Teaching
Biosketch
Andrzej Z. Manitius - received the Ph.D. degree from the
Polytechnical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland in 1968. From 1968
to
1972 he held a junior faculty position with the Institute
of Automatics of the Polytechnical University of Warsaw. In 1972
and
1973 he was a Visiting Associate Professor with the Center for Control
Sciences at the University of Minnesota. He subsequently joined the Mathematical
Research Center at the University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada,
where
he was an Associate and then Full Research Professor until 1981. From
1981
to 1988 he was a Professor in the Mathematical
Sciences Department of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
in
Troy, New York. While on leave from RPI, he served as Program Director
for Applied Mathematics (1986-1987) and Deputy Director, Division
of Mathematical Sciences (1987-88) at the National
Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. He joined George Mason
University
in September 1988 as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Dr. Manitius' research interests include mathematical aspects of
control
theory, including control of distributed parameter and delay systems,
optimal
control, optimization, numerical and computational methods in dynamical
systems and control systems. He has published over 70 papers in his
fields
of interest, and held various editorial positions with several
professional
journals. In 1991 he received American Mathematical Society's Citation
for Public Service related to his earlier work ath the NSF.
In 1996-1997 Professor Manitius was member of the Faculty
Task Force on the Future of the University appointed by GMU President
Alan
Merten.
The Faculty Task Force wrote a report titled "Engaging
the Future", which was released in October 1997 and discussed at
several
"town hall" faculty and staff meetings. That report was followed by a
plan
of specific action items described in a second, final report titled
"Engaging
the Future: Mason at the Turn of the Milennium", finalized by Provost
Office
in December 1998.
See
The original report
Mason Gazette 97
article
Mason
Gazette 98 article
Mason
Gazette 98 story about the second report
Professor Manitius became Chairman of the Electrical
and Computer Engineering Department at George Mason University on
September
1, 1998
see Mason
Gazette
In 1997/98 and 1998/99 Professor Manitius was also
Chairman of the Joint AMS-IMS-SIAM Committee on Summer Research
Conferences
in Mathematical Sciences, see http://www.ams.org
Research Interests
While at GMU, Dr. Manitius work has been focused on
computational
methods arising in the context of simulation and control of elastic
structures
(such as, for example, large flexible space structures), and on certain
other computational methods arising in electrical engineering problems.
The outcome of this research are results on computational analysis and
control of flexible beams, such as the Euler-Bernoulli and the
Timoshenko
beam model. Currently, Dr. Manitius is working with his Ph.D. students
on the problem of decentralized/parallel computation in the control and
stabilization of a system of beams, and of a flexible plate. Research
involves
the finite element models and the numerical methods developed in the
context
of linear systems (e.g. Riccati equations).
In addition to research described above, Dr. Manitius
has also other research interests, which include: estimation methods
for
signals generated by nonlinear dynamical systems (e.g. the Lorenz
system),
computational simulation of a control system for the tracking of the
eye
motion by a camera, motion estimation from a sequence of images,
estimation
of a geographical position from low-orbit satellite data (work
sponsored
by Orbital Communications Corporation). Each of these projects combines
the use of control theory, signal processing and computation.
In his educational activities, Dr. Manitius emphasis
is on the interaction of theory and computation, in courses such as
Signals
and Systems, Linear Systems ("Modern Control Theory"), Nonlinear
Systems,
Adaptive Control, Kalman Filtering. He and his colleagues in ECE
developed
the X-window UNIX computer laboratories in SITE which emphasize use of
Matlab in numerical simulation and visualization in electrical
engineering
and mathematical problems.
About the Manitius family see references to Gustaw Manitius: an article by Tom Imhoof ,
member of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in McLean, Virginia, pictures
(coming back soon),
more pictures
