Seminar with Speaker Bassam Bamieh

Abstract

In the design and control of large-scale distributed systems, architectural considerations are arguably some of the most important ones. These include local versus global feedback in multi-agent systems, sensor and actuator placement in distributed control of PDEs, how far should sensor information travel in distributed controller architecture, the structure and realization of distributed controllers, and many other related issues. Many of these questions have significant implications for plant and system co-design, which are perhaps even more important than controller design itself; an observation that is perhaps being overlooked in this era of data-driven methods. We survey some of these questions using specific case studies to point out the role of optimal and robust control in determining limits of performance, which in turn inform controller and system architecture motifs. The case studies will evoke more questions than answers, indicating the need for a more developed theory of distributed systems and controls architecture. 

 Biography

Bassam Bamieh is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). He received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, IN) in 1983, and his M.Sc. and PhD degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rice University (Houston, TX) in 1986 and 1992 respectively. Prior to joining UCSB in 1998, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1991-98).

Professor Bamieh's research interests are in the fundamentals of Controls and Dynamical Systems, as well as the applications of systems and feedback techniques in several physical and engineering systems. These areas include Robust and Optimal Control, distributed and networked control and dynamical systems, shear flow transition and turbulence, quantum control, and the use of feedback in thermoacoustic energy conversion devices. Professor Bamieh has co-authored over 200 refereed publications in Systems and Controls and allied fields. Hi recognitions include the IEEE Control Systems Society G. S. Axelby Outstanding Paper Award (twice), an AACC Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award, and a National Science Foundation CAREER award. He was elected a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Control Systems Society (twice), a Fellow of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), and a Fellow of the IEEE with the citation “For contributions to robust, sampled-data and distributed control.”