Events

Explainable artificial intelligence has received significant attention in the recent past. Central to this effort is directing machine learning algorithms to obtain fundamental physical insights from large amounts of experimental data. In this talk, we present a novel class of algorithms inspired by control theory (in particular, dynamic optimization and moving horizon estimation) for learning the governing equations of physical and chemical reaction systems. Our framework addresses inherent limitations of existing tools based on sparse regression, is scalable and robust to noisy data. Examples of learning the dynamics of canonical dynamical systems will be presented, and novel application to learning and reduction of the mechanisms of chemical reactions will be discussed.

Michael Baldea is the Henry Beckman Professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, and a core faculty member in the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) at UT. He serves as Chief Technology Officer for EPIXC, a DOE-supported Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute focused on electrification of heating technology, and as Executive Editor for Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.

Michael obtained his Diploma and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from "Babes-Bolyai" University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining UT, he led industrial research at the Praxair (now Linde) Technology Center in Tonawanda, NY. He has received several research and service awards, including the AIChE Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology, the Outstanding Young Researcher Award from the Computing and Systems Technology Division of AIChE, the NSF CAREER award, the Moncrief Grand Challenges Award, the ACS Doctoral New Investigator award, and the Model-Based Innovation Prize from Process Systems Enterprise (twice). His research interests include the dynamics, optimization and control of process and energy systems, areas in which he has published three books and over 200 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles.