IEEE CSS Transition to Practice Award | IEEE Control Systems Society

This award recognizes outstanding collaborative scientific interactions between industry and/or research laboratories and academic communities that transition basic controls and system theory to practical systems for the benefit of the society at large.

This award will recognize an individual or a team of researchers whose research activity arising from Industry-University collaboration(s) has produced substantive results with demonstrated impact to practice. It will be awarded to the competitor(s) who best demonstrates research with a high-degree of excellence and effective industry-university collaboration with proven record of success in transitioning systems and control theory emanating from their research to practical industrial or commercial systems.

Prize:

The winner will receive $2,000 as cash prize, a certificate laminated on a plaque, and travel expenses to the IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control (MSC) in year (YYYY+1). The travel expenses reimbursement will be the standard IEEE CSS Package (i.e., round trip restricted (minimal) coach airfare, conference registration, and three hotel nights at the conference rate). If the prize is awarded to a group, members of the group will equally split the cash portion of the prize and only one member of the group will receive travel reimbursement. Each group member will receive a certificate.

Funding:

Contributions from organizations will be requested that together with a CSS contribution will permanently fund this award. CSS has the financial resources to completely fund the permanent cost of this award while maintaining a positive budget. Nonetheless, CSS plans to solicit contributions for the award from Industrial and University Sponsors. CSS does anticipate partially funding the award.

Presentation:

The award winner(s) names will be announced at the IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control (MSC) in year YYYY. The winner will receive the award and present a one hour lecture at the MSC in year (YYYY+1). Only one person will give the lecture.

Basis for Judging:

The award is given annually.
Essential Factors to be Considered
> Outstanding contribution(s) and demonstrated impact of the resulting control system technology from the nominated Industry-University Collaborations.
Desirable Factors to be Considered
> Promotion and enhancement of industry employment of control engineering graduate students
> Improved products dependent on the nominated research
> Leveraging of current and new systems and control theory for economic advantage
> Summary of broader benefits to the society at large (current and anticipated future benefits)
Voting Procedure
>The committee may hold discussion of the nominations at the ACC, by teleconference, or by email. Following discussions, the winner will be selected by secret ballot wherein the winner must attain a majority vote. If multiple rounds of voting are required, then the nomination receiving the lowest number of votes on any round will be eliminated in the subsequent round. The vote may be taken by e-mail.

Eligibility:

Faculty and industry partners can be included in the nomination package for consideration by the award committee when their contributions are considered important for the success of transitioning the control research to practice. The word “Industry” is defined broadly to represent all non-academic sectors such as the commercial sector, government research laboratories, and military establishments. The word “Practice” is broadly defined to represent “in use” as standard product or service. Researcher(s) cannot receive the award more than once.
The award nominee(s) must be member(s) of IEEE. There are no restrictions on the time period of achievement. The nomination package should demonstrate tangible and visible achievements. While a team can be nominated, only one person will give the lecture and should be identified on the nomination form.

Nomination Details:

Nominations and reference letters are due by May 15 and must be submitted using the CSS Awards Nomination system at awards.paperplaza.net.

Nomination Form

Nomination Instructions

2023

Alexandre Bayen

For sustained contributions to transforming fundamental transportation and control technology research into industrially relevant innovation

2022

S. Joe Qin

Biography

Dr. S. Joe Qin obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Automatic Control from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, in 1984 and 1987, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Maryland at College Park in 1992. He began his professional career in 1992 as a principal engineer at Emerson Process Management, a subsidiary of Emerson Electric, to work on advanced process control. After having developed two advanced control products, he joined the University of Texas at Austin as an assistant professor in 1995. He was promoted to associate professor and professor in 2000 and 2003, respectively, and was the holder of the Paul D. and Betty Robertson Meek and American Petrofina Foundation Centennial Professorship in Chemical Engineering until 2007. From 2007 to 2019 he was the Fluor Professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering of the University of Southern California. He was co-director of the Texas-Wisconsin-California Control Consortium (TWCCC) where he was Co-PI for 24 years to conduct research on industry-sponsored projects. His research has directly impacted around 50 corporations that have been members of the Consortium. He is currently Chair Professor of Data Science at the City University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Qin’s research interests include data analytics, machine learning, latent variable methods; high-dimensional time series latent variable modeling, process monitoring and fault diagnosis, model predictive control, system identification, semiconductor manufacturing control, and data-driven control and optimization. He has over 400 publications in international journals, book chapters, conference papers, and conference presentations with peer-reviewed abstracts. He delivered over 50 invited plenary or keynote speeches and over 120 invited technical seminars worldwide.

