October 10, 2016

Manipulation and Interrogation of Matter at the Small Scale Enabled by a Controls and Systems Perspective

Abstract: The new temporal and spatial regimes of exploration enabled by nanoscience and nanotechnology have led to significant insights into fundamental processes that govern dynamics at the small scale of matter including bio-matter at the molecular scale. These abilities were enabled by breakthroughs in instrumentation that had to overcome fundamental sources of uncertainty such as thermal noise. In this talk, solution methodologies enabled by a modern control approach, in our lab, that have opened new temporal and spatial regimes for investigating matter at the nanoscale will be highlighted. With the exploration of biological processes at the molecular and cellular scale using nano-interrogation tools, it has become evident that evolution has endowed biology with remarkable machinery to perform and achieve precise functionality at the small scale in the presence of a highly uncertain environment. Understanding these bio-molecular systems, apart from providing key insights into biology and the related therapeutic impact, holds the promise for strategies to engineer material and systems at the small scale. Recent efforts in our lab for probing and understanding transport at the molecular scale and key proteins that provide structural integrity will be detailed to illustrate the power of a controls and systems perspectives.

Bio: Murti V. Salapaka received the B.Tech. Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1991. He received Masters and doctoral degree in Mechanical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1993, and 1997, respectively. From 1997-2007, he was with the Electrical Engineering Department at Iowa State University. From 2007 to 2010, he was an Associate Professor at University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities, where he currently holds the Vincentine Hermes-Luh Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is currently a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities. Prof. Salapaka was the recipient of the 1997 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and the 2001 Iowa State University Young Engineering Faculty Research Award. His research interests are in control and systems theory and its applications to nanotechnology, molecular biology and renewable energy.