Research problems of my life: Overview and advice for the inspired

Semyon Meerkov
Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University of Michigan

Abstract: This talk is intended to overview several research problems I worked on during my career, with emphasis on ideas, their interconnections, analytical techniques, and results/impact. In addition, I plan to offer unsolicited, experience-based advice to inspiring researchers on research work and research life.

Bio: Professor Meerkov received an M.S.E.E. (1962) from the Polytechnic of Kharkiv, Ukraine, and a Ph.D. (1966) from the Institute of Control Sciences, Moscow, Russia. He served as an Automation Engineer (1962-63) at the Research Institute for Power Systems Automation in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and as a Research Fellow (1966-69) and Senior Research Fellow (1969-77) at the Institute of Control Sciences in Moscow, Russia. He joined the Illinois Institute of Technology in the Electrical Engineering Department as Associate Professor (1979-82) and was promoted to Professor (1982-84). He joined the University of Michigan as a Professor of EECS in 1984. He has held visiting positions at UCLA, Stanford University, Technion Israel Institute of Technology (Israel), Tsinghua University (China), and Ben Gurion University (Israel). Professor Meerkov’s research interests include nonlinear, stochastic, and resilient control systems, mathematical theory of rational behavior, communication networks, production systems engineering, and, as of recently, smart production systems. He co-authored the textbooks Production Systems Engineering (Springer, 2009; translated into Chinese in 2012) and Quasilinear Control (Cambridge University Press, 2011). He published over 150 papers in refereed journals. He is a Life Fellow of IEEE and a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Department Editor for Manufacturing Systems of IIE Transactions, and an Associate Editor of several other journals. He is a co-founder and President of Smart Production Systems LLC.