The UTC-IASE is pleased to announce the initiation of the “UTC-IASE” breakthrough award. The priority of the UTC-IASE Breakthrough Award is to provide an award to recognize innovative, transformational and disruptive contributions in the field of advanced systems engineering. The amount of the Award shall be $50,000 in the first year the prize is awarded, and may be adjusted with time.

 

Background

The UTC-IASE provides financial support to extend the impact of the UTC-IASE through educational and programmatic activities in advanced systems engineering. Such uses may include, without limitation, the creation of curricula, certificate programs, short courses, lecture series or distance learning opportunities.

 

Objectives & Requirements

• The Award shall be used to promote innovative research in Advanced Systems Engineering
• Qualified nominees must match the Breakthrough Award with an existing research project managed by UTC-IASE
• Qualified nominees must be at the early stages of their career (Assistant or Associate)

 

Application Process

Request for nominations to be announced on the UTC-IASE Website and email to the UTC-IASE affiliated faculty

Qualified nominees should submit a 2-page document with:

• A brief description of the proposed use of the Breakthrough Award funds
• A brief description of how these funds will be used to match an existing grant managed by UTC-IASE
• An outlook of how the Breakthrough Award will strengthen the visibility of the nominee, as well as the UTC-IASE
• A brief description of the collaboration opportunities the Breakthrough Award will generate for the awardee and the UTC-IASE

Qualified nominees must submit a brief biosketch (NSF-style or equivalent – 3 pages max).

Please, submit applications as ONE pdf file at utc-iase@uconn.edu

 

Application Window

Applicants should submit applications by 10/21/2016.

Selection Criteria

The Dean of SoE and the Director UTC-IASE will select the awardee based on the following criteria:

• Alignment of the matching project with the research roadmap of the UTC-IASE
• Potential of the project to enhance the awardee’s career
• Potential for future funding
• Awardee’s academic and scientific credentials
• Awardee’s prior service to the UTC-IASE

 

Award Ceremony

The award ceremony will be public (may be done as part of the UTC-IASE seminar series). The UTC-IASE GC Chair will present the award followed by the awardee making a presentation on the topic of interest

UTC IASE welcomes new Assistant Professor Dr. Abhishek Dutta with a joint appointment in electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering departments. Abhishek Dutta’s research interests lie in the area of control systems and optimization with application to mechatronic systems amongst others. He has made fundamental contributions to the theory of model predictive control with implementation over various industrial systems and more recently in the field of cyber physical systems security. He is the author of numerous journal papers and has delivered many invited talks. He is currently involved in teaching related to systems engineering for UTC.

Prior to joining UConn, he was a postdoctoral research associate at aerospace engineering in coordinated science lab of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Cedric Langbort. He holds a PhD in electromechanical engineering (model predictive control) under the supervision of Robin De Keyser at Ghent University and under the advise of Jan Maciejowski as a junior member of Wolfson College Cambridge. He has a MSc with distinction from the University of Edinburgh including an informatics prize for outstanding thesis and an European masters from the University of Trento with final mark 110/110. He has held research positions at Technical University Munich (electrical engineering) and Nanyang Technological University (mechanical and aerospace).