Engineering in an Era of Complex Systems of Systems, Autonomy, and AI
June 4, 2020 at 2:00pm ET
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Innovative business models and massive new industries are being created around and within complex ecosystems that aggregate different technologies and platforms, collect-crunch-digest massive amounts of data, and use federated/distributed intelligence through ubiquitous sensing, connectivity and computing. The distributed interactive autonomy required to support those cyber-physical systems brings new challenges and opportunities for novel computing architectures, trusted/secured microelectronics, low-latency/reliable communications, real-time machine learning, human-machine symbiosis tools and virtualized services, among others. The role of the ECE discipline is key for overcoming these challenges and finding the corresponding novel solutions; a new generation of engineering professionals (with emphasis on ECE) will be required to design, develop, install, operate and maintain complex “systems of systems” that are part of larger ecosystems where multiple actors participate and success results from the collaborative effort between them. Innovative engineering education programs and translational research will help to prepare the future engineering professionals that will respond to these and other challenges. Given the complexity of the potential solutions, we explore different pathways and approaches that could help to accelerate the development of those solutions with an active participation of academia, including faculty, students and the larger engineering community.
Speaker:
Igor Alvarado
Academic Research Manager
National Instruments
Igor Alvarado is the Academic Research Manager at National Instruments (www.ni.com) where he develops collaborations and strategic partnerships with leading universities in the U.S. in such areas Cyber-Physical Systems, Energy, Medical Imaging/Devices and RF/Wireless Communications to improve engineering education, advance scientific research and accelerate innovation with support from NSF, DoD, DoE, NIH and other funding agencies. Mr. Alvarado holds A.S. and B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University and has been with NI since 1999. He is a NSF Innovation- Corps mentor and has more than 30 years of practical experience in successfully developing and growing markets for high-technology products and services in the U.S. and Latin America. He has led the design, development and deployment of real-time, measurement and intelligent control systems that involve advanced numerical methods and
algorithms using high-performance embedded computing platforms. He is an active member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), the International Society of Automation (ISA), the American Physical Society (APS), the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP). Mr. Alvarado has published technical papers and has taught courses to engineers and scientists on instrumentation, control and automation applications in industry and academia; he has also been an invited keynote speaker at leading at national/international meetings, and has served as a consultant and advisory board member for academic institutions, corporations and research laboratories. In 2017, Mr. Alvarado received the prestigious Electrical and
Computer Engineering Department Heads Association’s (ECEDHA) Industry Award for his contributions to the ECE discipline and to engineering education.