Final Presenters' Bios

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

2014 Early Career Professionals Workshop on Research Frontiers in CPS

Workshop Keynote Speaker

E. William Colglazier, Ph.D. was appointed in July 2011 as the fourth Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State. The mission of the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary (STAS) is to provide scientific and technical expertise and advice in support of the development and implementation of U.S. foreign policy. The Adviser serves as an advocate for science-based policy at the State Department, helps to identify and evaluate emerging scientific and technical issues that affect U.S. strategic interests, brings scientific expertise to the Department, and helps to promote scientific and technological capacity-building and science-based policymaking internationally. The Adviser also provides outreach to the U.S. and international scientific community and helps to facilitate scientific cooperation between the United States and other countries.

From 1994 to 2011, Dr. Colglazier served as Executive Officer of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Research Council (NRC). From 2000 to 2011 he also served as NRC Chief Operating Officer. In these roles he helped to oversee the studies conducted by the NRC, which is the operating arm of the NAS, the National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. Working together they provide independent, objective advice to the nation on public policy issues where insights and expertise from science, technology, and medicine are needed. From 1991 to 1994, Dr. Colglazier was Executive Director of the Office of International Affairs of the NAS and NRC, overseeing collaborative projects with scientific organizations in many countries.

From 1983 to 1991, he was Professor of Physics and Director of the Energy, Environment, and Resources Center at the University of Tennessee where he worked closely with scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1971, and prior to 1983 worked at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. While at Harvard, he also served as Associate Director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Humanism of the Aspen Institute. In 1976-77, he was an AAAS Congressional Science Fellow working for Congressman George Brown (D-CA). He is past chair of the Forum on Physics and Society of the American Physical Society and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society.

Workshop Chair

Sertac Karaman is the Charles Stark Draper Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (since Fall 2012). He has obtained B.S. degrees in mechanical engineering and in computer engineering from the Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, in 2007, an S.M. degree in mechanical engineering from MIT in 2009, and a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science also from MIT in 2012. His research interests lie in the broad areas of robotics and control theory. In particular, he studies the applications of probability theory, stochastic processes, stochastic geometry, formal methods, and optimization for the design and analysis of high-performance cyber-physical systems.

Government Sponsors

Erwin Gianchandani is currently the Deputy Division Director for the Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF). This division is one of four within NSF's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), and supports research and education activities enabling new computing and networking technologies. Prior to joining NSF, Erwin was the Director of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), leading the organization as it sought to help the computing research community envision compelling research challenges and opportunities, particularly in the context of national priorities. He was the Director of Innovation Networking at the University of Virginia, reporting to the university's Vice President for Research, and a 2009-10 AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at NSF during which time he contributed to the establishment of new research initiative on smart health and wellbeing. Erwin received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, M.S. in biomedical engineering, and B.S. in computer science from the University of Virginia. His research interests are in the area of computational systems biology.

David Corman is a Program Director and leader of the Cyber Physical Systems program at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Corman has a broad range of research interests spanning many technologies fundamental to CPS application areas including transportation, energy, medical devices, and manufacturing. Dr. Corman has extensive industrial experience in the development, design, and manufacture of CPS systems. Dr. Corman received PhD degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland.

Jan Cuny has been the Program Officer for the CISE Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program at the National Science Foundation since 2004. Before coming to NSF, Jan was a faculty member in the Computer Science departments at Purdue University, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Oregon. Her research centered on programming environments for computational science. At NSF, Dr. Cuny founded the BPC program. It aims to significantly increase the number of students getting postsecondary degrees in computing, with an initial emphasis on those groups - women, minorities, and persons with disabilities - who have traditionally been underrepresented in computing. BPC supports efforts from middle school through graduate school and the early faculty ranks. It currently has a portfolio of over $50 million in active awards. More importantly, it has built a national community of several hundred researchers and practitioners who actively collaborate on interventions that address underrepresentation.

