Dave Crolla
David A Crolla FREng
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BTech, PhD, DTech, , FIMechE, FIAgrE, CEng, MSAE
My activities are concentrated on engineering consultancy work, in particular specialised short courses and expert witness cases in automotive engineering. However, I also retain strong academic links with the Universities of Leeds, Cranfield and Sunderland. My own specialism is in vehicle dynamics and control. I am author of over 200 journal and conference papers in this subject area. Particular topics of interest have covered the ride, handling, safety, stability and braking of vehicles. I have worked extensively with industrial partners and applications have included passenger cars, land speed record vehicles, racing cars, SUVs, off-road vehicles and commercial vehicles.
I am an Emeritus Professor of Automotive Engineering at the University of Leeds, where I retain my research links with the Vehicle Dynamics and Control Group that I built up. I am series editor for a textbook series on Automotive Engineering for Elsevier which now embraces 10 textbooks on a wide range of vehicle engineering and technology topics.
I was an academic in the School of Mechanical Engineering from 1979 to 2004, and was Head of School from 1996 to 2001. I was heavily involved in all the RAE exercises, but particularly in 2001 event in which we were graded 5*. During my career at Leeds I was also involved a wide range of management activities both at faculty and university level, many of which were associated with research degrees and research development.
I am a Visiting Professor in the Department of Automotive Engineering, Cranfield University where I contribute to research activities in vehicle dynamics, chassis control, hybrid vehicle powertrains and low carbon vehicles. I am course leader for a series of short courses at Cranfield on Chassis Dynamics and Control (CDC). I am currently a consultant to the BLOODHOUND SSC project which aims to achieve a new land speed record of 1000 mile/h.
I have been a Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland since 2004 and I contribute to a wide range of activities within the Automotive Technology Academic Area. These include contributions to their strategic and development plans, links with local industry, e.g. Nissan, through AMAP, overseas and teaching developments in automotive technology and research in Automotive Mechatronics, Driving Simulator and Human Factors.
I have developed a strong international profile from these activities; until 2007 I was Vice President of FISITA with responsibility for all technical issues; FISITA represents 130,000 professional automotive engineers world-wide from 27 member organisations. Also, I regularly act on technical and organising committee for international conferences: current and recent commitments include IMechE, FISITA, EAEC, AVEC, MOVIC, AUTOTECH, ISTVS and SAE. I have lectured widely to academic and industrial audiences throughout Europe, USA, Japan and China.