Invitation to the launch of the
Peter Sagirow Distiguished Seminar Series
of the University of Stuttgart

Black Boxes and White Noise -
The Evolution of the Field of Control

Prof. Dr. Karl Johan Åström Department of Automatic Control Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden and University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Abstract

The field of automatic control is about 60 years old. It has developed very rapidly and control is now ubiquitous. This talk presents some reflections on the dynamic development of the field. It starts with a brief history and a discussion of engineering science and natural science. Automatic control being the first systems field was a paradigm shift because it fitted poorly in organizations based on mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering. Key ideas in the development of control are presented. The interplay of theory and applications are discussed as are relations to specific engineering disciplines, mathematics, physics, computer science and biology. An attempt is made to assess the current status of the field, and the lecture ends with some speculations about future developments. Questions dealing with research, education and applications will be covered. An explanation of the title of the talk will also be provided.

About the speaker

Karl J. Åström was educated at The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm where he got an MS in 1957 and a PhD in 1960. After graduating he worked for five years for IBM Research on stochastic control theory and computer control of paper machines. In 1965 he was appointed Professor to the Chair of Automatic Control at Lund Institute of Technology. From 2000 he has been Emeritus of Lund University and Visiting Professor at UCSB. Karl Åström has been one of the most influential researchers and educators worldwide in the field of control over the past 40 years, with several contributions to stochastic control, adaptive control, system identification, computer control and many other fields. He wrote six books and more than 100 papers in archival journals. Åström is a member of several academies among them the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the US National Academy of Engineering. Åström has received many honors, among them five honorary doctorates, the Quazza Medal from the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), the IEEE Control Systems Award and the IEEE Medal of Honor, which is the highest award of IEEE.