He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2011 Northrop Grumman Best Teaching award at Viterbi School of Engineering, the DuPont Young Professor Award, Halliburton/Brown & Root Young Faculty Excellence Award, NSF-China Outstanding Young Investigator Award, and recipient of the IFAC Best Paper Prize for a model predictive control survey paper published in Control Engineering Practice. He served as Senior Editor of Journal of Process Control, Editor of Control Engineering Practice, Member of the Editorial Board for Journal of Chemometrics, and Associate Editor for several other journals.

Affiliation(s)

City University of Hong Kong

For distinguished contributions to the field of data-driven control engineering, particularly for methodological advances and knowledge transfer in model predictive control, systems safety and health monitoring, and diagnosis.

2021

Giovanni Cherubini

Biography

I joined the Communication Systems research staff at IBM Research – Zurich in 1987, after receiving a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at San Diego. My research initially focused on high-speed data transmission systems. I participated and contributed to the work of several standards bodies, including IEEE 802, ATM Forum, Committee T1, and ITU-T. During my involvement in standardization efforts, I was co-editor of the 100BASE-T2 IEEE Standard for Fast Ethernet transmission over voice-grade cables, and proposed a new filter-bank modulation scheme for very high-speed digital subscriber lines, known as filtered multitone modulation.

More recently, I focused on advanced servo control for data storage systems, contributing to the realization of the first fully-functional atomic force microscope-based data-storage prototype system, internally dubbed "millipede". The tremendous potential of techniques for fast scanner positioning with nanometer-scale accuracy in scanning-probe storage devices and other applications, e.g., molecular biology, has been widely recognized. Further, our innovative servo control technologies for future generations of tape drive systems routinely achieve nanometer-scale accuracy in the head positioning of tape drives. This accuracy has contributed to several world-record storage areal density demonstrations, the most recent one of which in 2017 achieved a density of 201 Gb/in², a breakthrough that represents the equivalent of a 330-terabyte tape cartridge that could fit in the palm of one's hand. My current research focuses on artificial intelligence and machine learning based on non-von-Neumann computing architectures.

I served as Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Communications in the area of CDMA Systems, Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, and Technical Editor of the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. Currently, I am Senior Editor of the IEEE Control Systems Letters and Associate Editor of IFAC Mechatronics. I was Guest Editor of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications for the special issues on Copper Wire Access Technologies for High Performance Networks, and Multiuser Detection Techniques with Application to Wired and Wireless Communications Systems, as well as Guest Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology for the special issue on Advanced Servo Control for Emerging Data Storage Systems.

Since 2008, I have been a member of the invention disclosure evaluation team at IBM Research – Zurich. Currently, I serve as Chairperson of the Review Committee for invention disclosures in the area of Cloud and Computing Infrastructure. I am an IBM Master Inventor and an IEEE Fellow, have over 120 refereed publications, and hold over 200 patents in the areas of signal processing, big data, control, and communication systems.

Affiliation(s)

IBM Research, Zürich

Switzerland

For inventing and developing advanced control technologies for magnetic tape data storage products

2020

Guy Dumont

For world-leading research in several areas including adaptive control, process control, and biomedical engineering, and its transfer to practical use in industry and society

2019

Alberto Bemporad

Biography

Alberto Bemporad (F’10) received a master’s degree in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. degree in Control Engineering from the University of Florence, Florence, Italy, in 1993 and 1997, respectively.

From 1996 to 1997, he was with the Center for Robotics and Automation, Department of Systems Science and Mathematics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA. From 1997 to 1999, he held a post-doctoral position with the Automatic Control Laboratory, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland, where he collaborated as a Senior Researcher until 2002. From 1999 to 2009, he was with the Department of Information Engineering, University of Siena, Siena, Italy, becoming an Associate Professor in 2005. From 2010 to 2011, he was with the Department of Mechanical and Structural Engineering, University of Trento, Trento, Italy. He spent visiting periods with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, and Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. Since 2011, he has been a Full Professor with the IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, Italy, where he served as the Director of the Institute from 2012 to 2015. In 2011, he co-founded ODYS S.r.l., Lucca, a consulting and software development company specialized in advanced controls and embedded optimization algorithms. He has authored over 300 papers in the areas of model predictive control, automotive control, hybrid systems, multiparametric optimization, computational geometry, robotics, and finance. He holds seven patents. He has authored or co-authored various MATLAB toolboxes for model predictive control design, including the model predictive control toolbox (The Mathworks, Inc.) and the hybrid toolbox.

Dr. Bemporad received the IFAC High-Impact Paper Award for the 2011–2014 Triennial. He was an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control from 2001 to 2004, and the Chair of the Technical Committee on Hybrid Systems of the IEEE Control Systems Society from 2002 to 2010.

