Silvia Ferrari, Paul Ruffin Scarborough Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Please note: Silvia has left the "Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

Professor Ferrari's research aims at providing intelligent control systems with a higher degree of mathematical structure to guide their application and improve reliability. Decision-making processes are automated based on concepts drawn from control theory and the life sciences. Recent efforts have focused on the development of reconfigurable controllers implementing neural networks with procedural long-term memories. Full-scale simulations show that these controllers are capable of learning from new and unmodeled aircraft dynamics in real time, improving performance and even preventing loss of control in the event of control failures, nonlinear and near-stall dynamics, and parameter variations. New optimal control problems and methods based on computational geometry are being investigated to improve the effectiveness of integrated surveillance systems by networks of autonomous vehicles, such as, underwater gliders and ground robots.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Scien
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://fred.egr.duke.edu/

Education:

Ph.D.	Princeton University	2002
M.A.	Princeton University	1999
B.S.	Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University	1997

Specialties:

neural networks
Bayesian networks
Controls
Smart Technology

Current Ph.D. Students  

• Guoxian Zhang  
• Gianluca DiMuro  
• Chenghui Cai  

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Cai, C; Ferrari, S, Information-driven sensor path planning by approximate cell decomposition., Ieee Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. Part B, Cybernetics : a Publication of the Ieee Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society, vol. 39 no. 3 (June, 2009), pp. 672-689 [19193512], [doi]  [abs]
2. Ferrari, S, Multiobjective algebraic synthesis of neural control systems by implicit model following., Ieee Transactions on Neural Networks, vol. 20 no. 3 (March, 2009), pp. 406-419 [19203887], [doi]  [abs]
3. Ferrari, S; Steck, JE; Chandramohan, R, Adaptive feedback control by constrained approximate dynamic programming., Ieee Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. Part B, Cybernetics : a Publication of the Ieee Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society, vol. 38 no. 4 (August, 2008), pp. 982-987 [18632388], [doi]  [abs]
4. Baumgartner, K; Ferrari, S, A geometric transversal approach to analyzing track coverage in sensor networks, Ieee Transactions on Computers, vol. 57 no. 8 (August, 2008), pp. 1113-1128, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), ISSN 0018-9340 [doi]  [abs]
5. Baumgartner, K; Ferrari, S; Palermo, G, Constructing Bayesian networks for criminal profiling from limited data, Knowledge Based Systems, vol. 21 no. 7 (October, 2008), pp. 563-572, Elsevier BV, ISSN 0950-7051 (Available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2008.03.019.) [doi]  [abs]
6. Ferrari, S., and Jensenius M., A Constrained Optimization Approach to Preserving Prior Knowledge During Incremental Training, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, vol. 19 no. 6 (June 2008)
7. Ferrari, S; Vaghi, A, Demining sensor modeling and feature-level fusion by bayesian networks, Ieee Sensors Journal, vol. 6 no. 2 (April, 2006), pp. 471-483, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), ISSN 1530-437X [JSEN.2006.870162], [doi]  [abs]
8. Ferrari, S; Stengel, RF, Smooth function approximation using neural networks., Ieee Transactions on Neural Networks, vol. 16 no. 1 (January, 2005), pp. 24-38, ISSN 1045-9227 [15732387], [doi]  [abs]
9. S. Ferrari and R. F. Stengel, Online adaptive critic flight control, Journal Of Guidance Control And Dynamics, vol. 27 no. 5 (2004), pp. 777 -- 786, ISSN 0731-5090
10. Ferrari, S; Stengel, RF, Classical/neural synthesis of nonlinear control systems, Aiaa Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit, vol. 25 no. 3 (December, 2000), pp. 442-448  [abs]