Massoud Amin

Professor
Director of the Center for the Development of Technological Leadership
H.W. Sweatt Chair in Technological Leadership

B.S., 1982, Electrical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
M.S., 1985, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
M.S., 1986, Systems Science and Mathematics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
D. Sc., 1990, Systems Science and Mathematics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri

Telephone: (612) 624-5747

E-mail: amin@ece.umn.edu
Web Page: http://cdtlnet.cdtl.umn.edu/amin.html/

My research efforts have spanned a broad spectrum of activities --helicopters, airplanes, silicon basal growth, power grids-- but there is a basic, unifying thread that runs through them all. There are certain fundamental problems and underpinning dynamics that exist in any of these systems. It is these problems I have attempted to address: where to judiciously place the sensors, what to measure, how to identify and estimate the systems, developing reliable robust controllers, performance monitoring and improvement along with economic and other related impacts.

Virtually every crucial economic and social function depends on the secure, reliable operation of energy, telecommunications, transportation, financial, and other infrastructures. From a strategic R&D viewpoint, the agility and robustness/survivability of large-scale dynamic networks that face new and unanticipated operating conditions is being addressed. A major challenge is posed by the lack of a unified mathematical framework with robust tools for modeling, simulation, control and optimization of time-critical operations in complex multicomponent and multiscaled networks.

Extensions of my work include theoretical and practical aspects of reconfigurable and self-repairing controls, infrastructure security, enterprise information security, on-line risk-based decision making, system optimization, and differential game theory for aerospace, energy, and transportation applications.

Building on these foundations, my current research focuses on "global transition dynamics" to enhance resilience, security and efficiency of national critical infrastructures to enable more robust systems operation, security monitoring and efficient markets.


Selected Publications

"Security Challenges for the Electricity Infrastructure," M. Amin, Special issue of the IEEE Computer Magazine on Security and Privacy, April 2002

"Restructuring the Electric Enterprise: Simulating the Evolution of the Electric Power Industry with Adaptive Agents," M.Amin, Market Based Pricing of Electricity, A. Faruqui and M. Crew Editors, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dec. 2002

"Toward Self-Healing Energy Infrastructure Systems," M. Amin, cover feature in the IEEE Computer Applications in Power, pp. 20-28, Vol. 14, No. 1, January 2001

"National Infrastructures as Complex Interactive Networks," M. Amin, chapter 14 in: Automation, Control, and Complexity: An Integrated Approach, T. Samad & J. Weyrauch (Eds.), pp. 263-286, John Wiley and Sons Ltd., NY, March 2000

"Neurocontrol of Nonlinear Systems via Local Memory Neurons", M. Amin, et. al., Mathl. Comput. Modelling, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 65-92, 1998

"System Identification via Artificial Neural Networks: Application to On-line Aircraft Parameter Estimation," M. Amin, Gerhart, and Rodin, Proc. of AIAA/SAE 1997 World Aviation Congress, Anaheim, CA, paper # 975612, 22 pp., Oct. 13-16, 1997