Rate My Professor Tabbi Wilberforce

Tabbi Wilberforce is Lecturer in Engineering Education in the Department of Engineering at King’s College London. His research specializations include engineering, renewable energy systems such as solar, wind, and hybrid systems, hydrogen fuel cell technologies and electrolyzers, electrochemical simulations, computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, hybrid electric vehicles, and powertrains. He holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, and is a Chartered Engineer and member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Previously, as Deputy Programme Director for Mechanical Engineering and Design at Aston University, he established the hybrid powertrain research hub, Hydrogen Fuel Cell research unit, and Engineering for Sustainable Development research centre. He served as admission tutor, institutionalizing the Black Student Network to address attainment gaps and securing Mercedes HPP scholarships for students from BAME backgrounds. His extensive teaching portfolio includes visiting lectureships at Changchun Institute of Technology in China, University of Sharjah in the UAE, and Rushmore Business School in Mauritius, where he developed six mechanical engineering modules. At the University of West of Scotland, he lectured in Mechanical Engineering, coordinated 11 modules across programs like Aircraft, Chemical, Civil, and Mechanical Engineering, and headed the hydrogen fuel cell and electrolyzer research group while contributing to the BEng Engineering Design & Manufacture Graduate Apprenticeship program.

Dr. Wilberforce has supervised five PhD students to completion, served as external and internal examiner for PhD vivas, and leads global impact projects with students in Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan) and Asia (Pakistan, India), influencing engineering curricula in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. He consulted on high-voltage systems for hydrogen fuel cell trucks and participated in a pilot project developing virtual labs for hydrogen fuel systems at the University of Texas at Tyler. He is a member of the UWS Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team and international advisory committees for the International Conference on Sustainable Energy & Environmental Protection and the International Conference on Material Science & Smart Materials. Notable grants include the Royal Academy of Engineering Higher Education Partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa award with partners in South Africa to develop electric vehicle powertrain modules, and a British Council-funded project to train Pakistani academics in innovative STEM pedagogies. Key publications feature 'Optimization of the PEMFC zig-zag channel design using CFD simulation' (2024) and works on proton exchange membrane fuel cell modelling and characterisation.