Abstract: Building on the success of the past several events, the 2018 CDC will also feature the "Meet the Faculty Candidate" poster session. This poster session provides a great opportunity for faculty, search committee members, and recruiters to speak directly with current graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who are seeking faculty positions.
Faculty candidates, registered for the conference, are invited to register for this poster session by completing this online registration form by Wednesday October 31st November 21st, 2018.
The session will be held on Monday December 17th, 6:30pm-7:30pm in room Glimmer 6. Space will be available on a first-come first-serve basis.
Presenters are asked to bring a poster no larger than 4ft x 6ft along with pushpins to attach the poster. Presenters will likely be more successful providing high level discussions of their work such as motivation, strategies, unique insights, rather than narrow mathematical detailed discussions, unless asked specifically for those details. Presenters are also encouraged to bring copies of their CV for distribution.

Abstract: In this talk we will present an overview of research activities at MERL, including fundamental controls research and the application of state-of-the-art control techniques to a variety of products. We will focus on fundamental research topics including model predictive control and the control of constrained systems, estimation and motion planning for autonomous systems, and modeling of complex and nonlinear systems. In addition, we will describe how these fundamental research areas have impacted applications such as autonomous vehicles, energy-efficient HVAC systems, high-precision manufacturing, and communication spacecraft guidance and control.

Speakers: Karl Berntorp, Claus Danielson, Stefano Di Cairano.

Abstract: We will give an overview of United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) as well as its parent company, United Technologies Corporation (UTC), whose businesses include Pratt and Whitney, Collins Aerospace, Carrier, and Otis. We will discuss career and partnership opportunities and then present a broad overview of research from UTRC's Autonomous and Intelligent Systems Department. Particular focus will be on advanced controls and machine learning for a variety of applications including aerospace and energy systems, human collaborative robotics, and manufacturing.
The research discussed is being conducted by a diverse team of researchers with backgrounds in dynamical systems, system identification and estimation, advanced controls, applied mathematics, computer vision, computer science, and human factors in partnership with academic partners. The session is designed to give students and opportunity to understand the types of projects and career paths available at UTRC, and to give potential collaborators and opportunity to understand how to work with us.

Speakers: Andrzej Banaszuk (Senior Director, Autonomous and Intelligent Systems Department), Amit Surana (Fellow, Autonomous and Intelligent Systems Department), Andrew Sparks (Associate Director, Control Systems Group), Abhijit Chakraborty (Staff Research Engineer, Control Systems Group), Mahmoud El Chamie (Senior Research Engineer, System Dynamics &ersand; Optimization Group), Giovanni Franzini (Senior Research Engineer, Control &ersand; Decision Support Group), Jeff Peters (Senior Research Engineer, Decision Support &ersand; Machine Intelligence Group), Robert Bitmead (University of California, San Diego).

Abstract: The aerospace industry is going through a renaissance. Consumer drones, small satellites, rockets that can land back on earth make headlines every day. One of the core components of all these systems is the complex embedded control systems that must work under uncertainty, often with complex sensors, such as cameras and laser range finders, in the loop. How can we better teach 21st century feedback control systems to aerospace students and beyond, with the help of 21st century technology?
For the most recent offering of the feedback control systems course at MIT, we gave each student one Parrot Rolling Spider mini drone. The students were able to program their drones using Simulink hardware support package for PARROT Minidrones. On the one hand, we used online tools, such as video lectures and forums, to enable the students to do the labs at home, without any direct supervision from the instructors. On the other hand, the students did their projects with the instructors in the form of a hackathon.
Thanks to the new pedagogy, we observed a tremendous increase in enrollment and the quality of student projects. This new pedagogy is in contrast to the classical engineering education where the lab exercises are executed in laboratories with instructors, and projects are done at home. Thanks to the 21st-century tools, such as mini drones with cameras, online forums and accessible video lectures, we were able to flip this pedagogy for better outcomes.

Speakers: Sertac Karaman (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Abstract: Drones hold enormous untapped potential across video capture, inspection, mapping, monitoring, and delivery. They are also natural candidates for autonomy and likely to be among the first widely-deployed systems that incorporate meaningful intelligence. We believe that trustworthy autonomy through computer vision and advanced motion planning unlocks these use cases. From pixels to propellers, it takes a tightly integrated and robust system to work at scale and in the wild. In this talk we will discuss ongoing research at Skydio, along with the challenges involved in building a robust robotics product that flies itself, as well as the underlying algorithms that push the state of the art in robotics research, including:

• Multi-camera SLAM for state estimation and dense 3D mapping for obstacle avoidance,
• Deep learning based subject tracking and trajectory prediction,
• Motion planning and model-based control,
• Software development tools around large quantities of flight data.

Speakers: Hayk Martiros, Teodor Tomic.

Abstract: The late Bruce Francis, who passed away in March of this year, was a towering figure in the controls community. In this commemorative session, several past colleagues of Prof. Francis will share their memories. There will be an opportunity for audience participation.

Oganizer: M. Vidyasagar (UT Dallas and IIT Hyderabad)

Speakers: John Doyle (Caltech), Tryphon Georgiou (UC Irvine), Keith Glover( Cambridge), Pramod Khargonekar (UC Irvine), Raymond Kwong (University of Toronto), Allen Tannenbaum (University of Stonybrook), Mathukumali Vidyasagar (UT Dallas and IIT Hyderabad), Yutaka Yamamoto (Kyoto University and SUPELEC, France).