Page 12 - ASME DSCC 2016 Program

Special Sessions

Dr. Darema is a graduate of the University of Athens, Greece; the Illinois Her research background is in the design of novel inorganic and organic
Institute of Technology; and the University of California at Davis, where she semiconductor hybrid nanostructures to improve their performance in
attended as a Fulbright Scholar and a Distinguished Scholar. After physics electronic and energy conversion applications. She earned her Sc.B. from
research associate positions at the University of Pittsburgh and Brookhaven Brown University and Ph.D. from Northwestern University both in materials
National Laboratory, she received an American Physics Society Industrial science and engineering and conducted her postdoctoral studies at
Postdoctoral Fellowship and became a technical staff member in the Argonne National Laboratory.
Nuclear Sciences Department at Schlumberger-Doll Research. Subsequent-
ly, she joined the T.J. Watson IBM Research Center as a research staff
member and group manager. While at IBM, she also served in the IBM
Corporate Strategy Group examining and helping to set corporate-wide THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13TH
strategies. From 1996 to 1998, she completed a two-year interagency 1:30PM–3:30PM
assignment at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Great Lakes A3
Workshop: Uncertainty Quantification: Methods and Application to
Alexander Leonessa, Virginia Tech Dynamical Systems 1

Dr. Alexander Leonessa obtained a Doctoral degree in Aerospace Organizers: Javad Sovizi, The University of Texas MD Anderson
Engineering at GeorgiaTech in December 1999. His research focused on Cancer Center
nonlinear robust control techniques for general nonlinear systems. His Nagavenkat Adurthi, Rithmio Company
appointment as a faculty member at Virginia Tech started in December
2007, after two previous similar appointments at Florida Atlantic University Reza Madankan, Monsanto Agrochemical Company
and the University of Central Florida. His research and contribution include Suren Kumar, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
(i) control theory with application to autonomous vehicles guidance and
navigation, (ii) nonlinear system identification with application to health Venkat Krovi, Clemson University
monitoring, (iii) real-time embedded control with application to system Abstract: This session of the workshop will focus on understanding
design of robotic systems, and (iv) functional electrical stimulation of mathematical and numerical aspects of the uncertainty propagation,
muscles for rehabilitation of stroke survivors and patients with spinal cord filtering, and estimation. Three presentations in this session will cover the
injuries. In particular, the dominant idea in his research effort is that most basics in probability theory and state-of-the-art methods of computational
real-world physical systems are too complex to accurately model, hence uncertainty quantification (UQ). Researchers will benefit from such
model uncertainties must be accounted for in the control system design discussions in robustly analyzing large-dimensional and complex
process using some kind of self-learning procedure. Dr. Leonessa has dynamical systems with inherent uncertainty in real-world settings.
been involved in these areas of research for more than 15 years during
which he has published more than 60 papers (all peer reviewed). In
2014-2016 he completed a two-year rotation at the National Science
Foundation, where he was supervising the General and Age Related THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13TH
Disability Engineering (GARDE) program as well as participating to the
Major Research Instrumentation program, the National Robotic Initiative, 4:00PM–6:00PM
the Partnership for Innovation program, and the Integrative Strategies for Great Lakes A3
Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems program. Workshop: Uncertainty Quantification: Methods and Application to
Dynamical Systems 2
Marina Sofos, US Department of Energy Organizers: Javad Sovizi, The University of Texas MD Anderson
Cancer Center
Dr. Marina Sofos is a Technology Manager in the Building Technologies
Office at the U.S. Department of Energy. In this role she manages the Nagavenkat Adurthi, Rithmio Company
building sensors and controls technology portfolio within the Emerging Reza Madankan, Monsanto Agrochemical Company
Technologies Program. Prior to taking this position, she was a Technology
Manager in the Advanced Manufacturing Office where she led the Suren Kumar, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
development of the office’s program in scaling up manufacturing approach- Venkat Krovi, Clemson University
es for wide bandgap semiconductors and power electronics to enable
reductions in cost and improvements in performance efficiency. Her overall Abstract: This session will primarily be focused on the application of
interests are in improving power conversion and management technologies multivariate statistical approaches to robotic systems. Dealing with
through advancements in semiconductor materials and control strategies. complex robotic systems, a closer look at the stat-or-the-art methods of
uncertainty quantification (UQ) is necessary to robustly address the design
Sofos began her career at the Department of Energy as an AAAS Science and control problems in such systems. This is more crucial when the
and Technology Policy Fellow (2010-2012) responsible for coordinating the conventional UQ techniques are unable to appropriately capture the
12 U.S.-China cooperative clean energy R&D portfolio managed by the Office uncertainty due to the complexity in such systems.
of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

DSC_Program_2016Program.indd 12 9/30/16 11:57 AM