Ramavarapu S Sreenivas

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• R.S. Sreenivas's home page

Education

• Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, 1990
• M.S.E.E. Elec. & Comp. Engr. Carnegie Mellon 1987
• B.Tech Electrical Engr. Indian Inst. of Tech. 1985

Biography

I received a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Madras, India in 1985. I was at the IIT, Madras from 1980-1985. I have an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. I was at Carnegie Mellon between 1985 and 1990. I then moved to Harvard University, where I was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Decision and Control at what was then the Division of Applied Sciences. After a two-year stint at Harvard, I came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I am a Professor with the Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering Department. I hold research appointments at the Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL) and the Information Trust Institute (ITI). I am also an affiliate of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and an Arthur Davis Faculty Scholar at the University of Illinois.

Academic Positions

• Research Professor, Information Trust Institute
• Research Professor, Coordinated Science Lab
• Departmental Affiliate, Electrical & Computer Engineering
• Professor, Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1990-1992
• Research Assistant, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 1985-1990

Teaching Statement

At the undergraduate level, I have instructed various courses in the controls curriculum for the Systems Engineering & Design Program, including SE320: Introductory Control Systems, SE420: Digital Control of Dynamic Systems, SE423: Introduction to Mechatronics, and SE424: State Space Design Methods in Control. I have also advised multiple projects within the industry-sponsored Senior Engineering Project sequence (SE494: Senior Engineering Project I and SE495: Senior Engineering Project II). Moving onto graduate education, I have taught advanced courses in both the Controls and Industrial Engineering curricula in the College. These include AE555: Multivariable Control Design, SE525: Discrete Event Systems, IE511: Integer Programming, and IE531: Algorithms for Data Analytics. Since its inception in May 2006, I have been an integral part of the Master of Science in Financial Engineering (MSFE) Program at our university. This Cross-College Program involves faculty from multiple colleges, including Engineering and Business. Within this program, I have taught IE523: Financial Computing. The MSFE program is currently ranked 4th among FE-Programs nationally. Additionally, I have collaborated on the instruction of HT503: Hardware Engineering for Health Technology and HT 504: Software Engineering for Health Technology within the Health Technology (HT) program at UIUC. I have been recognized for my excellence in teaching twenty-five times across various courses, and in 2023, I was awarded the UIUC Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching.

Research Statement

My current research focus lies in the comprehensive analysis, control, and performance evaluation of a wide category of systems referred to as Discrete-Event/Discrete-State (DEDS) systems in the literature. These systems are prominent in various domains such as air-traffic control, automated manufacturing, computer networks, integrated command, control, communication and information (C3I) systems, and operations management of complex organizations with event-driven dynamics like shipyards, airports, hospitals, etc.

To address the unique challenges posed by DEDS systems, I employ the theories of Computation, Coding, Machine Learning, Approximate Algorithms, Online Algorithms, and Information Theory. By leveraging these advanced methodologies, I develop near-optimal supervisory policies tailored to various problems within the realm of DEDS Systems.

Research Interests

• Coding and Information Theory for Control Applications
• Product Development, Manufacturing Automation and Embedded Control
• Modeling, Analysis, Verification, Performance Evaluation and Control of Discrete-Event/Discrete-State (DEDS) Systems

Chapters in Books

• L. Courtney and R.S. Sreenivas, "Using Deep Convolutional LSTM Networks for Learning Spatiotemporal Features, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) Volume 12047, 307-320, 2020. Proceedings fo the 5th Asian Conference on Pattern Recognition (ACPR 2019), Auckland, New Zealand.
• N. Singh and R.S. Sreenivas, "Wireless Networks: An Instance of Tandem Discrete-Time Queues," Chapter 6, Networks and Communications, N. Meghanathan et al. (eds.), Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering 284, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-03692-2_6, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland 2014.
• Sreenivas, R.S., `` Supervisory Control of DEDS.'' Chapter 3, Discrete Event Hybrid Systems in Robotics and Automation, Editor: Tarek Sobh, Nova Science Publishers, Inc. NY, 2006.
• Narayanaswamy S, Kawadia, V, Sreenivas, R.S. and P.R. Kumar, ``Power control in ad hoc wireless networks: An architectural solution for a melee of multiple agents, cost criteria, and information patterns.'' In Proceedings of the Symposium on Complex Systems Modeling and Optimization in the Information Age To Celebrate 45 Years of Outstanding Contribution of Prof. Yu-Chi ``Larry'' Ho, held June 23-24, 2001, Harvard University.
• R.S. Sreenivas, On Partially Controlled Free Choice Petri Nets, Discrete Event Systems: Analysis and Control, R. Boel and G. Stremersch (Eds), pp. 159-168, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000

