Diversity, Outreach, and Development Activities Board

VP Diversity, Outreach & Development

Karl H. Johansson

KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Sweden

8 (Africa, Europe, Middle East)

Website

VP Member Activities

Kristin Y. Pettersen

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Norway

8 (Africa, Europe, Middle East)

Website

Kristin Y. Pettersen

8 (Africa, Europe, Middle East)

Website

Biography

KRISTIN Y. PETTERSEN (S'93-M'98-SM'04-F'17) received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering cybernetics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, in 1992 and 1996, respectively.

Since 1996, she has been a Faculty Member with the Department of Engineering Cybernetics, NTNU, where she is currently a Professor. She was the Director of the NTNU ICT Programme of Robotics from 2010 to 2013, the Vice-Head of the Department from 2009 to 2011, and the Head of the Department from 2011 to 2013. She is also an Adjunct Professor with Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Kjeller, Norway. She is a Co-Founder of the NTNU spin-off company Eelume AS, Trondheim, where she was the CEO from 2015 to 2016. She has co-authored four books and over 300 papers in scientific conferences and journals. Her current research interests include nonlinear control of mechanical systems with applications to robotics, especially marine robotics and snake robotics.

Dr. Pettersen is an elected member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Control Systems Society (2022-2024) and (2012-2014), and IEEE CSS Vice President of Member Activities (2023-2024). She was IEEE CSS Distinguished Lecturer (2019-2022). She was a recipient of the Outstanding Paper Award from the _IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology_ in 2006 and 2017. She received the IEEE CSS Hendrik W. Bode Lecture Prize in 2020 and was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council in 2021. She has during the last 20 years held several board positions in industrial and research companies. She is an IEEE Fellow, a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, and the Academy of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.

Affiliation(s)

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Norway

VP Technical Activities

Ian Petersen

Professor in Research School of Engineering

Australian National University

Australia

10 (Asia and Pacific)

Website

VP Financial Activities

Jonathan How

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

United States

1 (Northeastern U.S.)

Website

Jonathan How

1 (Northeastern U.S.)

Website

Biography

Jonathan P. How is the Richard C. Maclaurin Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received a B.A.Sc. (Aerospace) from the University of Toronto in 1987, and his S.M. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 1990 and 1993, respectively, and then studied for 1.5 years at MIT as a postdoctoral associate. Prior to joining MIT in 2000, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. Dr. How was the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Control Systems Magazine (2015-19), an associate editor for the AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems (2012-21) and IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (2018-21). He was the Program Vice-chair (tutorials) for the 2021 Conference on Decision and Control and will be the Program Chair for the American Control Conference in 2025. He was elected to the Board of Governors of the IEEE Control System Society (CSS) for 2020-22, is on the IEEE CSS Long Range Planning Committee (2022 – ), is a member of the IEEE CSS Technical Committee on Aerospace Control and the Technical Committee on Intelligent Control, was a member of the IEEE Fellows Selection committee for CSS (2021-22), and since 2021, he serves as the AIAA Director on the American Automatic Control Council. He is also the Director of the Ford-MIT Alliance and was a member of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) from 2014-17. His research focuses on robust planning and learning under uncertainty with an emphasis on multiagent systems, and he was the planning and control lead for the MIT DARPA Urban Challenge team. His work has been recognized with multiple awards, including being inducted into the University of Toronto Engineering Hall of Distinction (2022), receiving the 2020 IEEE CSS Distinguished Member Award, the 2020 AIAA Intelligent Systems Award, the 2015 AeroLion Technologies Outstanding Paper Award for Unmanned Systems, the 2015 IEEE CSS Video Clip Contest, the 2011 IFAC Automatica award for best applications paper, and the 2002 Institute of Navigation Burka Award. He also received the Air Force Commander's Public Service Award in 2017. He is a Fellow of IEEE (2018) and AIAA (2016) and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2021.

Affiliation(s)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

United States

WiC Co-Chairs

Dennice F. Gayme

Johns Hopkins University

United States

Afef Fekih

University of Louisianan, Lafayette

United States

5 (Southwestern U.S.)

Website

Afef Fekih

5 (Southwestern U.S.)

Website

Biography

Afef Fekih received the BS, MS and PhD degrees all in Electrical Engineering from the National Engineering School of Tunis, Tunisia in 1995, 1998 and 2002, respectively. Since 2016 she has been a Full Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the director of the advanced controls laboratory at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA. Her research interests focus on control theory and applications, including nonlinear and robust control, optimal control, fault tolerant control with applications to power systems, wind turbines, unmanned vehicles and automotive engines. She co-authored more than 200 publications in international journals, chapters, and conference proceedings. Her research was featured by Thomson Reuters Science Watch® Essential Science Indicators and recognized by multiple awards including the Harold Callais/BORSF Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering since 2008, the O’Krepki/LEQSF Regents Professorship in Telecommunications since 2018, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Distinguished Professor Award in 2022.

She is an “appointed member” of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Control Systems Society (2023-2024). A member of the American Automatic Control Council (AACC) Technical Committee on Control Education, the IFAC Technical Committee on Power and Energy Systems, and the IEEE Systems Council Diversity & Inclusion Committee. She is currently serving as the Co-Chair for the IEEE CSS Women in Control standing committee (WiC) and served as vice-chair (2020-2022). She co-organized several outreach activities through the IEEE WiC, where she had been serving as advisory board member since 2014, and media coordinator since 2019. She organized and chaired several sessions at international technical conferences. She served as the local arrangements chair for the 2021 American Control Conference. Currently serving as the publications chair for the 2023 American Control Conference and will be serving as the registration chair for the 2024 American Control Conference. Dr. Fekih is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a member of the IEEE Technology conference editorial board. She has served as a reviewer and guest editor for numerous journals and conferences.

Affiliation(s)

University of Louisianan, Lafayette

United States

President

Magnus Egerstedt

University of California, Irvine

United States

Outreach Task Force Chair

Silvia Mastellone

University of Applied Science Northwestern Switzerland

Switzerland

8 (Africa, Europe, Middle East)

Website

Board Member

Melanie Zeilinger

ETH Zurich

Switzerland

Website