Our research is in applied mathematics and control theory and its application to manufacturing systems where the control of events at the molecular scale is key to product quality.

Some specific applications include:

News

  • Center for Continuous mRNA Manufacturing website launched (December 2023)
  • Pavan Inguva receives the 2023 AIChE PD2M Student Award (November 2023)
  • Pavan Inguva is a finalist for the 2023 CAST Directors' Best Student Presentation Award (November 2023)
  • Prof. Joel Paulson is selected for "AIChE 35 under 35" (October 2023)
  • U.S. patent granted on systems and methods for predicting battery life using data from a diagnostic cycle (September 2023)
  • Selecting the appropriate features in battery lifetime predictions published in Joule (September 2023)
  • Learning heterogeneous reaction kinetics from X-ray videos pixel by pixel published in Nature (September 2023)
  • Prabhat Kumar Mishra joins the faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (September 2023)
  • Prof. Braatz receives the John R. Ragazzini Education Award (June 2023)
  • Giacomo Galuppini joins the faculty at the University of Pavia (February 2023)
  • Moo Sun Hong joins the faculty at Seoul National University (February 2023)
  • Moo Sun Hong receives the Outstanding Poster Presentation Award at the Integrated Continuous Biomanufacturing V in Sitges, Spain (October 2022)
  • U.S. patent granted on machine learning-based method for data-driven prediction of lithium-ion battery capacity fade and lifetime (Jan 2022)
  • The cover of Joule highlights the group's research in Bayesian learning for rapid prediction of lithium-ion battery-cycling protocols (December 2021)
  • Moo Sun Hong receives the 2021 AIChE PD2M Award for Excellence in Integrated QbD Practice (November 2021)
  • Moo Sun Hong receives the 2021 AIChE Separations Division Graduate Student Research Award (November 2021)
  • Moo Sun Hong is a finalist for the 2021 CAST Directors' Best Student Presentation Award (November 2021)
  • The cover of CrystEngComm highlights the group's protein crystallization research (October 2021)
  • PETLION software for porous electrode theory-based lithium-ion battery simulations released (September 2021)
  • Qiugang (Jay) Lu joins the faculty at Texas Tech (June 2021)
  • Benben Jiang joins the faculty at Tsinghua University (February 2021)
  • Fridolin Roder joins the faculty at the University of Bayreuth (November 2020)
  • Sergio Lucia accepts full professorship at TU Dortmund as Chair of Process Automation Systems (October 2020)
  • Prof. Joel Paulson and colleagues receive $2M NSF EFRI grant for designing a modular chemical processing system to convert stranded natural gas and carbon dioxide into value-added liquid fuel products (September 2020)
  • Ashlee Ford Versypt joins the University of Buffalo as an associate professor (September 2020)
  • Jouha Min joins the faculty at the University of Michigan (September 2020)
  • Ali Mesbah promoted to associate professor at the University of California Berkeley (August 2020)
  • Richard Lakerveld promoted to associate professor at HKUST (August 2020)
  • Profs. Ali Mesbah and Joel Paulson receive the Application Paper Prize from the International Federation of Automatic Control (July 2020)
  • Dr. Leo H. Chiang receives Control Engineering Practice Award from the American Automatic Control Council (July 2020)
  • Ketan Kumar graduates with MBA and MS in management of biologic drug manufacturing (June 2020)
  • Weike (Vicky) Sun graduates with a PhD in advanced process data analytics (June 2020)
  • Closed-loop optimization of fast-charging protocols for batteries with machine learning published in Nature (February 2020)
  • Prof. Mo Jiang receives $2.5M DOE grant for research in innovative manufacturing processes for battery energy storage (February 2020)
  • Matthias von Andrian graduates with a PhD in fast stochastic model predictive control under parametric uncertainties (January 2020)
  • Prof. Mo Jiang receives NSF grant for a novel continuous reactor design for the precision manufacturing of uniform microparticles for lithium-ion battery electrodes (January 2020)
  • Moo Sun Hong receives the AIChE FP&BE Poster Presentation Award at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Orlando (November 2019)
  • Richard Braatz receives the 2019 AIChE Separations Division Innovation Award which recognizes "outstanding contributions to scientific, technological, or industrial areas involving separations technologies" (November 2019)
