报告人：Prof. Zexiang Li, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China 香港科技大学李泽湘教授

时 间：2008年3月18日（星期二）晚7:30 - 9:30

地 点： 交通大学 闵行校区 机动学院办公楼 辅楼210会议室

Topic: Machine, Mathematics and Control

ABSTRACT: The world produces each year about 400 thousand aircrafts, 1.5 million machine tools, 70 million automobiles, 100 million bicycles, and 200 million computers. All together there are over 7 billion machines in use for a world of 6 billion humans. A simple machine like an automatic toothbrush has over a dozen parts, a moderate machine like an automobile 20 thousands parts, and a complex machine like a Boeing 787 more than a million parts. These machines are the source of both marvel and mayhem in the life of our planet. How did humankind learn to create, design and produce these complex technologies? Can machine design be codified into a language of invention? This talk will provide a snapshot on the evolution of these machines and the inventors and engineers who created them, starting from the ancient period, to the Renaissance, to the Industrial Revolution, and to the Machine age. We wish to point out that:

The evolution of machine design methodology, from the intuitive methods of the workshop to the math-based, engineering science analysis and synthesis of modern industrial design, was of equal achievements as the creation of the marvelous machines themselves;

Any machine, no matter how complex it is, can be deconstructed into basic machine elements, even though the definitions of which have significantly changed from the ancient period to the modern age;

Machine invention is not a story of lone geniuses and machine inventors working in isolation. It is about the evolution of knowledge that originated in guilds and workshops, was handed down across the centuries in machine-books by artists-engineers and was finally librated and promulgated through the use of mathematics and scientific principles;

As a symbol of human creativity and invention, machine design was responsible for the development of several important subjects of science and engineering such as thermodynamics and control. On the other hand, important milestones of machine design were reached through advances in mathematics, control and computer technology. Importance of multidisciplinary research is witnessed once again in the development of machine design technology.

报告人简介：Professor Zexiang Li attended the South-Central University in 1978, received his BS (with honor) degrees in Electrical Engineering and Economics from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1983, his MS degree in EECS in 1985, MA in mathematics and PhD in EECS in 1989, all from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked at ALCOA, the Robotics Institute of CMU and the AI Lab of MIT (89-90). He was an assistant professor at the Courant Institute of New York University (90-92). In 1992, he joined the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and is currently a professor of the department.
Prof. Zexiang Li received the ALCOA Foundation Fellowship in 1979, and the E. Anthony Fellowship in 1983. He was a recipient of the University Scholar award from CMU in 1983, the E.I. Jury award from UC Berkeley in 1989, the Research Initiation award from NSF (US) in 1990, the Outstanding Young Researcher award (Class B) from NSF China in 2000, the LEAD award from AMI, USA in 2001, and the Natural Science award (3rd class) from China in 1997. He became an IEEE Fellow in 2008.

Prof. Zexiang Li serves as an honory, adjunct or chaired professor at a number of Mainland universities, including the National University of Defence Technology, Shanghai Jiaotung University, Harbin Institute of Technology (Chang Jiang Scholar'06), South-Central University, Chengdu University of Electronic Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotung University, and the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Science.
Prof. Zexiang Li served as a panel member of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC), and the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and an associate editor for the IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation. He also served on various program committees and best paper committees of many major conferences of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. He will be the general Chair for the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) to be held in Shanghai.

Prof. Zexiang Li's research areas of interests include multifingered robotic hand, parallel manipulators, geometric theory of robotics, workpiece localization and inspection, motion control, and precision assembly. He is the author of more than 100 journal and conference papers, and the books A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation (CRC Press 1993), and Nonholonomic Motion Planning (Kluwer 1994). He pioneered the research in nonholonomic motion planning, and is a major contributor to research in robotic hand manipulation and workpiece localization.
Prof. Zexiang Li collaborates extensively with companies in Hong Kong and the Mainland. He is the founder and Chairman of Googol Technology, the first motion control company in China, and a co-founder of Parallex Technology.

(重大装备设计与控制工程研究所)