Affiliation(s)

IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca

Italy

For lasting contributions to theory and advanced applications of Model Predictive Control (MPC) culminating in mass production introduction of MPC for powertrain control in the automotive industry

2018

Jagannathan Sarangapani

Biography

Dr. Jagannathan Sarangapani (or S. Jagannathan) is at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (former University of Missouri-Rolla) where he is at present a Rutledge-Emerson Distinguished Professor. He served as the Site Director for the graduated NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Intelligent Maintenance Systems for over 13 years. He has a joint appointment with the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering. Prior to joining the Missouri S&T, he was employed at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Caterpillar Inc. His research interests include adaptive and neural network control, networked control systems/cyber-physical systems, sensor networks, prognostics, and autonomous systems/robotics.

He has co-authored 163 peer-reviewed journal articles, 277 refereed IEEE conference articles, several book chapters, and six books. He holds 21 patents with several pending. He so far supervised the completion of 29 doctoral students and 30 M.S. students. He received research funding from NSF, NASA, AFRL, Sandia and industries such as Boeing, Caterpillar, Honeywell, and others. He served as the co-editor for the IET Book Series on Control from 2010-2012 and on a number of IEEE Conference Organizing Committees including Chair of IEEE CSS Tech Committee on Intelligent Control. He is a Fellow of IEEE, US National Academy of Inventors, IET (UK), and Institute of Measurement and Control, UK. He received NSF Career Award in 2000, Caterpillar Research Excellence Award in 2001, Presidential Award for Research Excellence at the University of Texas in 2001, Boeing Pride Achievement Award in 2007, several Faculty Excellence and Teaching Excellence Awards at Missouri S&T and many others.

Affiliation(s)

Missouri University of Science & Technology

United States

For the development of adaptive neural network feedback control schemes and decision tools, and their translation into industrial practice

2017

Angeliki Pantazi

For development of advanced control technologies for magnetic tape data storage and nanopositioning applications

2016

Petros Ioannou

For the research, development, and transition to practice of the Adaptive Cruise Control utilized by Ford Motor Company in their production vehicles

2015

Robert Bitmead

For advanced control applications in a range of industry sectors where each has involved innovation in theory to achieve the practical outcome

2014

Sirish Shah

For the development of control performance monitoring techniques and their translation into industrial practice

2013

John Wen

For adaptive scanning optical microscopes and a high precision laser scanning system for the electronic manufacturing industry and for translation of systems theory to practice

2012

Koji Fujiyama

For the introduction and development of the sound-processing technology incorporated in a large number of LSI chips by SANYO Semiconductor

Masaaki Nagahara

For the introduction and development of the sound-processing technology incorporated in a large number of LSI chips by SANYO Semiconductor

Yutaka Yamamoto

For the introduction and development of the sound-processing technology incorporated in a large number of LSI chips by SANYO Semiconductor

2011

Richard Braatz

For significant contribution to the control of crystallization processes in the pharmaceutical industry

2010

Ioannis Papamichail

For the development and implementation of ramp metering algorithms, in particular at the Monash Freeway, Melbourne, Australia

Markos Papageorgiou

For the development and implementation of ramp metering algorithms, in particular at the Monash Freeway, Melbourne, Australia

2009

Kameshwar Poolla

Biography

Dr. Kameshwar Poolla received the Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1980, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Florida, Gainesville in 1984. He has served on the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana from 1984 to 1991. Since then, he has been with the University of California, Berkeley where he is the Cadence Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences. He currently serves as the Director of the IMPACT center for Integrated Circuit manufacturing at the University of California. Dr. Poolla has also held visiting appointments at Honeywell, McGill University, M.I.T., Michigan, Columbia, and Padova. He has worked as a Field Engineer with Schlumberger on oilrigs in West Africa. In 1999, he co-founded OnWafer Technologies which offers metrology based yield enhancement solutions for the semiconductor industry. OnWafer was acquired by KLA-Tencor in 2007. He has also serves as a technology and mergers/acquisitions consultant for Cadence Design Systems. Dr. Poolla has been awarded a 1988 NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the 1993 Hugo Schuck Best Paper Prize, the 1994 Donald P. Eckman Award, the 1998 Distinguished Teaching Award of the University of California, and the IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing Best Paper Prizes in 2005 and 2007. Professor Poolla's research interests include System Identification, Robust Control, Semiconductor Manufacturing, Sensor Networks, and Medical Imaging.

Affiliation(s)

University of California-Berkeley

United States

For innovative applications of control technologies to semiconductor manufacturing and the impact of the work on industry