Please join the Department of Chemical Engineering on Friday, March 15, 2019, for a lecture on systems and advanced decisions by Dr. Yu Luo, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Delaware’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Abstract
How do we make better decisions? This is the fundamental question for many individuals – humans, organizations and societies – and there is no easy answer. In this two-part seminar, Dr. Yu Luo will discuss the role of systems research in making advanced decisions. Each part examines one distinct approach to improve decisions – either through algorithms or through social interactions. Each topic features various process systems engineering (PSE) methodologies.
At its core, PSE is about systems thinking, which considers a system, its interacting constituents and competing objectives. Many decision-making problems could benefit from both the technological advances in PSE and its unique systems perspective.
Two topics will be discussed. Part I of the seminar highlights the application of PSE to manufacturing therapeutic antibodies – a modular and adaptable process model is used to guide upstream process design and meet production and product quality targets. While algorithms offer tremendous assistance in making advanced decisions, they are only half the story. In the era of social media, one’s decision-making process is inevitably influenced by others. In Part II, PSE techniques are employed in a nontraditional setting – opinion dynamics. How do we make better decisions when social feedback is present? An attempt to answer this question through a control-theoretic model will be presented.
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Yu Luo is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware (UD). He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Columbia University and B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering at the National University of Singapore. Dr. Luo’s doctoral training from Columbia with Prof. Venkat Venkatasubramanian and Prof. Garud Iyengar focused on understanding complex multi-agent systems and managing systemic risk through the lens of chemical engineering (PSE in particular) and artificial intelligence. His current research with Prof. Babatunde A. Ogunnaike and Prof. Kelvin H. Lee at UD employs various systems techniques to design and control the upstream biopharmaceutical process of manufacturing therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.
Dr. Luo has systematically analyzed problems at a wide range of scales and applied PSE principles to a diverse set of systems – biological systems, systems of artificial agents, social systems, financial systems, etc. What motivates him in conducting research in PSE is the understanding of complex systems and the profound satisfaction of understanding.