My Research Journey from Advanced Manufacturing to Active Inferencing

Mohsen A. Jafari, PhD
Rutgers University

Abstract: In this talk I will walk you through my research journey over the last three decades; from advanced manufacturing to 3D printing; from energy and smart built environment to intelligent transportation; and from generative modeling to active inferencing. In all, automation sciences constituted the core scientific foundation, with many formalisms and techniques borrowed from various engineering, computational and cognitive sciences. I will briefly describe some of the research projects and the underlying scientific methods.

Biography: Mohsen A. Jafari is a professor and chair of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Rutgers School of Engineering, a principal at the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) and founder of the Laboratory for Energy Smart Systems (LESS). Since 2006, Professor Jafari’s research focus has been on control and optimization of energy systems with applications in Distributed Energy Resources, smart connected buildings, Demand Side Management, and Electrical Vehicles. Jafari has also been active in research concerning transportation safety and mobility since 2005. Prior to 2005, Professor Jafari’s research focused on additive manufacturing of ceramic actuators and sensors, and intelligent manufacturing in food and pharmaceutical applications. He is one of the pioneers in architecting and building the first multi-material Solid Free Form (SFF) fabrication system with online image-based process control sponsored by the ONR-MURI program. Overall, Professor Jafari has been Principal and Co-principal Investigator to over $23M R&D funding from the US and international government agencies, and industry. Professor Jafari’s work has led to 120 refereed publications and patents. He actively collaborates with universities and national labs in the US and abroad and has advised twenty three Ph.D. theses, and nine post-doctoral and research fellows. Presently, Professor Jafari is advising an additional four Ph.D. theses and one Post-Doc. He is a member of IEEE and was recipient of the IEEE excellence award in service and research, SAP curriculum award and two Transportation safety awards. Professor Jafari has been a consultant to several fortune 500 companies, and national and international government agencies.