Vishal Ashok Wankhede is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Operations Management and Quantitative Techniques at the Indian Institute of Management, Bodh Gaya, India, since July 2023. Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU), Gandhinagar, Gujarat, from March 2022 to June 2023, and in the Department of Industrial Engineering at PDEU from July 2016 to June 2019. Dr. Wankhede earned his Ph.D. in Industry 4.0 from the Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli, in July 2022. He also holds an M.Tech in Cloud Manufacturing (2016) and a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering (2014). He was recognized with the "Budding Researcher Award" in 2022 and an academic proficiency prize for his M.Tech at NIT Trichy. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters with over 1300 citations and an h-index of 20. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the Institution of Engineers (India) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. His research interests include Industry 4.0, Smart Manufacturing, Additive Manufacturing, Circular Economy, Advanced Manufacturing Processes, Optimization, and Multi-Criteria Decision Making.K.E.K. Vimal received a Ph.D. degree in Sustainable Manufacturing in 2016 and an M. Tech degree in Industrial Engineering in 2012 from the National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, India, and a Production Engineering degree in 2010 from the PSG College of Technology, India. He has more than 10 years of teaching and research experience in Mechanical Engineering with a special emphasis on Circular supply chain management, Lean Six Sigma, and sustainability in manufacturing. He has worked as a Guest Editor for a few journals. Presently, he acts as a reviewer for more than 20 prestigious Web of Science journals. In addition, he has also published as an author (and co-author) 4 books with Publisher, 20 book chapters, and more than 60 articles in Journals and Conferences. He is currently working as Assistant Professor, Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, India.Pankaj Sahlot is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Kurukshetra, India. He also worked as an Assistant Professor at Pandit Deendayal Energy University Gandhinagar (PDEU) for around 4 years. He completed his Ph.D. from IIT Gandhinagar, India. He also visited the University of North Texas Denton, USA, for six months as a visiting researcher during his PhD. His research work has been published in various reputable journals and conferences. He did his M.Tech from IIT Hyderabad in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and received the Academic Excellence award from Prof. C. N. R. Rao. He completed his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering at Ideal Institute of Technology in Ghaziabad, U.P. India. Currently, his research of interest focuses on additive manufacturing (AM) and Friction Stir Welding (FSW) of different metals. He has also collaborated with reputed national and international institutes and published several articles.
