Bahram Shafai
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Contact
- shafai@ece.northeastern.edu
- 427 Dana Research Center
360 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Social Media
Office
- 617.373.2984
Research Focus
Control Systems and Signal Processing; Robust and Optimal Control, Positive Dynamic Systems, Fault Detection, Observer Theory, Robotics and Distributed Control of Multi-Agent Systems, Control of Biological Systems
About
Professor Bahram Shafai received the BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland, in 1976 and 1978, respectively, and the PhD degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University in 1985. He joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern in 1985 and served as the director of the university’s Communications and Digital Signal Processing Center from 1990 to 1992.
Since 1996, he has been the director of the ECE Capstone Design Program and its associated laboratory. He has served as associate editor of two major journals. Currently, he is the associate editor of IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Magazine and serves on the conference editorial board of the IEEE Control Systems Society.
Professor Shafai has also been a member of the organizing committees for various international and IEEE-sponsored conferences, such as CDC, ACC, CCTA, and WAC. He has published one book and more than 200 journal articles and conference papers, and has been the recipient of several honors and awards. His research interests include robust stability and control of multivariable systems, observer theory, identification and estimation, fault detection, time-delay systems, distributed control, robotics and motion control, adaptive signal processing in control, and communications.
Education
- PhD, Electrical Engineering, George Washington University, 1985
- MS, Electrical Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland, 1978
- BS, Electrical Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland, 1976
Honors & Awards
- 2023 Outstanding Faculty Service Award
- Associate Editor, Systems Man and Cybernetics
- Member of Program Committee IEEE CCTA 2020
- Senior Life Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- Lifetime Achievement Award from World Automation Congress (WAC) 2018
- Certificate of Appreciation for Technical Seminar Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Young Professionals
Professional Affiliations
- Associate Editor, Editorial Board and Program Chair of ISIAC-WAC
- Senior Life Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- Lifetime Achievement Award from World Automation Congress
Research Overview
Control Systems and Signal Processing; Robust and Optimal Control, Positive Dynamic Systems, Fault Detection, Observer Theory, Robotics and Distributed Control of Multi-Agent Systems, Control of Biological Systems
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- B. Shafai, S. Nazari, A. Moradmand, A Direct Algebraic Approach to Design State Feedback and Observers for Singular Systems, Proceedings of 2019 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Hong Kong, China, 2019, 835-842
- S. Nazari, B. Shafai, Distributed Unknown Input Observers for Fault Detection and Isolation, Proceedings of 2019 IEEE 15th International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA), Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2019, 319-324
- B. Shafai, A. Moradmand, S. Nazari, Observer-based Controller Design for Systems with Derivative Inputs, Proceedings of 2019 57th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, IL, 2019, 1038-1044
- S. Nazari, B. Shafai, A. Moradmand, Robust Intrusion Detection in Dynamic Networks, Proceedings of 2019 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Hong Kong, China, 2019, 988-993
- S. Nazari, B. Shafai, Robust Fault Detection & Isolation in Distributed Dynamic Systems, Proceedings of 2019 6th International Conference on Control, Decision and Information Technologies (CoDIT), Paris, France, 2019, 1941-1946
- B. Shafai, M. Naghnaeian, J. Chen, Stability Radius Formulation of Lσ-Gain in Positive Stabilization of Regular and Time-Delay Systems, IET Journal of Control Theory and Applications, 2019, 2327-2335
Jan 24, 2023
Faculty and Staff Awards 2023
Congratulations to all the winners of the faculty and staff awards, and to everyone for their hard work and dedication during the 2022-2023 academic school year. COE Distinguished Faculty Award Yun Raymond Fu, ECE Auroop Ganguly, CEE Luke Landherr, ChE Sinan Müftü, MIE Mark Niedre, BioE Alison Nogueira, Co-op Nian Sun, ECE Constantinos Mavroidis Translational […]
Dec 13, 2018
Shafai Awarded WAC Lifetime Achievement Award
ECE Professor Bahram Shafai received the Lifetime Achievement Award from World Automation Congress (WAC) 2018 for Outstanding Contributions to Robust Stability and Control of Multivariable Systems and Observer Design for Fault Detection.
Jun 06, 2012
Modular Flight Camera
Under the direction of ECE Professor Bahram Shafai, a group of capstone students have created an easy to assemble and transport remote-controlled surveillance helicopter. Source: News @ Northeastern
Jun 06, 2012
Taking flight, then taking it apart
The Oktokopter — a remote-controlled, eight-bladed helicopter that can hover in one place or travel great distances — can be used for a range of tasks, from taking photos to performing military surveillance. But there’s a problem with this commercially available, assembly-required small copter: It’s difficult to transport. So a team of Northeastern electrical and computer […]
Apr 16, 2010
Mind Controlled Remote Vehicle
ECE students Saumitro Dasgupta, Mike Fanton, Jonathan Pham, and Mike Willard, built a brain interface to navigate a mobile robot remotely. The team won first place in the senior capstone project competition.