  • Prof. Ashlee Ford Versypt receives NIH grant in quantitative systems biomedicine, namely, to develop multiscale computational models for understanding of the mechanisms underlying tissue remodeling and damage (September 2019)
  • Past postdoc Joseph K. Scott joins Georgia Tech as a tenured associate professor (August 2019)
  • The cover of Nature Energy highlights the group's machine learning research (May 2019)
  • MIT will partner with Chromatan and Takeda on de-risking a novel continuous chromatography process for purifying monoclonal antibody drugs (May 2019)
  • The group's battery research is discussed in an issue of Nature (April 2019)
  • Machine learning accurately predicts the useful life of batteries (March 2019)
  • Graduate Ashlee N. Ford Versypt receives the NSF Career Award for research in diabetic kidney disease (February 2019)
  • Richard D. Braatz was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering "for contributions to diagnosis and control of large-scale and molecular processes for materials, microelectronics and pharmaceuticals manufacturing." (February 2019)
  • NIIMBL funds research in Continuous Cell Culture for Viral Vaccines (January 2019)
  • Video highlights research in the discovery and design of molecular additives for advanced polymer (December 2018)
  • Weike Sun and Richard D. Braatz are recipients for the CAST Directors' Award (October 2018)
  • Nicholas J. Mozdzierz starts postdoc at Novartis Basel (October 2018)
  • Weike Sun is a finalist for the 2018 CAST Directors' Best Student Presentation Award (October 2018)
  • FDA funds research in Continuous Viral Vector Manufacturing based on Mechanistic Modeling and Novel Process Analytics (September 2018)
  • Rudiyanto Gunawan starts associate professor position at the University of Buffalo (August 2018)
  • FDA funds research in smart process data analytics (August 2018)
  • Nicholas J. Mozdzierz graduates with a PhD in Chemical Engineering (June 2018)
  • Maria Dominique (Magoo) Rustia graduates with an MS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA and joins McKinsey & Company as an Operations Associate (June 2018)
  • Kristen Severson passes her PhD defense and joins the IBM Innovation Center in Cambridge (April 2018)
  • PhD graduate Joel A. Paulson accepts assistant professor position at Ohio State University (March 2018)
  • Postdoc Yiming Wan starts assistant professor position at Huazhong University of Science and Technology where he will do research in optimal estimation and control theory (March 2018)
  • Richard becomes President of the American Automatic Control Council (January 2018)
  • Kristen Severson is a finalist for the CAST Directors' Student Presentation Award (October 2017)
  • NSF funds research in the discovery and design of additives for control of polymer morphology and performance (August 2017)
  • Past postdoc Ali Mesbah and PhD/postdoc Ashlee Ford Versypt are selected for "AIChE 35 under 35" (August 2017)
  • Joseph K. Scott, Davide M. Raimondo, G. Roberto Marseglia, and Richard D. Braatz receive Automatica Paper Prize for "outstanding contributions to the theory and/or practice of control engineering or control science, documented in a paper published in Automatica" (July 2017)
  • Former postdoc Sergio Lucia accepts junior professor position at Technical University of Berlin where he will do research on the Internet of Things and Smart Buildings (May 2017)
  • TRI funds research in novel data-driven design of Li-ion batteries (April 2017)
  • Gates Foundation funds Grand Challenge for innovation in global vaccine manufacturing (February 2017)
  • PhD graduate Zachary Ulissi starts as an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University (January 2017)
  • White House announces funding of the Process Intensification Manufacturing Institute (December 2016)
  • White House announces funding of the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Institute (December 2016)
  • Mo Jiang receives the AIChE PD2M Student Award at the AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco (November 2016)
  • Former graduate student Leo H. Chiang receives the Computing Practice Award from the AIChE CAST Division (November 2016)
  • Former postdoc Joseph K. Scott receives the W. David Smith, Jr. Graduate Publication Award (November 2016)
  • White House announces funding of the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (June 2016)
  • Joel A. Paulson starts postdoc with Ali Mesbah at the University of California, Berkeley (Summer 2016)
  • Joel A. Paulson selected as a finalist for the CAST Directors' Student Presentation Award for the 2016 AIChE Annual Meeting (May 2016)
