Learning and Adaptation for Human-Centric Vehicular Automation

The continual advancement of computing and communication technologies has ushered in a transformative era in ground mobility, offering unprecedented opportunities to tackle longstanding challenges in ground transportation. In real-world operations, the uncertainties and characteristic variations introduced by human users significantly impact ground vehicle energy efficiency and roadway safety. This talk presents some recent breakthroughs in human-centric and personalized vehicular automation through the integration of learning and adaptation. It highlights the synergies among data-based learning, adaptive control theories, and insights into vehicle system dynamics, aiming to create intelligent mobility systems that are not only more efficient and safer but also foster user trust. The presentation will showcase ongoing research endeavors centered on intelligent vehicles as a ubiquitous robotic system. These efforts strive to advance the development of efficient, safe, and trustworthy human-centric ground transportation solutions, paving the way for the future of mobility.

Junmin Wang is a Professor and holds the Fletcher Stuckey Pratt Chair in Engineering in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2008, he started his academic career at Ohio State University where he was early promoted to Associate Professor in September 2013 and very early promoted to Full Professor in June 2016. In 2018, he left Ohio State University and joined UT Austin as the Accenture Endowed Professor. He also garnered five years of full-time industrial experience at Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio Texas) from 2003 to 2008. Prof. Wang has a wide range of research interests covering control, modeling, estimation, optimization, diagnosis, and AI for dynamical systems, especially automotive, smart and sustainable mobility, robotics, human-centric automation, and cyber-physical system applications. Prof. Wang’s research program has been funded by National Science Foundation (NSF), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Texas Department of Transportation, GM, Ford, Honda, Tenneco, Eaton, MathWorks, Ftech, Denso, and others. Dr. Wang is the author or co-author of more than 400 peer-reviewed publications including 201 journal articles and 13 U.S. patents. He is a recipient of numerous international and national honors and awards including 2024 ASME Charles Stark Draper Innovative Practice Award, 2012 NSF-CAREER Award, 2011 SAE International Vincent Bendix Automotive Electronics Engineering Award, and 2009 ONR Young Investigator Award. Prof. Wang has been honored as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, and the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. He is an SAE Fellow, ASME Fellow, and IEEE Fellow.