News & Events

27 News items, Awards, Events or Talks found.



Learn about the MERL Seminar Series.



  •  NEWS    MERL researchers present 3 papers on Dexterous Manipulation at RSS 23.
    Date: July 11, 2023
    Where: Daegu, Korea
    MERL Contacts: Siddarth Jain; Devesh K. Jha; Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics
    Brief
    • MERL researchers presented 3 papers at the 19th edition of Robotics:Science and Systems Conference in Daegu, Korea. RSS is the flagship conference of the RSS foundation and is run as a single track conference presenting a limited number of high-quality papers. This year the main conference had a total of 112 papers presented. MERL researchers presented 2 papers in the main conference on planning and perception for dexterous manipulation. Another paper was presented in a workshop of learning for dexterous manipulation. More details can be found here https://roboticsconference.org.
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  •  AWARD    MERL Researchers Win Best Workshop Poster Award at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
    Date: June 2, 2023
    Awarded to: Yuki Shirai, Devesh Jha, Arvind Raghunathan and Dennis Hong
    MERL Contacts: Devesh K. Jha; Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Optimization, Robotics
    Brief
    • MERL's paper titled: "Closed-Loop Tactile Controller for Tool Manipulation" Won the Best Poster Award in the workshop on "Embracing contacts : Making robots physically interact with our world". First author and MERL intern, Yuki Shirai, was presented with the award at a ceremony held at ICRA in London. MERL researchers Devesh Jha, Principal Research Scientist, and Arvind Raghunathan, Senior Principal Research Scientist and Senior Team Leader as well as Prof. Dennis Hong of University of California, Los Angeles are also coauthors.

      The paper presents a technique to manipulate an object using a tool in a closed-loop fashion using vision-based tactile sensors. More information about the workshop and the various speakers can be found here https://sites.google.com/view/icra2023embracingcontacts/home.
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  •  NEWS    MERL researchers present 10 papers at the American Control Conference (ACC)
    Date: May 31, 2023 - June 2, 2023
    Where: San Diego, CA
    MERL Contacts: Karl Berntorp; Ankush Chakrabarty; Vedang M. Deshpande; Stefano Di Cairano; Devesh K. Jha; Christopher R. Laughman; Arvind Raghunathan; Diego Romeres; Abraham P. Vinod; Yebin Wang; Avishai Weiss
    Research Areas: Control, Machine Learning, Optimization
    Brief
    • MERL will present 10 papers at the American Control Conference (ACC) in San Diego, CA, with topics including autonomous-vehicle decision making and control, physics-informed machine learning, motion planning, control subject to nonconvex chance constraints, and optimal power management. Two talks are part of tutorial sessions.
      MERL will also be present at the conference as a sponsor, with a booth for discussing with researchers and students, and hosting a special session at lunch with highlights of MERL research and work philosophy.
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  •  NEWS    MERL Researchers Organize Two MiniSymposia and Five Invited Talks at the 2023 SIAM Conference on Optimization
    Date: May 31, 2023 - June 3, 2023
    Where: 2023 SIAM Conference on Optimization
    MERL Contacts: Devesh K. Jha; Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Areas: Control, Optimization, Robotics
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan, Senior Team Leader and Senior Principal Research Scientist in Optimization & Intelligent Robotics team, will organize two minisymposia at the 2023 SIAM Conference on Optimization to be held in Seattle from May 31 to June 3. The two minisymposia titled "Optimization in Control – Algorithms, Applications, and Software" and "New Algorithmic Techniques for Global Optimization" will feature twelve invited speakers from academia and national labs.

      Additionally, Arvind together with Devesh Jha, Principal Research Scientist in Optimization & Intelligent Robotics Team, and collaborators will present five invited talks covering the topics of algorithms for convex programs, multilinear programs, mixed-integer nonlinear programs, and robotics.

