Speaker: Dr Urmila Diwekar
Day, Date and Time: Tuesday, February 07, 10:30AM
Venue: IEOR 211, Seminar Room, 2nd floor IEOR Building
Abstract: This talk presents real-world case studies involving optimization in the face of uncertainties. These case studies are related to energy, environment, and sustainability using large-scale simulators (black box). The Better Optimization of Nonlinear Uncertain Systems (BONUS) algorithm provides efficient and effective solutions for these problems. The talk describes the algorithm and presents the following case studies.
* Energy-Water-Nexus Problem
- Aim: Minimize water consumption in power systems
- Subject to mass and energy balance models for power plant
- Uncertainty: weather conditions
- Nonlinear optimization under uncertainty
* Renewable Energy System Optimization
- Aim: Minimize expected cost of electricity
- Subject to performance and cost models for solar thermal power plant
- Uncertainty: weather and cost
- Nonlinear optimization under uncertainty
* Improving Efficiency and Environmental Performance of Power Systems using Smart Manufacturing:
- Aim: Optimize sensor placement for observability and efficiency
- Subject to mass and energy balance models for power system
- Uncertainty: measurement noise associated with sensors
- MINLP under uncertainty
* Dynamic sensor placement in energy systems, chemical plants, water
distribution networks, and air pollution measurement networks.
Bio: Dr. Urmila Diwekar is the president of Vishwamitra Research, a non-profit research institute that she founded to pursue multidisciplinary research and development in the areas of Optimization under Uncertainty and Computer-aided Design applied to Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. She is also the president of Stochastic Research Technologies LLC. From 2002-2004, she was a Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has a special formal arrangement with UIC, where she remains the primary advisor for her Ph.D. and M.S. students and teaches a course on optimization as a visiting professor. Since 2020, she is also a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India. From 1991-2002 she was on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University, with early promotions to both the Associate and the Full Professor levels. She is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed research papers, 17 book chapters, seven books, and three software packages, and has given over 400 presentations and seminars and has chaired numerous sessions in national and international meetings. She has been the principal advisor to 46 Ph.D. and M.S. students and has advised 15 post-doctoral fellows and researchers. In 2009, she was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). In the same year, in recognition of her work on batch distillation research for pharmaceutical industries, ecological sustainability, and biomedical engineering, she was also elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). In October 2011, she received the coveted Cecil Award for Environmental Chemical Engineering from the Environmental Division of AIChE. In November 2011, she received the Thiele award for outstanding contributions to chemical engineering, awarded by the Chicago chapter of AIChE. In 2015 she received one of the most prestigious awards of AIChE (an Institute award), the Energy and Sustainability award for leadership in research related to conventional energy, renewable energy, energy-water nexus, carbon capture and environmental control for energy, pollution prevention, and sustainability. In 2018 she received the Clarence Gerhold award (again a national award from the separations division of AIChE), which recognizes an individual's outstanding contributions to research, development, or in the application of separations technology for her pioneering work on batch distillation and green separations. This unprecedented recognition attests to the broad impact of her work in so many different areas. Garaje Marathi also selected her as amongst the top 60 Marathi NRIs from all over the world who have contributed to the enhancement of knowledge and/or society. In 2020, she received the best research award from ScienceFather international research awards on new science inventions (NESIN) for her work in InVitro Fertilization (IVF). This year she received the Computing in practice award from AIChE's Computers and Systems Technology division. For all four national awards described above, she was the first woman ever to receive the award. She was recently notified that she is the finalist for INFORMS Innovative Applications in Analytics Award for her work related to IVF.