  • Lucas Foguth and Jouha Min graduate with PhDs, with Lucas joining the U.S. Navy as an officer and Jouha starting a postdoc at Harvard Medical School (May 2016)
  • The cover of ACS Nano highlights Jouha Min's paper that demonstrates controlled delivery of antibiotic and growth factor in animal experiments using on self-assembled multilayer films (April 2016)
  • Mark Molaro graduates with PhD (January 2016)
  • Kristen Severson, Jeremy VanAntwerp, and collaborators at Biogen are recipients of the 2015 CAST Directors' Award (November 2015)
  • Former graduate student and postdoc Masako Kishida accepts an associate professor position at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, Japan (April 2016)
  • Former postdoc Ali Mesbah receives the W. David Smith, Jr. Graduate Publication Award (November 2015)
  • Benben Jiang starts as associate professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology (September 2015)
  • Former postdoc Stefan Streif accepts full professor position at Technische Universitat Chemnitz (June 2015)
  • Mo Jiang, Michael L. Rasche, and Zachary Ulissi graduate with Ph.D. degrees (May 2015)
  • Former postdoc Stefan Streif joins Technische Universitat Ilmenau as an Assistant Professor (October 2014)
  • Former postdoc Richard Lakerveld joins Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as an Assistant Professor (October 2014)
  • Former graduate student and postdoc Ashlee Ford Versypt joins Oklahoma State University at an Assistant Professor (August 2014)
  • Postdoc Ali Mesbah joins University of California Berkeley as an Assistant Professor (July 2014)
  • Prof. Braatz becomes Senior Editor for Pharmaceutical Engineering for IEEE Life Sciences Letters
  • Lifang Zhou and Xiaoxiang Zhu graduate with Ph.D. degrees
  • Richard D. Braatz will receive the AIChE Computing in Chemical Engineering Award and deliver the CAST Banquet Talk on November 18 at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia
  • Mo Jiang receives 1st Prize for the American Chemical Society's Graduate Student Symposium Award (I&EC Division)
  • Mo Jiang selected as a Baxter Young Investigator
  • Mo Jiang receives the AIChE Process Development Division Student Paper Award for 2014
  • Paper published on mathematical modeling and model-based design of drug-eluting stents
  • Paper published on the design of a dual-purpose polymer-based conformal coating that provides controlled release of an antibiotic followed by active growth factor for orthopedic implant applications
  • Ph.D. student Mo Jiang received the 2013 AAPS (the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists) Graduate Student Symposium Award in Manufacturing Science & Engineering, for his development of design criteria that enable researchers to quickly identify pharmaceutical/solvent combinations that can nucleate crystals within dual-impinging-jet mixers, based on physicochemical properties
  • Prof. Braatz is the recipient of the 2013 AIChE PD2M Award for Outstanding Contribution to QbD for Drug Substance
  • PhD graduate Kwang Ki Kim is one of four finalists for the 2013 CDC Best Student Paper Award for the paper "A Characterization of Solutions for General Copositive Quadratic Lyapunov Inequalities" to be presented on December 11 at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control in Florence, Italy
  • MIT team receives $10.4 million biomanufacturing grant from DARPA
  • Prof. Braatz is the recipient of the 2013 Excellence in Technical Innovation Award from the International Society of Automation
  • Postdoc Joseph K. Scott joined Clemson University as an Assistant Professor (August 2013)
  • Prof. Braatz selected as a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Control Systems Society in 2013
  • Former PhD student and current postdoc Ashlee Ford Versypt is selected as the 2013 Howes Scholar in Computational Science
  • Former postdoc Brahim Benyahia joins the University of Loughborough as a Lecturer (January 2013)
  • Former PhD student and postdoc Masako Kishida joins University of Canterbury as a Lecturer in early 2013
  • Former postdoc Zoltan K. Nagy joins Purdue University as a full Professor in Summer 2012
  • Former postdoc Richard Lakerveld joins Delft University of Technology as an Assistant Professor
  • See the News Archive for older news


"This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Energy (DOE), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Army Research Office (ARO), SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific (U.S. Navy), Gates Foundation, and numerous companies. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the financial sponsors."