Convergence Research Addressing Societal Challenges: The Central Role of Systems and Control

ABSTRACT: A few years ago the US National Science Foundation announced 10 Big Ideas for Future Investment.  These research ideas, such as Harnessing the Data Revolution, or the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier, all require expertise from multiple disciplines to come together to address specific problems that are important in our society.  Engineering has a role to play in all of the Big Ideas, and specifically systems and control engineers have the opportunity to help develop solutions to these big problems.  This talk will summarize the convergence research approach, describe how systems and control engineering has already made significant contributions using the convergence approach, and highlight future research opportunities.  Examples will be used to illustrate the concepts.

BIO: A faculty member at the University of Michigan since 1995, Dr. Tilbury has a background in systems and control engineering. She recently returned to the University of Michigan from a four-year term as Assistant Director for Engineering at the National Science Foundation, overseeing all activities in the Engineering Directorate with a budget of more than $1B annually. She now serves as Associate Vice President for Research – Convergence Science.

***Event will take place via Zoom. Zoom link and password will be distributed to the Controls Group e-mail list-serv. To join this list-serv, please send an (empty) email message to [email protected] with the word “subscribe” in the subject line. Zoom information is also available upon request to Katherine Godwin ([email protected]).