      See:
      https://meetings.siam.org/sess/dsp_programsess.cfm?SESSIONCODE=76268
      https://meetings.siam.org/sess/dsp_programsess.cfm?SESSIONCODE=76269
      https://meetings.siam.org/sess/dsp_programsess.cfm?SESSIONCODE=76270
      https://meetings.siam.org/sess/dsp_programsess.cfm?SESSIONCODE=76256
      https://meetings.siam.org/sess/dsp_programsess.cfm?SESSIONCODE=75897
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  •  NEWS    MERL Researchers Present Thirteen Papers at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
    Date: May 29, 2023 - June 2, 2023
    Where: 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
    MERL Contacts: Anoop Cherian; Radu Corcodel; Siddarth Jain; Devesh K. Jha; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Tim K. Marks; Daniel N. Nikovski; Arvind Raghunathan; Diego Romeres
    Research Areas: Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Optimization, Robotics
    Brief
    • MERL researchers will present thirteen papers, including eight main conference papers and five workshop papers, at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) to be held in London, UK from May 29 to June 2. ICRA is one of the largest and most prestigious conferences in the robotics community. The papers cover a broad set of topics in Robotics including estimation, manipulation, vision-based object recognition and segmentation, tactile estimation and tool manipulation, robotic food handling, robot skill learning, and model-based reinforcement learning.

      In addition to the paper presentations, MERL robotics researchers will also host an exhibition booth and look forward to discussing our research with visitors.
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  •  NEWS    Arvind Raghunathan to Chair The 2022 Howard Rosenbrock Prize Committee
    Date: April 30, 2023
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Area: Optimization
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan, Senior Team Leader and Senior Principal Research Scientist with Optimization and Intelligent Robotics team, will serve as the Chair of The 2022 Howard Rosenbrock Prize Committee. Every year, Optimization and Engineering (OPTE) journal honors excellence in scientific research by presenting the Rosenbrock Prize to the best paper published in the previous year. The prize recognizes outstanding research contributions that demonstrate Howard Rosenbrock’s own dedication to bridging the gap between optimization and engineering.
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  •  AWARD    Arvind Raghunathan receives Roberto Tempo Best CDC Paper Award at 2022 IEEE Conference on Decision & Control (CDC)
    Date: December 8, 2022
    Awarded to: Arvind Raghunathan
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Areas: Control, Optimization
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan, Senior Principal Research Scientist in the Data Analytics group, received the IEEE Control Systems Society Roberto Tempo Best CDC Paper Award. The award was presented at the 2022 IEEE Conference on Decision & Control (CDC).

      The award is given annually in honor of Roberto Tempo, the 44th President of the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS). The Tempo Award Committee selects the best paper from the previous year's CDC based on originality, potential impact on any aspect of control theory, technology, or implementation, and for the clarity of writing. This year's award committee was headed by Prof. Patrizio Colaneri, Politecnico di Milano. Arvind's paper was nominated for the award by Prof. Lorenz Biegler, Carnegie Mellon University, with supporting letters from Prof. Andreas Waechter, Northwestern University, and Prof. Victor Zavala, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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  •  NEWS    MERL Researchers Presented Six Papers at the 2022 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC’22)
    Date: December 6, 2022 - December 9, 2022
    Where: Cancún, Mexico
    MERL Contacts: Mouhacine Benosman; Karl Berntorp; Ankush Chakrabarty; Devesh K. Jha; Arvind Raghunathan; Diego Romeres; Yebin Wang
    Research Areas: Control, Optimization
    Brief
    • MERL researchers presented six papers at the Conference on Decision and Control that was held in Cancún, Mexico from December 6-9, 2022. The papers covered a broad range of topics in the areas of decision making and control, including Bayesian optimization, quadratic programming, solution of differential equations, distributed Kalman filtering, thermal monitoring of batteries, and closed-loop control optimization.
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  •  NEWS    MERL researchers presented 5 papers and an invited workshop talk at ICRA 2022
    Date: May 23, 2022 - May 27, 2022
    Where: International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
    MERL Contacts: Ankush Chakrabarty; Stefano Di Cairano; Siddarth Jain; Devesh K. Jha; Pedro Miraldo; Daniel N. Nikovski; Arvind Raghunathan; Diego Romeres; Abraham P. Vinod; Yebin Wang
    Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics
    Brief
    • MERL researchers presented 5 papers at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) that was held in Philadelphia from May 23-27, 2022. The papers covered a broad range of topics from manipulation, tactile sensing, planning and multi-agent control. The invited talk was presented in the "Workshop on Collaborative Robots and Work of the Future" which covered some of the work done by MERL researchers on collaborative robotic assembly. The workshop was co-organized by MERL, Mitsubishi Electric Automation's North America Development Center (NADC), and MIT.
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  •  NEWS    Arvind Raghunathan's publication is Featured Article in the current issue of the INFORMS Journal on Computing
    Date: April 1, 2022
    Where: INFORMS Journal on Computing (https://pubsonline.informs.org/journal/ijoc)
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Optimization
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan co-authored a publication titled "JANOS: An Integrated Predictive and Prescriptive Modeling Framework" which has been chosen as a Featured Article in the current issue of the INFORMS Journal on Computing. The article was co-authored with Prof. David Bergman, a collaborator of MERL and Teng Huang, a former MERL intern, among others.

