Control Science and Dynamical Systems (CSDy)

Indepartmental PhD Program

The CSDy Indepartmental PhD Program provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary research in control science and dynamical system theory. The CSDy program coordinates scholarly and scientific activity of these areas within the Institute of Technology (IT) and the University and coordinates its activities with industrial firms in the Minnesota region. CSDy faculty are drawn from the Departments of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, as well as from the Departments of Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics, all in IT, and from the Departments of Economics and Political Science. The Co-Directors of the CSDy Center are Professor Gary J. Balas (AEM) and Professor Tryphon Georgiou (EE). Professor Balas also serves as CSDy Director of Graduate Studies.

The CSDy seminar series focussed on research at the University of Minnesota this past Spring. A special seminar was given by Professor John Doyle from the California Institute of Technology on “Complexity and Robustness: Math and Physics Meets the Internet.” Tom Kearns from MTS, a local Minnesota company, presented the first seminar of the Spring semester entitled “MTS Advanced Engineering Solutions.” Professor Tryphon Georgiou from Electrical Engineering presented two seminars. The first entitled “Subspace Analysis of State Covariances” and the other on “Robustness of a Relaxation Oscillation.” Professor Mos Kaveh, Electrical Engineering Department Head, presented a lecture on “Signal Processing for Mechanical Diagnostics Using Acoustic Emissions.” This is ongoing research with five other faculty under a DARPA grant. Professors Brad Nelson and Will Durfee of Mechanical Engineering presented seminars on “Microactuators and Micromanipulation” and “System Indentification of Muscles.” From the Honeywell Technology Center, Dr. Jorge Tierno lectured on the topic of “Satellite Formation Flying.” Dr. Tierno recently taught a course in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics.

Professor Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos of Computer Science presented results from his DARPA research contract in a talk entitled “Distributed Robots for Surveillance.” This research has been the subject of a short CNN news clip and a video of his mobile robots has been seen on local and network news programs. Professor Max Donath of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at the University of Minnesota presented the seminar “UMN Intelligent Vehicles Laboratory.” This seminar focussed on the ITS SAFEPLOW experimental vehicle. This is ongoing research between ITS and Mn/DOT which was recently demonstrated to the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation, Mort Downey, in Washington, D.C. Professor Bruce Lee of Mechanical Engineering gave a seminar entitled “New Concepts in Electrohydraulic Devices and Control.” Professor Mehran Mesbahi, a new faculty in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, presented a seminar on “Satellite Formation Control.” Dr. Tom Posbergh described his work on “Control of Spinning Spacecraft” and Professor Prodromus Diaodtidis of Chemical Engineering finished the series with a seminar entitled “Nonlinear Process Control.”

Two students, Dr. Jiecai Luo and Dr. Steven Haker, graduated with the PhD degree in CSDy during the 1999-2000 academic year. Dr. Luo’s thesis was entitled “Optimal Control for Control Actions with Mixed Impulse Functions and Bounded Piecewise Continuous Functions.” Dr. Luo’s advisor was Professor E.B. Lee (EE). Dr. Haker’s thesis was entitled “Geometric PDE’s in Computer Vision.” His advisor was Professor Allen Tannenbaum (EE). The CSDy Program has 6 students pursuing the PhD and all are Research Assistants working on various research projects related to the control and dynamics of systems.

For more information regarding Control Science and Dynamical Systems Program contact Kristal Belisle at (612)-625-3364 (e-mail: kristal@aem.umn.edu).