Bahram Shafai

Professor,  Electrical and Computer Engineering

Contact

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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

Selected Publications

  • 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, pp. 2327-2335, 2019.
  • B. Shafai, and A. Moradmand. “Design of an Integrated Observer  Structure for Robust Fault Detection.” Proceedings of 2020 IEEE  Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), pp. 248-253,  2020.
  • B. Shafai and A. Moradmand, “Positive Stabilization for a Class of  Separable Positive Nonlinear Systems,” Proceedings of 2021 Australian  & New Zealand Control Conference (ANZCC),” IEEE Explorer, pp. 62-67,  2021.
  • B. Shafai, A. Moradmand, and M. Siami, “Data-Driven Positive  Stabilization of Linear Systems”, Proceedings of 8th International  Conference on Control, Decision, and Information Technologies (CoDIT),  Istanbul, Turkey, vol. 1, pp. 1031-1036, 2022.
  • M. Kamalul Wafi, B. Shafai, and M. Siami, “Advancing  Fault-Tolerant Learning-Oriented Control for Unmanned Aerial Systems,”  Proceedings of 2023 9th International Conference on Control, Decision  and Information Technologies (CoDIT), Rome, Italy, pp. 1688-1693, 2023.
  • Y. Wang and B. Shafai, “A Subspace System Identification Method  for Positive Systems,” Proceeding of 2023 9th International Conference on Control, Decision  and Information Technologies (CoDIT), Rome, Italy, pp. 608-613, 2023.
  • A. Moradmand and B. Shafai, “Distributed SDRE control design for a  class of nonlinear interconnected dynamic systems”, International  Journal of Dynamics and Control, vol. 11, pp.1621-1636, Springer  Berlin Heidelberg, 2023.
  • J. Miller, T. Dai, M. Sznaier, and B. Shafai, “Data-Driven Control  of Positive Linear Systems using Linear Programming”, Proceedings of 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Singapore, pp.  1588-1594, 2023.

Faculty

Jan 24, 2023

Faculty and Staff Awards 2023

Faculty and staff in the College of Engineering were recognized at the annual awards event in a variety of categories for their contributions during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Faculty

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

Students

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.

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