USC Professor’s Simulation Software Teaches Systems Engineering Topics

Azad M. Madni spent some 40 years engaged on artificial intelligence and simulation applied sciences that allowed U.S. troopers to soundly prepare for fight operations in digital worlds. Now Madni—a professor of astronautics, aerospace, and mechanical engineering on the University of Southern California—is working to rework engineering schooling. But he hasn’t deserted the world of simulation.

In 2013 the IEEE Life Fellow created the Transdisciplinary Systems Engineering Education (TRASEE) paradigm, wherein professors use simulation software program to show subjects by storytelling and role-playing strategies, permitting college students to use their engineering classes to real-world conditions.

For that and different “pioneering contributions to model-based systems engineering, education, and industrial impact using interdisciplinary approaches,” Madni obtained this 12 months’s IEEE Simon Ramo Medal.

Ramo was a pacesetter in microwave analysis who headed the event of General Electric’s electron microscope. Ramo served as a presidential chair and professor {of electrical} engineering at USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering from 2008 till he died in 2016.

Madni says the award is “the crowning achievement” of his profession as a techniques engineer. It’s notably particular to him, he says, as a result of he and Ramo have been colleagues at USC.

From NASA to instructing at USC

Madni, who grew up in Mumbai, grew to become captivated by the U.S. house program after listening to the 1962 “We choose to go to the moon” speech delivered by John F. Kennedy at Rice University, in Houston. The president’s speech was designed to bolster public help for his proposal to land a person on the moon earlier than 1970.

Madni, who knew he needed to turn out to be an engineer, determined he needed to be a part of the “space adventure,” he says.

He moved to the United States to pursue a bachelor’s diploma in engineering on the University of California, Los Angeles. Finding himself drawn to techniques engineering after taking a UCLA class within the subject, he determined to merge his new curiosity together with his ardour for house.

After graduating in 1968, Madni joined Parsons Corp. in Los Angeles as a full-time techniques engineer and analyst engaged on protection applications. At night time, he took graduate programs at UCLA, and in 1971 he earned his grasp’s diploma in engineering.

He went on to pursue a Ph.D. whereas additionally working full-time at Rockwell International’s house division in Downey, Calif., as a simulation techniques engineer.

At the time, the corporate was the prime contractor for NASA’s house shuttle program. Working on this system was a dream come true, he says.

He developed a model-based evaluation program to just about check the efficiency of the shuttle’s navigation system. He additionally led the creation of a simulation program that analyzed the navigation system’s efficiency beneath totally different high-stress situations. Madni’s model-based strategy lowered the necessity for in depth hardware-in-the-loop testing and consequently lowered prices, he says.

After receiving his Ph.D. in 1978 in engineering techniques with a focus in laptop methodology and AI, he joined Perceptronics in Woodland Hills, Calif., as director of synthetic intelligence and software program analysis, ultimately rising to govt vice chairman and chief expertise officer.

“IEEE is the premier engineering society.”

In 1980 he started engaged on a distributed simulation expertise for the U.S. Army. He led a crew that was designing a program to coach troopers and permit them to finish follow missions in secure, digital environments. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Army sponsored the work.

At the time, the coaching simulators used have been costly to construct, underutilized, and rigid.

Madni says he had two targets for the brand new simulation system: to decrease prices, enhance utilization, and permit army personnel to switch the situations as wanted. The expertise he and his crew developed did simply that.

He later returned to the simulation effort, this time targeted on enhancing it with immersive story-telling strategies. The mission was funded by the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, DARPA, and the U.S. Department of Energy in addition to a number of aerospace and automotive corporations.

Madni modeled the simulations after video video games and films, partaking a number of senses to create extra immersive experiences for customers.

Today the Army makes use of the 2 techniques, known as the “game-based training simulations for part-task training” and the “VR-enabled distributed simulation system for collective training.”

Madni left Perceptronics in 1994 to assist discovered Intelligent Systems Technology, an R&D firm in Los Angeles that makes a speciality of modeling and simulation expertise. He served because the startup’s CEO and CTO till 2009, when he joined the USC school as head of the interdisciplinary techniques architecting and engineering grasp’s diploma program. Madni is the founding director of USC’s Distributed Autonomy and Intelligent Systems Laboratory, which conducts analysis in augmented intelligence, autonomous techniques, cyber-physical-human-systems, and transdisciplinary techniques engineering.

“My father had a passion for education and instilled that same passion in me from a very young age,” he says. “His dream for me was to someday be a faculty member at a prestigious U.S. university. By joining USC, I have fulfilled his dream and have contributed to transforming engineering education for 21st century engineering challenges.”

Life Fellow Azad Madni [middle] proudly shows his IEEE Simon Ramo Medal on the IEEE Honors Ceremony. He is accompanied by IEEE President-Elect Thomas Coughlin [left] and IEEE President Saifur Rahman.Robb Cohen Photography

Teaching techniques engineering by storytelling

It was at USC that Madni developed TRASEE.

Instead of a typical lecture format, college students begin with a brief state of affairs and a technical drawback to resolve. Each member of a bunch is assigned a job. The groups use a digital twin—a digital mannequin—of a machine related to the story to evaluate how properly their efforts are succeeding.

Madni says the strategy helps college students decide up data quicker, acquire management abilities, and be taught to work with others exterior their self-discipline and from different cultures.

“By taking abstract engineering concepts and embedding them in stories, I’m able to communicate the ideas to students much more clearly,” he says.

According to a 2018 research, college students who be taught by role-playing workouts rating 45 p.c larger on checks than these taught by conventional lectures.

Madni has been acknowledged by a number of organizations for creating TRASEE. This 12 months he obtained the National Academy of Engineering’s Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. The prize features a US $500,000 award; Madni donated half of the cash to the NAE and half to USC.

Networking with engineers from totally different disciplines

Madni has been an IEEE member for 46 years. Since 1980 he has held a number of management positions and has introduced papers at IEEE conferences worldwide.

In 2013, he cofounded the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society’s technical committee on model-based techniques engineering and serves as its chair. The committee creates instructional assets, and members are concerned in standardization efforts. Members additionally hosted panel classes on the 2023 International Conference on Systems Engineering Research and introduced analysis papers. As chair, Madni has led a number of collaborative efforts with skilled engineering societies together with International Council on Systems Engineering and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.

Madni can also be an lively volunteer with the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society, the IEEE Computer Society, IEEE-USA, and the IEEE Systems Council.

“IEEE is the premier engineering society,” he says. “It goes well beyond electronics and electrical engineering. It encompasses many disciplines including biomedical engineering, control systems engineering, cybernetics, systems engineering, and engineering management.

“IEEE being multidisciplinary makes it an ideal forum for networking with engineers from different disciplines.”

Madni says he enjoys mentoring aspiring engineering college students and younger professionals working in each academia and trade. He says that is his manner of giving again and he enjoys serving to them to “realize and live their dream as I did.”