DULUTH, MN — Dr. Desineni “Subbaram” Naidu, UMD Minnesota Power Jack F. Rowe Endowed Chair of Engineering, will present his on-going research on a five-finger robotic prosthetic hand on Wed., May 6, 2015, 12 noon – 2 pm, in Marshall W. Alworth Hall, room 293.
“Control” is Naidu’s passion. His pioneering research in Control Systems Engineering brought him to the United States in 1985 through a prestigious National Research Council Senior Research Associateship to work at the NASA Langley Research Center. His work has taken him to India, Norway, Switzerland, China, and Australia and into many engineering fields, including aerospace, mechanical, electrical, biomedical, energy, and power.
The prosthetic appendage is Naidu's recent control innovation, which uses electrical engineering to assist bioscience. It was further developed at UMD through the efforts of Naidu and students in his lab.
The goal of the prosthetic hand is to control grasping, lifting and twisting hand motions. “Using electrical impulses within a prosthetic hand is the key,” said Naidu. “The resources provided by this position will go far in making it happen.”
In 1987, a major gift from Minnesota Power established the first endowed chair at the University of Minnesota Duluth, the Minnesota Power Jack F. Rowe Chair of Engineering. Minnesota Power helped support the creation and development of the engineering majors that the college offers, and this gift reinforced that investment in engineering education and research at UMD. The chair was established in honor of Jack F. Rowe, former Minnesota Power chairman, president, and chief executive officer.
Dr. Naidu joined UMD’s Swenson College of Science and Engineering in August 2014. He came from Idaho State University (ISU) – Carnegie Classified Research High, where he was presented the ISU Outstanding Researcher and Distinguished Researcher Awards. He is the author of more than 300 scientific articles and six books. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering with specialization in control systems engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), and has served in positions in addition to Idaho State University, at IIT, NASA Langley Research Center, and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. Naidu was the first person in the state of Idaho to be elected (1995) as a Fellow (now a Life Fellow) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the most renowned and largest engineering professional organization, with over 460,000 members from more than 160 countries. Fellows hold “the highest grade of membership in the IEEE.”
Dr. Naidu’s area of teaching and research include electrical engineering, optimal control, nonlinear control, intelligent control, industrial control systems and cyber security, biomedical engineering, and time scales in engineering, physical and life sciences.
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Control Systems Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Kharagpur, India. He taught and conducted research there at IIT until 1985.
Conducted research on digital flight control systems and guidance and control strategies for Mars mission at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (1985-90).
Taught and conducted research on aerospace vehicles at Old Dominion University (1987-90)
Idaho State University (1990-2014) as Founding Co-Director and Director of Measurement and Control Engineering Research Center, Coordinator/Chair of Electrical Engineering, Associate Dean of the College of Engineering (1998-2010) and Director of School of Engineering (2010-13).
Conducted research on guidance and control of hypersonic vehicles at U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH (1998-99)
Conducted research on optimal control strategies for robotic underwater exploration at Center of Excellence for Ships and Ocean Structures at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway (2004)
Conducted research and taught doctoral level course on Nonlinear Control Systems, Measurement and Control Laboratory at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland (2005)
Conducted research in Biomedical Engineering and linear programming in nonlinear optimal control at the Universities of Western (Adelaide) and Southern Australia (Perth) (2008)
Conducted research on time scales in networked control systems and taught a graduate level short course on Optimal Control using his own book, Optimal Control Systems, CRC Press, 2003 at East China Normal University, Shanghai, China (2011)
Editorial board membership: IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control and Optimal Control: Applications and Methods and several other international journals.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA
World Innovation Foundation (WIF), UK
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