Fall 2017 Joint CSC@USC/CommNetS-MHI Seminar Series

Center for Systems and Control, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California

Andrzej Banaszuk, Andrew Sparks, and Fu Lin, United Technologies Research Center
Systems and control research at United Technologies Research Center

Sep 18, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132

Abstract

This presentation will give a broad overview of research at UTRC's Systems Department, with particular focus on the areas of autonomous and intelligent systems, robotics, and control of complex systems. The research is conducted by a diverse team of researchers in dynamical systems, advanced control, applied mathematics, and human factors. Autonomous and intelligent systems research for aerial and ground robotics includes intelligent system architecture, human-machine systems, perception, collaborative motion planning with dynamic collision avoidance, manipulation, and formal verification. Research for large-scale, complex, and interconnected systems includes systematic methods to functionally decompose complex, interconnected systems to inform control architecture as well as approaches to sparse and distributed control. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of existing and future career and internship opportunities in the broad area of autonomous and intelligent systems, controls, and robotics.

Biosketches

Dr. Andrzej Banaszuk is the Senior Director of the Systems Department at the United Technologies Research Center. In this role he is leading a diverse group of 140+ engineers and scientists in Connecticut, California, and Italy conducting advanced research in the areas of intelligent systems, autonomous systems, systems engineering, controls, embedded systems, cyber-physical systems, human-machine systems, dynamical systems, applied mathematics, data analytics, machine learning, computer vision, robotics, artificial intelligence, cyber-physical systems security, communication networks, and power electronics. Since joining UTRC in 1997, he has conducted research in analysis, design, and control of dynamical systems applied to jet engines, rotorcraft, electric power networks, and buildings. Since 2000 he has led collaborative multi-university research teams in the area of flow control, control of combustion instabilities, robust design of large uncertain dynamic networks, and autonomy. He is an author of 44 journal papers, 72 conference papers, and 11 patents. From 1999 to 2002, he was an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions of Controls Systems Technology. He was appointed to serve on the Board of Governors of IEEE Control Systems Society in 2004. For his work on active and passive control of flow instabilities in jet engines he received IEEE Controls Systems Technology Award in 2007. He became an IEEE Fellow in 2011. He was elected to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering in 2015. He holds Ph.D. in EE from Warsaw University of Technology and Ph.D. in Mathematics from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr. Andrew Sparks is the Control Systems Group Leader at the United Technologies Research Center. He received his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 1986 and 1988 and joined what is now Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) as a military officer. He received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1995, returning to AFRL to lead several research teams in developing and transitioning modern control analysis and design methods for aerospace vehicles, authoring or co-authoring one book, two book chapters, 30 journal articles, and 72 conference papers. He received his MS in Management from Stanford University as a Sloan Fellow and returned to AFRL to lead the Analytical Mechanics Branch, Flight Control Division, and Power and Control Division, leading R&D programs in flight control, automation, electrical power systems and thermal management. For the last two years has been the Control Systems Group Leader in the Systems Department at UTRC, leading a highly technical team in developing capabilities and solving challenges for UTC’s aerospace and building business units.

Dr. Fu Lin is a Senior Engineer in the Control Systems Group at United Technologies Research Center. He received his B.S. degree in instrument science and engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China, in 2005, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 2012. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and the mathematics and computer science division of Argonne National Laboratory, before joining United Technologies Research Center in 2016. His research interests include modeling, control, and optimization of distributed systems.