Sylvia Spengler is program director in Division of Information and Intelligent System (IIS) within the CISE Directorate at the National Science Foundation. She also served as program officer for the Biological Databases and Informatics in BIO/DBI. Prior to joining NSF, she was a Director of Department of Energy (DOE) Human Genome Program Field Operations. She served as Co-Director of the Program in Mathematics and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her many honors include Senior Fellow of the American Cancer Society, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Postdoctoral Fellow. As a member of DOE ELSI panels, she has been involved in evaluating the ethical, legal and social implications of human genome research. Dr. Spengler's many publications include co-authorship of the DOE's Primer of Molecular Biology. As part of her work with the Human Genome Project, Dr. Spengler has been involved in many types of public outreach including lectures given to college students, judges, and appearances on public television. Her current NSF programs include: Information and Intelligent Systems-Advancing Human-Centered Computing, Information Integration and Informatics, and Robust Intelligence; CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH); Domestic Nuclear Detection Office/National Science Foundation Academic Research Initiative (ARI); Explosives and Related Threats: Frontiers in Prediction and Detection (EXP)

Tho H. Nguyen is an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation. Tho works in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, Division of Computer and Network Systems. His primary responsibility is supporting the Cyber-Physical Systems Program. Tho holds an academic appointment in Vietnam where he is currently leading USAID-funded research on wave energy conversion technology. Tho obtained the Ph.D. from the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) in Electrical Engineering in 2009. In addition to the AAAS Fellowship, Tho is formerly a Fulbright Fellow and an NSF IGERT Fellow.

Invited Speakers

(15 Minute Presentations)

Ruzena Bajcsy ("buy chee") was appointed Director of CITRIS and professor of the EECS department at the University of California, Berkeley on November 1, 2001. Prior to coming to Berkeley, she was Assistant Director of the Computer Information Science and Engineering Directorate (CISE) between December 1, 1998 and September 1, 2001. As head of National Science Foundation's CISE directorate, Dr. Bajcsy managed a $500 million annual budget. She came to the NSF from the University of Pennsylvania where she was a professor of computer science and engineering since 1972. In 2004 she became a CITRIS director emeritus and now she is a full time NEC Distinguished professor of EECS.

Sairaj Dhople received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering, in 2007, 2009, and 2012, respectively, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities), where he is affiliated with the Power and Energy Systems research group. His research interests include modeling, analysis, and control of power electronics and power systems with a focus on renewable integration.

Gavin Garner joined the University of Virginia faculty in 2009. He holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from Colby College and Master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Virginia in both Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He worked as a mechanical engineer for AMF Bowling Worldwide, Inc. before beginning his graduate studies. Dr. Garner is an active member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and was honored as an ASME graduate teaching fellow from 2007 to 2009. He currently serves as the faculty advisor for UVA's student chapters of ASME and Pi Tau Sigma, the international Mechanical Engineering Honor Society. Dr. Garner's primary research interest lies in the field of mechatronics and how it can be applied to the design of new products.

Harjeet Johal is currently the Senior Engineer and Project Manager in Energy Consulting at GE Energy Management located in Schenectady, New York. He was previously the Lead Engineer for the Renewable Energy and Power Systems program at GE Global Research from 2009 to 2012. Harjeet received the Ph.D. in Power Systems, Public Policy, and Economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008 and the B. Tech in Electrical Systems from the Indian Institute of Technology in 2003. Harjeet's research interests and leadership include Grid Integration of renewables, demand response applications, and the smart Grid.

Michael Kane is an ARPA-E Fellow who is interested in technologies for controlling, monitoring, and managing infrastructure systems in order to improve energy efficiency and production. Potential systems include buildings, transportation, and the electric grid. He holds a Ph.D in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering, both from the University of Michigan, and an M.S. in Civil Engineering and a B.S. in Architectural Engineering, both from Drexel University. Dr. Kane completed his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at the University of Michigan's Laboratory for Intelligent Systems & Technologies, under the direction of Prof. Jerome Lynch. During his Ph.D. studies, Dr. Kane developed a wireless sensing and control platform tailored to civil infrastructure systems. Using the new device, he then developed, embedded, and tested distributed model-predictive control techniques for infrastructure systems to improve efficiency and resilience. This new device is being used by a consortium of universities for wirelessly enabled cyber-physical systems research in civil engineering. Outside of academic work, he has experience in wearable technology and consumer electronics prototype development.

Necmiye Ozay received her B.S. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul in 2004, M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA in 2006, and Ph.D degree again in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University, Boston, MA in 2010. Between 2010 and 2013, she was a Control and Dynamical Systems postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. Currently, she is an assistant professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Her research interests lie at the broad interface of dynamical systems, control, optimization and formal methods with applications in system identification, verification and validation, autonomy and vision.

