NSF Award
2331256
Systematic modeling, analysis and design of social, economic and technological systems requires addressing myriad tradeoffs that natural systems and human groups handle so effectively. A confluence of ideas from diverse disciplines, including arts, ecology, neuroscience, and control theory will further enhance our understanding of the underpinnings of such remarkable systems and enable us to facilitate such robustness and resilience in engineered systems. Examples of such systems range from electric networks to connected and autonomous vehicles to smart manufacturing to mixed human-automata systems. Broader issues that require such confluence include climate change, energy efficiency, and human-wildlife conflicts. To begin a dialogue aimed at improving synergistic approaches to these challenges, the proposed workshop on Convergence with Control: Bridging the Arts, Ecology, Neuroscience, and Engineering aims to bring a diverse scientific community together and foster fruitful cross-disciplinary collaborations. It will feature diverse and distinguished domestic and international speakers, including early career researchers. The participants will be from cross-cutting disciplines, including the arts, ecology, neuroscience, and engineering. In addition to the talks, the workshop will feature several activities with cross-disciplinary themes that will facilitate team-forming and facilitate deep scientific discussions. The workshop will consist of presentations by invited speakers interleaved with cross-disciplinary activities.<br/><br/>The purpose of the workshop is to facilitate and enhance research discussions and collaborations among experts in a broad range of disciplines, including biology, arts, and engineering. The invited speakers are leading experts in the areas of ecology, neuroscience, music and dance, dynamical systems, and control theory. The sub-themes, (i) collective behavior and control, (ii) robotics, learning and control, and (iii) neuroscience and control, will ensure that the broad agenda of the workshop is focused both on theory and application. The invited speakers have been selected to ensure a broad representation of research disciplines and such exposure will also benefit young researchers immensely.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
