Events Calendar

Asymptotic Design for Cascade Robustness in Large Coupled Systems

Speaker: Franz Hover, MIT Mechanical Engineering

Talk Title: Asymptotic Design for Cascade Robustness in Large Coupled Systems

Abstract: Power networks and collaborating mobile robots are examples of large-scale interdependent systems that are subject to cascading failures. A recent asymptotic model of failure across two signal domains offers a random graph framework for studying such systems, and I use it to pose and solve a new robust design problem. A low-order nonlinear analysis uncovers the mechanisms by which optimized graphs can form star-like clusters, as encoded into a simple but specialized degree distribution; several other design rules can be found as well. Through examples on coupled systems of finite size, I show that degree independence in the asymptotic model can be somewhat relaxed, which is significant for the practical case of geometric connectivity. A heuristic rule that matches degrees across the domain boundary can offer further benefits in many cases.



Biography: Franz Hover received the BSME from Ohio Northern University and the MS and ScD degrees from the WHOI/MIT Joint Program in Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering. He was a consultant to industry and then a member of the research staff at MIT, where he worked in fluid mechanics, biomimetics, and ocean engineering. He is currently Finmeccanica Assistant Professor at the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering; his research focuses on design methods and robustness for marine systems.


Host: Urbashi Mitra, ubli@usc.edu and Gaurav Sukhatme, gaurav@usc.edu

Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 406

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos