This award is to provide research support to Dr. Manousiouthakis under the National Science Foundation's Presidential Young Investigator Awards (PYIA) Program. The objectives of the PYIA Program are to provide support to the Nation's most outstanding and promising young science and engineering faculty. The awards are intended to improve the capability of U.S. academic institutions to respond to the demand for highly-qualified science and engineering personnel for academic and industrial research and teaching. Dr. Manousiouthakis' field of research is control of industrial processes. Many industrial processes are operated in a dynamic mode, exhibit nonlinear dynamic behavior, are inadequately modeled and may have many process variables that cannot be measured. The central theme of the PI's research is the development of a conceptual framework for the design of linear and nonlinear control systems that account for the above characteristics. Important components of the overall task are the selection of process models, measurements, manipulations, control structures and control-dictated process modifications, the unification of control schemes, the design of linear and nonlinear controllers that maintain stability and performance and account for uncertainty and safety and finally the verification of the proposed control policies. The PI is planning to experimentally verify his theoretical results for dry-etching reactors, reverse-osmosis modules and distillation columns.
