Professor Mario Sznaier

Vitae

Dr. Sznaier's main research interests are in the areas of multiobjective robust control and robustness and stability issues in intelligent control. The goal of this research is to develop an extended robust control framework capable of addressing realistic problems without necessitating neither potentially conservative approximations nor multiple and costly trial and error type iterations. This work, of potential interest to both government agencies and industries requiring the use of high-performance, low cost controllers, has been continuously supported since 1992 by grants from the National Science Foundation, Florida Space Grant Consortium, and NASA Lewis Research Center. The results of this research have been published in technical journals and international conferences, resulting in a National Science Foundation Research Initiation Award in 1992 and in "best presentation of the session" awards at the 1993 and 1994 American Control Conferences. Applications currently being explored include life-extension and damage mitigation in aerospace systems, and control of anaerobic digestors used for waste-water treatment. A new line of research recently started in collaboration with computer engineering faculty, also under NSF sponsorship, seeks to combine these new multiobjective control tools with computer-vision concepts in order to develop robust active vision systems. Applications of these systems include, among others, reverse engineering and inspection, intelligent vehicle highway systems, and obstacle detection for pilot assistance during landings and take-offs.

Since joining Penn State, Dr. Sznaier has taught courses in the control area at both graduate and undergraduate levels. At the graduate level, he has taught the Linear Control Systems, Optimal Control and Nonlinear Control courses and he developed and taught a new graduate course on Robust Control. Notes prepared for this course evolved into a textbook to be published in 1997 by Wiley Interscience. At the undergraduate level, Dr. Sznaier has taught the Linear Control Systems senior elective. Using support from two Penn State Improvement of Student Learning grants, he developed a set of simulation models and case studies that were incorporated into his undergraduate control course lectures via a laptop computer and a LCD panel. These tools allowed for analyzing realistic case studies and quickly exploring multiple "what-if' scenarios, providing the students with hands-on experience.

Dr. Sznaier's professional activities include serving as a reviewer and panelist for the National Science Foundation and as a reviewer for multiple technical journals and conferences. He has also organized and chaired sessions at a number of international conferences and served in the program and organizing committees for the 1994 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) and in the program committee of the 1994 SouthCon. He is currently a member of the program committee of the 1997 CDC. In November 1994, Dr. Sznaier joined the IEEE Control Systems Society Conference Editorial Board as an Associate Editor and is presently serving in this capacity.

Dr. Sznaier is a member of IEEE, SIAM, Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu. From 1992 to 1993, he served as the faculty advisor to the IEEE Student Branch at the University of Central Florida, and from 1993 he has been a co-advisor to Penn State's IEEE Student Branch. He served as treasurer and secretary of the local IEEE chapter during 1994, and as its vice-chair during 1995. He is the current Central Pennsylvania IEEE Section Chair.