Mathematical Modeling and Simulation: Seminar and Panel Discussion at UCLA

On Thursday, May 5, UCLA Electrical Engineering and MathWorks co-hosted a seminar and panel discussion at UCLA, which brought together faculty, staff, researchers, and students with a select group of industry leaders from the Los Angeles area for an informative and interactive program. The panel included a senior MathWorks engineer and senior industry panelists, who showcased their work involving mathematical modeling and simulation employing MATLAB & Simulink.

Mathematical models are an essential tool to explore and understand the behavior of complex systems. They enable important tasks such as simulating and optimizing system design, forecasting system behaviors for various “what if” scenarios, and designing control systems. This event provided an overview of how mathematical modeling is currently used in industry, touching upon various computational tools used to solve challenging problems in different areas.

Mr. Tom McHugh, Senior Account Manager, MathWorks, welcomed the group; and Prof. Gregory Pottie, Chair, Electrical Engineering Department, UCLA, provided an overview of several activities and initiatives within the Department.

Mr. Sumit Tandon Senior Application Engineer, MathWorks, presented an overview of mathematical modeling with MATLAB and Simulink.

Four industry experts described how they use MathWorks tools in their projects:

  • The Boeing Company, Stephen Koffman, PhD, Senior Controls Analyst
  • Medtronic, Inc., Diana Miller, Model Based Testing Test Lead, and Shawn Coumbe, Director, Software Engineering
  • Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc., Xiaoqing Jin, PhD, Senior Research Engineer
  • Tri-Alpha Energy, Inc., Nikolaus Rath, PhD, Senior Scientist, and Mikhail Slepchenkov, PhD, Lead Electrical Engineer

The industry experts then participated in a panel on ‘Mathematical Modeling in Industry: Trends and Directions’, which was moderated by Giampiero Campa, PhD, Senior Technical Evangelist, MathWorks.

The event concluded with a lunch and reception that encouraged further networking and conversation.