Professor Yi Qin (FIMechE, FIoN, FHeA, CEng, PhD, MSc and BEng), is a Professor in Manufacturing Technology and Systems, Director of the Centre for Precision Manufacturing, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Manufacturing Review, Associate Editor of the International Journal of Lightweight Materials and Manufacture, Secretary to the Committee of the UK University Manufacturing Engineering Consortium, and a Fellow of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Professor Qin’s interests in research and technological development (RTD) include Materials Forming, Micro/Precision-Manufacturing, Numerical Modelling, and Manufacturing System Technology. He has taken the lead in several large-scale RTD projects, including co-ordination of one of the largest manufacturing research projects in EU - FP6 integrated project MASMICRO for the development of an integrated facility for the mass-manufacture of micro-components. He is the Project Co-ordinator of EU FAST-SMART Project (2020-2024). His recent/current RTD projects include EU Micro-FAST, LoCoLite, Counter-Fog, MMTech, SUPERMAT, LoCoMaTech, MicroMAN, M3DLoC and FAST-SMART project, and UK EPSRC Micro-3D, AUTOMAN and Manufacturing the future SMART project.

Professor Qin has published over 250 technical articles on various subjects in the fields of materials, manufacturing and numeric modelling, including a book on "Micro-Manufacturing Engineering and Technology" (published by Elsevier, 1st edition in June 2010, and 2nd edition in June 2015), and 5 journal special-issues. He is also an Advisor to the International Commercial Magazine "Micro-Manufacturing", and edited newsletters for EU MINAM Platform and NanoFutures Platform.

Professor Qin has delivered keynote speeches and invited lectures at more than 30 international conferences/workshops. He has reviewed technical papers for more than 20 international journals and been a member of the scientific committee for more than 40 international conferences. He was the Chair of the 4th International Conference on New Forming Technology (ICNFT) (Glasgow, August 2015), and Co-Chair of the 5th ICNFT (Bremen, Sept. 2018).