      The paper describes a new software tool, JANOS, that integrates predictive modeling and discrete optimization to assist decision making. Specifically, the proposed solver takes as input user-specified pretrained predictive models and formulates optimization models directly over those predictive models by embedding them within an optimization model through linear transformations.
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  •  NEWS    Arvind Raghunathan delivers Optimization and Systems Theory seminar at KTH Royal Institute of Technology
    Date: March 10, 2022
    Where: Department of Mathematics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Area: Optimization
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan will present the Optimization and System Theorem seminar in the Department of Mathematics at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The title of the talk is Recursive McCormick Linearizations of Multilinear Programs: Minimum Size Formulations.
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  •  NEWS    Arvind Raghunathan to serve on The Howard Rosenbrock Prize committee
    Date: May 31, 2022
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Area: Optimization
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan from MERL's Data Analytics group has been invited to serve on the The Howard Rosenbrock Prize committee. Instituted in 2015, Optimization and Engineering journal's Howard Rosenbrock Prize is awarded annually to honor the authors of the best paper published in the journal in the previous year.
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  •  TALK    [MERL Seminar Series 2021] Prof. David Bergman presents talk in MERL Seminar Series titled, Integration of Analytics Techniques for Algorithmic Sports Betting
    Date & Time: Tuesday, September 14, 2021; 1:00 PM EST
    Speaker: Prof. David Bergman, University of Connecticut
    MERL Host: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Areas: Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Optimization
    Abstract
    • The integration of machine learning and optimization opens the door to new modeling paradigms that have already proven successful across a broad range of industries. Sports betting is a particularly exciting application area, where recent advances in both analytics and optimization can provide a lucrative edge. In this talk we will discuss three algorithmic sports betting games where combinations of machine learning and optimization have netted me significant winnings.
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  •  NEWS    Arvind Raghunathan joins editorial board of Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications
    Date: June 21, 2021
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Optimization
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan has accepted an invitation to serve on the editorial board of Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications (JOTA).

      JOTA is devoted to the publication of carefully selected high quality regular papers, invited papers, survey papers, technical notes, book notices, and forums that cover mathematical optimization techniques, computational methodologies of optimization algorithms and their applications to science, engineering, and business. Typical theoretical areas include linear, nonlinear, discrete, stochastic, and dynamic optimization. Among the areas of application covered are mathematical economics, mathematical physics and biology, all areas of engineering, and novel areas, such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing optimization.
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  •  NEWS    Arvind Raghunathan to serve on SIAG/OPT Early Career Prize committee
    Date: May 26, 2020
    Where: 2020 SIAM Conference on Optimization, Hong Kong
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Area: Optimization
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan, Data Analytics, has been invited to serve on the SIAM Activity Group on Optimization Early Career Prize (SIAG/OPT Early Career Prize) committee. Instituted in 2018, the SIAG/OPT Early Career Prize is awarded every three years to an outstanding early career researcher in the field of optimization for distinguished contributions to the field in the six calendar years prior to the award year. The 2020 SIAG/OPT Early Career Prize will be awarded during the 2020 SIAM Conference on Optimization to be held in Hong Kong.

