The keynote information for the International Conference on Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics (ICMEM'12) is as follows (to be updated):

Dr. Emil M. Petriu University of Ottawa

Dr. Maurizio Porfiri Polytechnic Institute of New York University

Dr. Dan Stilwell Virginia Tech

 

 

 

Dr. Emil M. Petriu

    Emil M. Petriu, P.Eng. F'IEEE, F'CAE, F'EIC is a Professor and University Research Chair in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He received his Dr. Eng. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Timisoara, Romania, in 1978. In 1979, he held a UNESCO postdoctoral scholarship in the Department of Applied Physics at the Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario, Canada.

Since 1985, Dr. Petriu has been a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and then the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa, where he received a University Research Chair in Ubiquitous Computing Technologies for e-Society in 2004.

He has published 104 refereed journal papers, 16 book chapters, 266 papers in refereed conference proceedings, authored two books, edited three books, and received two patents. One of his most significant contributions was the development of an innovative absolute-position measurement technique using "pseudo-random binary sequences" that has the distinct advantage of requiring only one bit of code per quantization step. His pioneering work on pseudo-random encoding is cited as a basic reference in this area. He was a co-recipient of the 2003 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award, the unique paper award presented by IEEE in that year.

Dr. Petriu is co-director of the DISCOVER Lab at the University of Ottawa. He has supervised 77 graduate students (25 PhD, 52 Master's), 10 post-doctoral fellows and 16 research personnel.

In recognition of his contributions to the engineering profession, in 2000, he was elected Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (FEIC), and in 2001, he was inducted as Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE). In 2001 he was elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (FIEEE) "for contributions to the development of pseudorandom encoding techniques for absolute position measurement." He received the 2003 IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society Technical Award "for contributions to imaging processing systems, robotics, virtual reality and applications of artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic and neural networks" and the 2009 IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society Distinguished Service Award "for outstanding leadership during more than ten years of AdCom membership, including service as General Chair or Program Chair of five IMTC conferences, and as Co-chair of TC-15, TC-28, and TC-30."

Topic of Keynote: Bio-inspired Intelligent Robots

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Dr. Maurizio Porfiri

    Maurizio Porfiri was born in Rome, Italy in 1976. He received M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering Mechanics from Virginia Tech, in 2000 and 2006; a "Laurea" in Electrical Engineering (with honours) and a Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and the University of Toulon (dual degree program), in 2001 and 2005, respectively. From 2005 to 2006 he held a Post-doctoral position with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. He has been a member of the Faculty of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University since 2006, where he is currently an Associate Professor. He is engaged in conducting and supervising research on dynamical systems theory, multiphysics modeling, and underwater robotics. Maurizio Porfiri is the author of over 75 journal publications, he is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award (Dynamical Systems program) in 2008, he has been included in the "Brilliant 10" list of Popular Science in 2010, he has been invited the Frontiers of Engineering Symposium organized by National Academy of Engineering in 2011, and he has received the Outstanding Young Alumnus award by the college of Engineering of Virginia Tech in 2012.

Topic of Keynote: Guidance and Control of Fish Shoals using Biomimetic Robots

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Dr. Dan Stilwell

    Dr. Dan Stilwell is an associate professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. He earned a PhD in at Johns Hopkins University in 1999, the MS from Virginia Tech in 1993, and the BS from the University of Massachusetts in 1991. Since arriving at Virginia Tech in 2002, Dr. Stilwell has become a principal contributor to the emerging field of environmental robotics. His research spans the development of fundamental control and estimation theory for mobile sensors networks to the development of new maritime robots for both underwater and surface applications. He has led or co-led the development of several autonomous underwater vehicle systems. Two of which have been transitioned to the US Navy. He has received the National Science Foundation CAREER award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program award. He was named a College of Engineering Outstanding Assistant Professor in 2004.

Topic of Keynote: Think Global, Act Local: Guidance Concepts for Autonomous Systems that Operate over very Large Areas

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