Selected Articles in Journals

• M. Yuasa, H.T. Tran, R.S. Sreenivas, On Generating Explanations for Reinforcement Learning Policies: An Empirical Study, IEEE Control Systems Letters, To appear, Accepted, December 2024.
• R. Sengupta, R.Nagi, R.S. Sreenivas, Robust Task Allocations by Distributing the Risk Among Agents: Theory and Algorithm, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, To appear, Accepted, August 2024.
• R. Sengupta, R.Nagi, R.S. Sreenivas, Equitable Allocation of Operations and Makespan Minimization for Autonomous Agents, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, Tvol. 20, no. 1, pp. 703-717, Jan. 2023.
• R. Khaleghi and R.S. Sreenivas, On Computing the Supremal Control Invariant Subset of a Right-Closed Set of Markings for an Arbitrary Petri Net, Discrete Event Dynamic Systems: Theory and Applications, Published Online, March 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10626-021-00340-6
• R. Kaur, C. Schaye, K. Thompson, D.C. Yee, R. Zilz, R. S. Sreenivas, R.B. Sowers, Machine learning and price-based load scheduling for an optimal IoT control in the smart and frugal home, Energy and AI, Elsevier Publications, To appear, Circa 2021. Available online 23 December 2020.
• A. Raman, R.S. Sreenivas, Liveness Enforcing Supervisory Policies Tolerant to Controllability Failures for Discrete-Event Systems modeled by Petri Nets, Automatica, Vol. 125, March 2021.
• C. Chen, A. Raman, H. Hu, R.S. Sreenivas, On Liveness Enforcing Supervisory Policies for Arbitrary Petri Nets, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. 65, No. 12, December 2020, 5236 - 5247.
• A. Raman, R.S. Sreenivas, Fault-Tolerant Control of Discrete-Event Systems with Controllability Failures, IEEE Control Systems Letters (L-CSS), Vol. 4, Issue: 3, July 2020, 674 - 679
• R. Reck, R.S. Sreenivas, M.C. Loui, Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Affordable and Portable Laboratory Kit for an Introductory Control Systems Course, Advances in Engineering Education, Fall 2019.
• T-E Lee, H-J Kim, D-H Roh and Sreenivas, R.S, Characterizing Token Delays of Timed Event Graphs for K-Cyclic Schedules, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , Vol. 62, No. 2, February, 2017, 961-966.
• E. Salimi and R.S. Sreenivas, On Convexity of Right-Closed Integral Sets, British Journal of Mathematics & Computer Science , ISSN: 2231-0851, Vol. 20, Issue. 1, 2017, 1-11.
• R. Reck and R.S. Sreenivas, Developing an Affordable and Portable Control Systems Laboratory Kit with a Raspberry Pi, Invited Article, Special Issue on "Raspberry Pi Technology," Electronics , 2016, 5(3), 36; doi:10.3390/electronics5030036
• E. Salimi and Sreenivas, R.S., On Invariant-Based Monitors that Enforce Liveness in a Class of Partially Controlled General Petri Nets, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , Vol. 60, No. 10, October, 2015, 2825-2830
• Chandrasekaran, S, Somnath, N and Sreenivas R.S., A Software Tool for the Automatic Synthesis of Minimally Restrictive Liveness Enforcing Supervisory Policies for a Class of General Petri Net Models of Manufacturing- and Service-Systems, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing , Special Issue: Intelligent Manufacturing: New Advances and Challenges (Invited), Volume 26, Issue 5, October, 2015, 945-958.
• V. Deverakonda and Sreenivas, R.S., On a Sufficient Information Structure for Supervisory Policies that Enforce Liveness in a Class of General Petri Nets, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. 60, No. 7, July, 2015, 1915-1921.
• Y-M Anh, D. Block and Sreenivas, R.S., Autonomous Navigation and Localization of a Quad-Rotor in an Indoor Environment, AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems , Special Section on Estimation and Information Theory Application for Resilient and Distributed Operation of Aerospace Systems; Published Online June 2015; Appeared in print, Vol. 12, No. 12, 699-709, (2015), pp. 699-709. (doi: 10.2514/1.I010249).
• E. Salimi, N. Somnath and Sreenivas, R.S., A Software Tool for Live-Lock Avoidance in Systems Modeled using a Class of Petri Nets, International Journal on Computational Science & Applications , Vol 5, No. 2, April 2015,1-13
• Kulkarni, A, Kiyavash, N and Sreenivas, R.S., On the Varshamov-Tenengolts Construction on Binary Strings, Discrete Mathematics , Volume 317, February 2014, Pages 79–90
• D. Block, M. Michelloti and R.S. Sreenivas, Application of the NOVINT Falcon haptic device as an actuator in real-time control, Paladyn Journal of Behavioral Robotics , Volume 4, Issue 3, September, 2013, 182-193.
• N. Singh and Sreenivas, R.S., Enforcing End-to-End Proportional Fairness with Bounded Buffer Overflow Probabilities in Ad-hoc Wireless Networks, International Journal of Wireless & Mobile Networks (IJWMN) , Vol.5 , No. 5, October, 2013, 1-16.
• Somnath, N and Sreenivas, R.S., On Deciding the Existence of a Liveness Enforcing Supervisory Policy in a Class of Partially-Controlled General Free-Choice Petri Nets, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering , Vol. 10, No. 4, October, 2013, 1157-1160