      Arvind Raghunathan will also host a mini-symposium on global optimization titled "Global Optimization of MINLP: Recent Advances". The mini-symposium will feature talks related to theoretical and algorithmic aspects of global optimization.
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  •  NEWS    Data Analytics group presents 4 invited talks at 2019 INFORMS Annual Meeting
    Date: October 21, 2019 - October 23, 2019
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Area: Optimization
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan, of MERL's Data Analytics group, and collaborators will present 4 invited talks at 2019 Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) Annual Meeting. The talks cover a broad range of topics including decision diagrams, algorithms for mixed integer quadratic, applications in transportation and integration of prescriptive and predictive analytics.

      INFORMS is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to and promoting best practices and advances in operations research, management science, and analytics to improve operational processes, decision-making, and outcomes. INFORMS Annual Meeting is a premier annual conference bringing together researchers and practitioners in operations research and management science.
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  •  TALK    Perspectives on Integer Programming in Sparse Optimization
    Date & Time: Tuesday, July 16, 2019; 12:00 PM
    Speaker: Prof. Jeff Linderoth, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    MERL Host: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Areas: Machine Learning, Optimization
    Abstract
    • Algorithms to solve mixed integer linear programs have made incredible progress in the past 20 years. Key to these advances has been a mathematical analysis of the structure of the set of feasible solutions. We argue that a similar analysis is required in the case of mixed integer quadratic programs, like those that arise in sparse optimization in machine learning. One such analysis leads to the so-called perspective relaxation, which significantly improves solution performance on separable instances. Extensions of the perspective reformulation can lead to algorithms that are equivalent to some of the most popular, modern, sparsity-inducing non-convex regularizations in variable selection. Based on joint work with Hongbo Dong (Washington State Univ. ), Oktay Gunluk (IBM), and Kun Chen (Univ. Connecticut).
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  •  NEWS    Arvind Raghunathan delivers Keynote at University of Edinburgh
    Date: July 4, 2019
    Where: University of Edinburgh
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Area: Optimization
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan, of MERL's Data Analytics group, will deliver a keynote titled "Embedding Perfect Structures in Process Systems" in the School of Engineering at University of Edinburgh. Abstract of the talk can be found in the link below.
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  •  NEWS    Arvind Raghunathan delivers seminar at Imperial College London
    Date: July 2, 2019
    Where: Imperial College London
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Area: Optimization
    Brief
    • Arvind Raghunathan, of MERL's Data Analytics group, will deliver a seminar titled "Chordal Completions – Semidefinite Programming and Minimum Completions" in the Computational Optimisation Group at Imperial College London. Abstract of the talk can be found in the link below.
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  •  NEWS    Best doctoral dissertation award received by Visiting Research Scientist Thiago Serra
    Date: June 4, 2018
    Where: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Area: Optimization
    Brief
    • Thiago Serra, currently a Visiting Research Scientist in the Data Analytics group, has been awarded the Gerald L. Thompson Doctoral Dissertation Award in Management Science from the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University. This is awarded each year to honor an outstanding doctoral dissertation involving theoretical, computational and applied contributions in the area of Management Science. One of the thesis chapters, "The Integrated Last-Mile Transportation Problem" was work performed at MERL in conjunction with Arvind Raghunathan during a summer internship. This work resulted in a patent application and will be presented at the 2018 International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS).
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  •  NEWS    MERL researchers presented 11 papers at ACC 2017 (American Controls Conference)
    Date: May 24, 2017 - May 26, 2017
    MERL Contacts: Mouhacine Benosman; Stefano Di Cairano; Abraham Goldsmith; Daniel N. Nikovski; Arvind Raghunathan; Yebin Wang
    Research Areas: Control, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning
    Brief
    • Talks were presented by members of several groups at MERL and covered a wide range of topics:
      - Similarity-Based Vehicle-Motion Prediction
      - Transfer Operator Based Approach for Optimal Stabilization of Stochastic Systems
      - Extended command governors for constraint enforcement in dual stage processing machines
      - Cooperative Optimal Output Regulation of Multi-Agent Systems Using Adaptive Dynamic Programming
      - Deep Reinforcement Learning for Partial Differential Equation Control
      - Indirect Adaptive MPC for Output Tracking of Uncertain Linear Polytopic Systems
      - Constraint Satisfaction for Switched Linear Systems with Restricted Dwell-Time
      - Path Planning and Integrated Collision Avoidance for Autonomous Vehicles
      - Least Squares Dynamics in Newton-Krylov Model Predictive Control
      - A Neuro-Adaptive Architecture for Extremum Seeking Control Using Hybrid Learning Dynamics
      - Robust POD Model Stabilization for the 3D Boussinesq Equations Based on Lyapunov Theory and Extremum Seeking.
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  •  EVENT    MERL participates in SIAM Career fair
    Date & Time: Monday, July 11, 2016; 10 AM - 9:15 PM
    Location: Westin Boston Waterfront Pavilion, Boston, Massachusetts
    MERL Contacts: Matthew Brand; Arvind Raghunathan
    Brief
    • MERL researchers participate in SIAM Job fair to showcase MERL's research and highlight employment and intern opportunities at MERL. The Career Fair emphasizes careers in business, industry, and government, and takes place during the SIAM Annual Meeting.

