GRASP / ESE Seminar – Pramod Khargonekar, NSF Director of Engineering, “Challenges and Opportunities in Engineering Research and Education: A View from NSF”

Pramod Khargonekar
received B. Tech. Degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Bombay, India, in 1977, and M.S. degree in mathematics and Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida in 1980 and
1981, respectively.

Khargonekar was an
assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of
Florida from 1981 to 1984; associate professor from 1984 to 1988 and professor
from 1988 to 1989 of electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota; and
professor of electrical engineering and computer science from 1989 to 2001 at The
University of Michigan. He was Chairman of the Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science from 1997 to 2001 and also held the position
of Claude E. Shannon Professor of Engineering Science at The University of
Michigan. From 2001 to 2009, he was Dean
of the College of Engineering at the University of Florida. He has held the
Eckis Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering the University of
Florida from 2001. He served as Deputy Director of Technology at ARPA-E, U. S.
Department of Energy in 2012-13. From March 2013, he has been serving as
Assistant Director of the U. S. National Science Foundation leading its
Engineering Directorate.

Khargonekar’s research and
teaching interests are centered on theory and applications of systems and
control. His early work was on mathematical control theory, specifically
focusing on robust and H-infinity control analysis and design. During the
1990’s, he was involved in a large multidisciplinary project on applications of
control and estimation techniques to semiconductor manufacturing. His current
research and teaching interests include systems and control theory, machine
learning, and applications to smart electric grid and neural engineering.