• Sreenivas, R.S., On a Decidable Class of Partially Controlled Petri Nets with Liveness Enforcing Supervisory Policies, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems , Vol. 43, No. 5, September 2013, 1256-1261.
• Gummadi, R, Massoulie, L. and Sreenivas, R.S. The role of coding in the choice between routing and coding for wireless unicast, Physical Communication , Special issue on Network Coding and its Applications to Wireless Communications, Volume 6, March 2013, Pages 88–99
• R.S. Sreenivas, On the Existence of Supervisory Policies that Enforce Liveness in Partially Controlled Free Choice Petri Nets, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , 435-449, Vol. 57, No. 2, February, 2012.
• R. Gummadi, N. Singh and R.S. Sreenivas, On Tractable Instances of Modular Supervisory Control, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , Vol. 56, No. 7, July, 1621-1635, 2011.
• Yassine, A, Sreenivas, R. S, and Zhu, J., Managing the exchange of information in product development, European Journal of Operations Research , 184 (2008), pp. 311-326.
• Li, L., Hadjicostis, C., and Sreenivas, R. S, Designs of Bisimilar Petri Net Controllers with Fault Tolerance Capabilities, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part A: Systems and Humans , Vol. 38, No. 1, January, 2008, pp. 207-217.
• Sreenivas, R. S, Some observations on supervisory policies that enforce liveness in partially controlled Free-Choice Petri nets, Mathematics and Computers in Simulation , 70 (2006), pp. 266-274.
• Sreenivas, R. S, On Minimal Representations of Petri Net Languages, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , Vol. 51, No. 6, May, 2006, 799-804.
• Norris, W.R., Q. Zhang and Sreenivas, R.S., "Rule-Base Reduction for a Fuzzy Human Operator Performance Model," Applied Engineering in Agriculture , Vol. 22(4): 611-618, 2006, American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers ISSN 0883-8542.
• Norris, W. R., Zhang Q. and Sreenivas, R. S, Lopez-Dominguez, A Design Tool for Operator-Adaptive Steering Controllers, Transactions of the ASAE , 46:3, 883-891 (May/June 2003).
• Sreenivas, R. S. On Supervisory Policies that Enforce Liveness in Completely Controlled Petri Nets which Directed Cut-Places and Cut-Transition. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , 44:6, 1221-1225 (June 1999).
• Sreenivas, R. S. On Supervisory Policies that Enforce Liveness in a Class of Completely Controlled Petri Nets Obtained via Refinement. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , 44:1, 173-177 (Jan. 1999).
• Sreenivas, R. S. An Application of Independent, Increasing, Free-Choice Petri Nets to the Synthesis of Policies that Enforce Liveness in Arbitrary Petri Nets. Automatica , 34:12, 1613-1615 (Dec. 1998).
• Sreenivas, R. S. On Commoner’s Liveness Theorem and Supervisory Policies that Enforce Liveness in Free-Choice Petri Nets. Systems & Control Letters , 31, 41-48 (1997).
• Sreenivas, R. S. On the Existence of Supervisory Policies that Enforce Liveness in Discrete Event Dynamic Systems Modeled by Controlled Petri Nets. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , 42:7, 928-945 (July 1997).
• Sreenivas, R. S. On Supervisory Policies that Enforce Global Fairness and Bounded Fairness in Partially Controlled Petri Nets. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems: Theory and Applications , 7, 1-18 (1997).
• Sreenivas, R. S. On Asymptotically Efficient Solutions for a Class of Supervisory Control Problems. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , 41:12, 1736-1750 (December 1996).
• Sreenivas, R. S. On the Existence of Finite State Supervisors for Arbitrary Supervisory Control Problems. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , 39:4 (April 1994).
• Sreenivas, R. S. On a Weaker Notion of Controllability of a Language K with Respect to a Language L. IEEE Transaction on Automatic Control , 38:9 (September 1993).
• Sreenivas, R. S. A Note on Deciding the Controllability of a Language K with Respect to a Language L. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , 38:4 (April 1993).
• Ho, Y. C., R. S. Sreenivas, and P. Vakili. Ordinal Optimization of DEDS. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems: Theory and Applications , 2:1 (July 1992).
• Gaivoronski, A. A., L. Shi, and R. S. Sreenivas. Augmented Infinitesimal Perturbation Analysis: An Alternate Explanation. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems: Theory and Applications , (June 1992).
• Sreenivas, R. S. and B. H. Krogh. On Petri Net Models of Infinite State Supervisors. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , 37:2, 274-277 (February 1992).
• Sreenivas, R. S. and B. H. Krogh. On Condition/Event Systems with Discrete State Realizations. Discrete Event Dynamic Systems: Theory and Applications , 1, 209-236 (1991).