      The SIAM Applied Mathematics and Computational Science Career Fair is an informational and interactive event at which employers and prospective employees can discuss careers. It is a great opportunity for prospective employees to meet government and industry representatives and discuss what they are looking for and what each employer has to offer.
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  •  TALK    Controlling the Grid Edge: Emerging Grid Operation Paradigms
    Date & Time: Thursday, July 7, 2016; 2:00 PM
    Speaker: Dr. Sonja Glavaski, Program Director, ARPA-E
    MERL Host: Arvind Raghunathan
    Research Area: Electric Systems
    Abstract
    • The evolution of the grid faces significant challenges if it is to integrate and accept more energy from renewable generation and other Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). To maintain grid's reliability and turn intermittent power sources into major contributors to the U.S. energy mix, we have to think about the grid differently and design it to be smarter and more flexible.

      ARPA-E is interested in disruptive technologies that enable increased integration of DERs by real-time adaptation while maintaining grid reliability and reducing cost for customers with smart technologies. The potential impact is significant, with projected annual energy savings of more than 3 quadrillion BTU and annual CO2 emissions reductions of more than 250 million metric tons.

      This talk will identify opportunities in developing next generation control technologies and grid operation paradigms that address these challenges and enable secure, stable, and reliable transmission and distribution of electrical power. Summary of newly announced ARPA-E NODES (Network Optimized Distributed Energy Systems) Program funding development of these technologies will be presented.
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  •  NEWS    MERL makes a strong showing at the American Control Conference
    Date: July 6, 2016 - July 8, 2016
    Where: American Control Conference (ACC)
    MERL Contacts: Mouhacine Benosman; Karl Berntorp; Scott A. Bortoff; Petros T. Boufounos; Stefano Di Cairano; Abraham Goldsmith; Christopher R. Laughman; Daniel N. Nikovski; Arvind Raghunathan; Yebin Wang; Avishai Weiss
    Research Areas: Control, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning
    Brief
    • The premier American Control Conference (ACC) takes place in Boston July 6-8. This year MERL researchers will present a record 20 papers(!) at ACC, with several contributions, especially in autonomous vehicle path planning and in Model Predictive Control (MPC) theory and applications, including manufacturing machines, electric motors, satellite station keeping, and HVAC. Other important themes developed in MERL's presentations concern adaptation, learning, and optimization in control systems.
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  •  NEWS    MERL researchers present 10 papers at the American Controls Conference
    Date: July 3, 2015
    MERL Contacts: Daniel N. Nikovski; Yebin Wang; Stefano Di Cairano; Arvind Raghunathan; Avishai Weiss
    Brief
    • MERL researchers presented 10 papers at the American Controls Conference, in Chicago, USA. The ACC is one of the most important conferences on control systems in the world. Topics ranged from theoretical, including new algorithms for Model Predictive Control and Co-Design, to applications including spacecraft control and HVAC systems.
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