Adaptation, Learning, Autonomy: A Unifying Perspective
Abstract:
Key properties and technologies in cognitive, adaptive, learning and autonomous systems will be reviewed, with emphasis on their common characteristics and limitations. The objective is to establish the connections and interdependencies among such systems and their supporting technologies so as to provide a unified framework for all. In the process, interesting and challenging open questions will emerge.
Biography:Lena Valavani holds her B.S. in Physics, from Barnard College, Columbia University, and the M.S., M.Phil. and Ph.D degrees in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University. After postdoctoral positions at Yale and MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, she joined the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT, where she was Boeing Associate Professor. She also served as Chief Scientist, Systems Engineering, U.S. Department of Transportation for four years. She is currently president of Hellenic Space Systems , S .A. Dr. Valavani served as Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions of Automatic Control, Automatica , AIAA Journal of Guidance, Navigation and Control, and the International Journal on Robust and Nonlinear Control. She was elected to the Board of Directors, AIAA, N.E., and served as General Secretary. She also was for a long time a member of the steering committee of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, GBPSR, (1985 Nobel Peace Prize). Her research interests are in modeling for, and the analysis and synthesis of control systems, estimation, identification and adaptation, with emphasis on robustness to structured and unstructured uncertainty, fault tolerance and reconfiguration, currently in distributed systems and networks . Her research in the U.S. was supported by NASA, NSF, AFOSR,ONR ,and by private industry , resulting in innovative designs of prototype systems currently in operation in the U.S; in Europe by ESA and EC. She has supervised 27 Ph.D. and 29 M.S theses at MIT, and 22 M.S. theses at NTUA and UoA. Dr. Valavani was consultant to Lincoln Laboratory, C. S .Draper Laboratory , and Bell Helicopter while in the U.S. She received the Best Research Paper Award (1991) from the International Gas Turbine Institute and holds three U.S. Patents in the area of control of unsteady aerodynamic processes in compressors. She is an Associate Fellow of AIAA.