UK Aerospace & Defence: CATIA & SIMULIA Industry Days

Jafar Jamshidi is a Chartered Engineer with over 35 years of multidisciplinary experience bridging industrial leadership and academic research. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, an Executive MBA, an MSc in IT for Manufacturing, and a BSc in Industrial Engineering. Beginning his career as a workshop technician and manufacturing apprentice, Jafar progressed to Chief Quality Engineer, gaining deep expertise in high-value manufacturing. Today, he is a 3DEXPERIENCE Champion and the Course Director for Aircraft Engineering, where he leads publicly funded research in manufacturing automation, assembly, and systems integration. He actively collaborates with Tier 1 partners and supply chains across the aerospace, automotive, and energy sectors.

Aerospace Design & PLM Expert driving Vertical Aerospace’s 3DEXPERIENCE journey from engineering design through to manufacturing and the customer Virtual Twin experiences.

Dr. Sajid Asif is an Industry Process Consultant at Dassault Systèmes, where he leads technical sales engagements for SIMULIA EuroNorth, specializing in electromagnetics technology across diverse industry sectors. A Senior Member of the IEEE and a member of the IET, Dr. Asif brings extensive expertise in the design, development, and testing of passive RF/microwave circuits and phased array antennas for Satcom and terrestrial applications from his previous role as an Antenna Engineer. His professional background spans both industry and academia, having also served as a researcher and lecturer at several academic institutions. Dr. Asif holds a B.Sc., an M.Sc., and a PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering.

Mauro Caresta is as a vibro-acoustics solutions consultant working with the wave6 software.

He has a Master degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rome La Sapienza followed by a PhD at the University of New South Wales in Australia. His PhD and postdoc focused on vibro-acoustics and attenuation methods for submarines. After a postdoc on NDT for nuclear fuel assemblies, he worked at the University of Cambridge investigating shock propagation in drilling tools. Before joining Dassault Systèmes, he worked for Schlumberger on several research projects related to shocks, vibrations, dynamics, reliability and condition monitoring. He is the author of 43 journal and conference papers and 8 patents.

Dr. Leon Cordingley has worked at Dassault Systèmes for nearly 20 years. In his role as Industry Process Consultant he is responsible for supporting users of SIMULIA products, in particular 3DEXPERINECE and Abaqus. Leon has knowledge across a wide range of simulation capabilities, including composites, additive manufacturing, heat transfer, HPC and python.

Paul has over 30 years experience working in Aerospace and Defence supporting digital transformations. He has worked closely with most of the major Aerospace, Defence and Marine primes within UK and across Europe. He has a background working with large digital transformation companies and has been at Dassault Systèmes for over 4 years.

Giovanni Fiore is an Industry Consultant Manager for Fluid Dynamics simulations in EuroNORTH. He has a background in Applied Aerodynamics and has 15 years’ experience in CFD and aerodynamic correlation activities. He leads a brilliant Team of 4 people whose activities range from vehicle aerodynamics and aeroacoustics, to aerospace and life science applications.

Tim Greenwood has 30 years experience working with Dassault Systemes supporting the wider customer Eco-System. He has worked closely with most of the major Engineering organisation's within the UK across both the Aerospace Industry and the Automotive/F1 Sector. He has a background in Aerospace Design and is the technical Industry lead for Aerospace & Defence in Dassault Systemes across Northern Europe.

Mohan Jayawardene completed his Ph.D. at Loughborough University in 2000, where he subsequently worked as a Research Engineer at the Center for Mobile Communication and Research (CMCR) until 2005. In October 2005, Mohan joined CST AG as an Application Engineer. By 2007, he transitioned from a technical role to lead the sales and technical support team and in 2010 he was appointed as the Country Manager for CST UK Ltd.

Following the acquisition of CST AG by DASSAULT SYSTEMES, Mohan took on the role of SIMULIA Sales Director, overseeing channel partners. Mohan currently leads the sales teams in both direct and indirect channels for SIMULIA in the Euro North Region.

Raman Singh is an Industry Consultant Senior Manager for MODSIM simulations in EuroNORTH.

Ethan Spall brings over five years of dedicated MBSE experience to his role as an MBSE Specialist at Dassault Systèmes UK. Specialising in SysML and system architecture modelling, he supports UK Aerospace and Defence programmes through rigorous model development, structured training, and hands on mentoring, both within Dassault Systèmes and across client organisations.

He recently completed an MSc in Systems Engineering at Cranfield University while working full time as a model based systems engineer, further strengthening his technical and methodological foundation. His experience spans Aerospace and Defence, pharmaceutical and mobile network programmes, where he has led and supported the deployment and scaling of MBSE within complex, highly regulated environments.

With the rapid evolution of modelling languages and digital engineering technologies, Ethan continues to advance his capability, ensuring he delivers robust, future ready MBSE solutions aligned to the demands of UK defence and other high assurance sectors.

Matt has been with Dassault Systèmes for four years, spending the last three as part of the CATIA Design & Engineering team. He specialises in Lightweight Engineering and Generative Design, helping customers adopt advanced engineering technologies to drive innovation. Working across a range of industries, with a particular focus on Aerospace & Defence and Transportation & Mobility, Matt showcases the latest CATIA capabilities and Dassault Systèmes solutions to the market.