Articles in Conference Proceedings

• A. Raman and R.S. Sreenivas, Sequential Synthesis of Supervisory Policies for Discrete-Event Systems Modeled by Petri Nets, In Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), Bari, Italy, October, 2019.
• V.P. Ramavarapu, R. Sowers and R.S. Sreenivas, A Smart Power Outlet for Electric Devices that can Benefit from Real-Time Pricing, In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Control, Electronics, Renewable Energy, and Communications 2017 (ICCEREC 2017), 26-28 September 2017, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
• R. Reck and R.S. Sreenivas, Developing a New Affordable DC Motor Laboratory Kit for an Existing Undergraduate Controls Course, Invited Session on Control Education, American Control Conference (ACC-2015), Chicago, IL, July, 2015.
• E. Salimi, N. Somnath and R.S. Sreenivas, A Tutorial on the Synthesis of the Maximally Permissive Liveness Enforcing Supervisory Policy in Discrete-Event/Discrete-State Systems modeled by a Class of General Petri Nets, Indian Control Conference, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, January, 2015.
• Gummadi, R, Massoulie, L. and Sreenivas, R.S., The role of feedback in the choice between routing and coding for wireless unicast, The 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Network Coding (NetCod 2010), Toronto, June, 2010.
• Gummadi, R, Shokrollahi, A.. and Sreenivas, R.S., Broadcasting with Side-Information, Proceedings of the Information Theory Workshop (ITW-10), January 2010, Cairo, Egypt, 2010.
• Gummadi, R, Jung, K, Shah, D. and Sreenivas, R.S., Computing Capacity Region of a Wireless Network, Proceedings of the IEEE Infocom Conference (INFOCOM-09), April 2009, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, April, 2009.
• Gummadi, R. and Sreenivas, R.S., Relaying a Fountain code across multiple nodes, Proceedings of the IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW-08), Porto, Portugal, May, 2008.
• Singh, N, and Sreenivas, R.S., On A Non-Linear Optimization Approach For Proportional Fairness in Ad-hoc Wireless Networks, Proceedings of the IEEE Infocom Mini Conference (INFOCOM-08), April 2008, Phoenix, AZ, April, 2008.
• Narayanaswamy, V. Kawadia, R.S. Sreenivas and P.R. Kumar. Power Control in Ad-Hoc Netoworks: Theory, Architecture, Algorithm and Implementation of the COMPOW protocol. To appear, In proceedings of European Wirless 2002: Next Generation Wireless Networks: Technologies, Protocols, Services and Applications, February, 2002, Florence, Italy.
• V. Kawadia, S. Narayanaswamy, R. Rozovsky, R.S. Sreenivas and P.R. Kumar. Protocols for Media Access Control and Power Control in Wireless Networks. In Proceedings of the 40th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 1935-1940, Orlando, FL, December, 2001.

