.0.

The research explores several aspects of operator support, including operator experience classification, intelligent information retrieval, and probabilistic decision-making under uncertain sensing conditions. Different industrial case studies were analyzed to understand how the quality of sensing data and the structure of support systems influence the effectiveness of assistance provided to operators. The work also investigates how conversational support systems and question-answering approaches can complement traditional digital work instructions in dynamic industrial settings.

Overall, the dissertation contributes to the design of more adaptive and connected operator support systems by combining sensing technologies, structured knowledge, and data-driven models.

Fatemeh's background and history

Fatemeh Besharati was born on February 4th, 1985, in Iran. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering in 2007 and a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research in 2012, both from Isfahan University of Technology. She gained over seven years of professional experience in process optimization, data analysis, and project coordination, contributing to improving production efficiency and supporting technical operations.

She is currently finalizing her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research within the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design at Ghent University. Her research is situated in the context of Industry 4.0 and focuses on operator support in modern manufacturing environments.

In particular, she investigates how digital technologies and data-driven approaches can improve operator support in complex and variable assembly systems. Her work explores the transition from traditional and static support systems toward adaptive and context-aware support, aiming to provide the right information to the operator at the right time. The research addresses key challenges related to increasing system complexity, operator cognitive load, and the integration of sensing technologies in industrial environments.