Sorooshian, Khargonekar Honored at Automation Conference

June 6, 2018 - The World Automation Congress honored Samueli School faculty members Soroosh Sorooshian and Pramod Khargonekar this week by dedicating its annual conference in Stevenson, Washington, to them.

WAC 2018, sponsored by IEEE SMC (Systems, Man, and Cybernetics) Society, honored Sorooshian, Distinguished Professor of civil engineering; and Khargonekar, Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and computer science and UC Irvine vice chancellor for research.

The conference also was dedicated to the memory of two deceased professors who made important contributions to the automation field.

Both Sorooshian and Khargonekar delivered honoree keynote addresses. Sorooshian’s speech, “Climate Variability and The Global Hydrologic System: Efforts in Monitoring, Modeling and Challenges in Forecast Changes,” touched on predictive models and stochastic methods for addressing hydrologic hazards and managing water resources. He summarized the progress made and challenges faced in hydrometeorological prediction systems and reflected on his three decades of research and experience.

Khargonekar shared an overview of control systems, beginning with his experiences as a student in the late 70s, and progressing through his contributions to robust and H-infinity control, and control systems for semiconductor manufacturing and color xerography. He ended with a look at his ongoing research in grid integration controls for renewable energy.

In addition, Khargonekar chaired the session that honored the memory of his late graduate school adviser, University of Florida professor R. E. Kalman.

Sorooshian and Khargonekar were recognized again for their accomplishments at the conference’s gala banquet on Tuesday, June 5.