Patents

• (Disclosure) Virtual Design Tools: W.R. Norris, J.C.L. Dominguez and R.S. Sreenivas. (November 2000).
• (Disclosure) Human Performance Modeling Using Fuzzy Logic: W.R. Norris, J.C.L. Dominguez and R.S. Sreenivas. (November 2000).
• (Disclosure) Virtual Interpreter and Trajectory Mapping: W.R. Norris, J.C.L. Dominguez and R.S. Sreenivas. (November 2000).
• (Disclosure) Adaptive Modulation Curve for Electrohydraulic Systems using Adaptive Optimization Functions: W.R. Norris, J.C.L. Dominguez, R.S. Sreenivas and Q. Zhang. (November 2000).
• (Disclosure) Neural Networks as a Modulation Surface for Electrohydraulic Systems: W.R. Norris, J.C.L. Dominguez, R.S. Sreenivas and Q. Zhang. (November 2000).
• (Disclosure) Adapative Modulation Curve for Electrohydraulic Systems using Neural Networks: W.R. Norris, J.C.L. Dominguez, R.S. Sreenivas and Q. Zhang. (November 2000).

Service on Department Committees

• Associate Head for Graduate Studies, Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, 2010-present

Other Outside Service

• Host, S'ruti -- Music from the Indian Subcontinent, Sundays at Noon, 901.FM WEFT Champaign. (cf. http://new.weft.org/shows/)

Teaching Honors

• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Spring 2024, IE531: Algorithms for Data Analytics, MSAA Certification in the MS IE Program
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Spring 2023, IE531: Algorithms for Data Analytics, MSAA Certification in the MS IE Program
• Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate & Professional Teaching, February 2023.
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2022, IE523: Financial Computing, MSFE Professional Masters Program
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2021, IE523: Financial Computing, MSFE Professional Masters Program
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2020, IE531: Algorithms for Data Analytics
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2019, IE523: Financial Computing, Professional Masters Program
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2018, IE523: Financial Computing, Professional Masters Program
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Spring 2018, IE531: Algorithms for Data Analytics
• James Franklin Sharp Outstanding Teaching Award in Industrial Engineering, April 2017.
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2017, IE523: Financial Computing, Professional Masters Program
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2016, IE523: Financial Computing, Professional Masters Program
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Spring 2016, IE598ADA: Algorithms for Data Analytics
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2015, IE523: Financial Computing, Professional Masters Program
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Spring 2015, GE523: Discrete Event Systems
• Department Head's Teaching Award, May 2015.
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2014, IE523: Financial Computing, Professional Masters Program
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2013, IE523: Financial Computing, Professional Masters Program
• James Franklin Sharp Outstanding Teaching Award in Industrial Engineering, April 2012.
• Featured in the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2012, IE523: Financial Computing, Professional Masters Program
• Featured in the "Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Spring 2012, IE511: Integer Programming.
• Featured in the "Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent" Fall 2010, IE523: Financial Computing, Professional Masters Program.
• 2010 Outstanding Advisors List, College of Engineering, May 2010
• Alpha Pi Mu and Gamma Epsilon "Excellence in Teaching Award," April 2010.
• Featured in the “Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent,” Spring 2009 for GE424: State Space Design Methods in Control.
• Featured in the “Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent,”Spring 2008 for GE424: State Space Design Methods in Control.
• Featured in the “Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent,” Fall 2007 for GE598RSS: Introduction to Discrete Event Systems.
• Featured in the “Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent,” Fall 2004, for GE424: State Space Design Methods in Control.
• Featured in the “Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent,” Fall 2003 for GE324: Digital Control of Dynamic Systems.
• Featured in the “Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent,” Spring 2003 for GE493RSS: Introduction to Discrete Event Systems.

Research Honors

• Arthur Davis Faculty Scholar, April 2016 - Present
• Senior Member, IEEE, June 2002