Salaeha Shariff directs recruitment cultivation, national outreach activities, and diversity enhancement for the S&T Policy Fellowships. She plans and manages annual marketing efforts, oversees advertising, and engages Fellows in initiatives to promote careers at the intersection of science and policy.She joined AAAS in September 2011, following over five years with the American Academy of Pediatrics, Illinois Chapter, where she directed and managed public health grants focusing primarily on immunization education and policy for Illinois pediatricians. Salaeha's responsibilities included overseeing development of educational programming for healthcare providers, recruitment and engagement of Illinois pediatricians and allied healthcare providers on varied educational and policy initiatives, managing committees/interest groups related to school health and infectious diseases, and policy work related to financing/reimbursement for pediatric practices and public health engagement. She has prior experience directing and managing operations for a small nonprofit educational organization. Salaeha holds a master's degree in public service from DePaul University and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Loyola University Chicago.

(5 Minute Presentations)

Chinwendu Enyioha is a Graduate Research Fellow and Doctoral Candidate at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He served as a Research Associate at Bosch in 2008 in Stuttgart, Germany and a Moore Foundation Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in 2007. He received the Master of Science in Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and the Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at Gardner-Webb University.

Jianye Hao is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before that, he received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2013, and B.E. degree from School of Computer Science and Technology at Harbin Institute of Technology in 2008. Jianye's current research focuses on Multiagent Systems (multiagent learning, game theory, automated negotiation) and Formal Methods (in MASs).

Brian Johnson was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in 2010. His research interests are in nonlinear control theory, power electronics, distributed generation, and renewable energy systems* Brian Johnson (NREL). Brian received the M.S. and Ph. D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana and the B.S. degree in Physics at Texas State University.

Ali Khanafer is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests lie at the intersection of game theory, optimal control theory, multi-agent systems, and nonlinear control. He also is interested in applications to epidemics control, communication and computer networks, social networks, cyber-physical systems, and cloud computing. Ali will be graduating in August 2014 with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Chapaign. He received his M.A., SC in Electrical Engineering at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada in 2010 and the B.A.SC in Electrical Engineering at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada in 2008.

Ann Majewicz is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Anne received the MSE in Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, the B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of St. Thomas. Her current research project is on the topic of: "A Robotic Needle Steering System for Clinical Use" in the Collaborative Haptics and Robotics in Medicine (CHARM) Labs.

Michael McEvoy is a Doctoral student in the Correll Lab in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His research interests include robotic assembly and construction. His current project focus areas are on robotic materials and stable robotic assembly. Michael is the recipient of the Beverley Sears Graduate Student Research Grant in 2013 and Material Science and Engineering Graduate Student Seed Grant in 2013. Michael received the M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering, Spacecraft Dynamics & Controls and the B.S. degree in Aeropspace Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Jun Seo is a Ph.D. candidate in the GRASP Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. He is advised by Dr. Vijay Kumar and Dr. Mark Yim. Jun's research interests include robotic grasping/manipulation and robotic self-assembly/reconfiguration; he has been investigating theoretical and practical issues relating to the design of software and hardware for the problems. He received the B.S. degree from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in August 2004.

Hsueh-Cheng (Nick) Wang is currently a Postdoctoral Associate as part of the Robotics, Vision, and Sensor Networks Group (RVSN) in the Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests focus on machine perception by developing algorithms and body-worn devices that assist humans in everyday tasks. Specifically, he is interested in effective and efficient text detection/recognition and scene understanding, as well as computational models of mimicking human attentional capture and language processing. Nick received the Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts in Boston in 2012. He received the M.A. in Computer-Aided Engineering in 2003 and the B.S. in Civil Engineering in 2001 at the National Taiwan University in Taiwan.

Lawson Wong is a fourth year Ph.D. student at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He works under the Learning and Intelligent Systems Group, supervised by Leslie Pack Kaelbling and Tomas Lozano-Perez. His research interests fall broadly within machine learning and inference, currently with applications to robotics. Looking forward, he hopes to build flexible and scalable spatial representations for agents working in complex structured environments such as human homes and offices. Over the years, he has also picked up many diverse interests, ranging from probability, theory, and logic to computational biology (his Ph.D. minor), cognitive science, and music. Lawson obtained the B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford in 2009. During those years, he worked with Andrew Ng on his STAIR (Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot) project. Lawson was born and raised in Hong Kong.