Senthil Kumar's research focus is in the area of Precision Engineering with a special interest in the fields of Ultra Precision machining, Micro machining, and Fixture Planning. He has co-authored two books entitled "Advanced Fixture Design for FMS" by Springer-Verlag, UK, and “An advanced treatise on Fixture Design and Planning” by World Scientific. He has published more than 250 papers in International Refereed Journals and Conferences. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Manufacturing Processes, Journals of Micromanufacturing, Machines, Materials and Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering and was an Editorial board member of the Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Research, International Journal of Materials, Manufacturing and Optimization and was an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science in Engineering.

Senthil Kumar has received several awards including the IES prestigious Manufacturing Achievement Award by the Institute of Engineers Singapore, Serope Kalpakjian’s Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, USA in recognition of significant achievements and leadership in the area of micromachining, fixture design. In addition, he has also received several teaching awards such as the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, Teaching Honors List award, and Commendation award, and listed among the NUS Excellent Lecturers for excellence in teaching.

Senthil Kumar has received research funding worth over S$ 12 million from several agencies for conducting research in the field of Ultra Precision Machining, micromachining, fixture design, and implant manufacture. Senthil Kumar has also served as the Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the National University of Singapore and also held several positions including Vice Chairman and Treasurer of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. He has also served in the mission of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Vienna, as a technical expert in Manufacturing.