A workshop is planned to bring two disparate groups of researchers and educators together, those who deal with micro and nano systems issues and those who deal with control and system integrations design issues, specifically they each deal with:
- Extremely small length scales -- can pack lots of actuators and sensors into a tiny space.
- Distributed control and sensing techniques -- optimal placing of actuators/sensors, coordinated control, data extraction, etc.
- The interaction of many different physical phenomena across many different length and time scales -- complex phenomena, difficult to quantify.
- Systems analysis/design tools built to capture coupling across temporal and spatial scales -- tools may help understand physics.
- Large manufacturing variability, sensitive dependence on trace quantities of chemicals -- system uncertainty.
- Control theory tools have been built to address robustness -- quantify and design for uncertainty.
- Need dedicated, delicate and expensive equipment to measure basic quantities -- measurements are limited and may be noisy and it is hard to debug system errors.
- System identification tools, design of experiments, data mining -- mathematical tools may need help, research collaboration may be beneficial.
Support for a workshop is recommended to support the "Control and System Integration of Micro- and Nano-Scale Systems" Panel and Workshop. The funds are be used to provide support for approximately 80 US academic researchers and educators to meet and discuss the field of control and systems integration on the micro- and nano-length scales. Workshop participants will look at a number of areas including micro fabrication, nano fabrication, control optimization, bio-chem systems and modeling to see where collaborations could yield new developments and how the research can be integrated with education.
Broad Impact:
The purpose of the workshop is to foster collaboration between different disciplines to develop micro and nano scale integrated systems, as opposed to micro and nano components. The workshop is aimed at assessing the current state of this area and to look for future directions that could lead to new technology as well as develop new educational materials for use in academia and industry.
