My name is Tobias Larsson and I’m a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology. I’m the Research Director for the mechanical engineering research, hosted in the Product Development Research Lab – PDRL.
Before joining BTH in 2011 I was the Professor of the Product Innovation research at Luleå University of Technology. I’ve also been guest professor at Department of Product Development, Lund University, and at China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, China.
Born 1972, I got my PhD at Luleå University of Technology in 2001 within the area of simulation driven design within a product development context. Studies and research has always been on the digitalisation of product development (computer aided design and engineering), going from analog to digital , in order to speed up and further enhance the product development capability. The applications in the PhD thesis were within automotive, and high-speed train sector. Special emphasis was on multi-body dynamics and simulation driven design within a product development context. Chaired Professor in Functional Product Development at LTU 2007, Professor in Lund 2010, Chaired Professor in Mechanical Engineering at BTH in 2011.
The core of today is within Product-Service Systems Innovation where the focus is on developing methods and tools for engineering product development and simulation applications in industrial settings to support development of sustainable product-service systems (PSS) that should create value on the market. PSS puts the focus on the functional aspects of the development and drives the usually separated product and service development teams into a more concurrent way of working to ensure delivery of a life-cycle function. Value modelling and simulation, knowledge management, and innovation performance metrics when developing PSS is of extra interest in the research.
When companies are moving into a situation where they need to develop “greener” products and services in order to be sustainable, engineers involved in product development need to think about more choices all the time, sustainability being one of them. This means that the “engineers desktop” need to be updated with tools and methods to take into account life-cycle factors and sustainability, besides the traditional factors of product performance. The aim is to help research, prototype and implement this updated “engineering toolbox 2.0” for the engineer of the future.
I focus product-service system innovation, product development, engineering design and knowledge engineering principles in a design research quest to support the progress towards an “engineered sustainable future”.
Currently supervising 14 PhD students and has examined several PhD’s (27) and licentiate (32) degrees. I have contributed in over 100 peer-reviewed publications within the research area. Initiated and finalized several research projects. Started and led strong environments like the BTH KKS research profile “Model Driven Development and Decision Support“. I was the main person behind the setup and creation of the Faste Laboratory, a VINN Excellence Centre within product-service systems. I’m the co-founder of the Design for Wellbeing framework, a joint research project together with Stanford University, USA, and Hosei University, Japan, and have taken part in several European Union projects within aerospace sector (VIVACE 2004-2007, CRESCENDO 2009-2012).
Professor (Chair in Mechanical Engineering) with extensive experience from applied research and projects in the intersection between academia and industry. Primarily researching digitalized product development, and innovation engineering, within the aerospace, automotive and industrial sector. Healthcare sector applications is on the rise.
With a high focus on the digitalisation and constant transformation going on in industry with start in computer aided engineering processes (1996-) and recently on a model based digitalisation work where digital twin and IoT comes together for delivering customer value through product-service systems in a circular economy I’m happy to support any organisation with a desire for a future sustainable industry and society.
I’ll contribute with simulation driven decision support in the development of innovative product-service systems for tomorrows sustainable society.