Principle Investigator

Sze Zheng Yong, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Electrical and Computer Engineering (courtesy)
355 SN
360 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

s.yong@northeastern.edu
Google Scholar link

Sze Zheng Yong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering with a courtesy appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy at Arizona State University, from January 2017 to August 2022. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor under the supervision of Prof. Necmiye Ozay. Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral associate with the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the supervision of Prof. Emilio Frazzoli.

He has obtained a Dipl.-Ing.(FH) degree in automotive engineering with a specialization in mechatronics and control systems from the Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Germany in 2008 and his S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 2010 and 2016, respectively. He was the recipient of a DARPA Young Faculty Award and Top 5% Teaching Award in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering in 2018, NSF CAREER and NASA Early Career Faculty awards in 2020, an ONR Young Investigator Program award in 2022 as well as the George N. Saridis Best Transactions Paper Award of the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles in 2023. His research interests include the broad areas of control, estimation, planning, identification and analysis of uncertain hybrid systems, with applications to autonomous, robotic and cyber-physical dynamic systems and their safety, robustness and resilience.

Research interests

  • Set-theoretic estimation, control, planning, learning and optimization methods for uncertain nonlinear/hybrid systems with partial information under real-world uncertainties
  • Correct-by-design control and estimation algorithms
  • Data-driven and model-based approaches for system abstraction, analysis, and control and estimator synthesis
  • Intention-aware autonomous and multi-agent systems
  • Safe, resilient and secure cyber-physical and robotic systems, including self-driving cars and exoskeletons

Learn more

Awards and Honors

  • 2023: George N. Saridis Best Transactions Paper Award of the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles
  • 2022: ONR Young Investigator Program Award
    Project title: “Distributed Coordination of Autonomous Swarms with Limited or Absent Communication and Intermittent Data”
  • 2020: NASA Early Career Faculty Award
    Project title: “Coordinated Multi-Robot-Chain for Terrain Estimation and Exploration”
  • 2020: NSF CAREER Award
    Project title: “CAREER: Towards Non-Conservative Learning-Aided Robustness for Cyber-Physical Safety and Security”
  • 2018: DARPA Young Faculty Award
  • Project title: “Identification and estimation of swarm intent via partitions of system dynamics”
  • 2018: Fulton Top 5% Teaching Award, Arizona State University
  • 2014: HSCC 2014 – Travel Grant
    To present a poster entitled “Safety hybrid control with intention inference for semi-autonomous cyber-physical transportation systems”
  • 2014: NSF Early Career Professionals Workshop on Exploring New Frontiers in Cyber-Physical Systems – Best Poster Award
    Poster title: “Safety hybrid control with intention inference for semi-autonomous cyber-physical transportation systems”
  • 2008: Behr Award for Best Undergraduate Thesis — Nominee
    Thesis title: “Fault-tolerant control of a diesel engine air system”
  • 2001-2008: Malaysian Public Service Department Scholarship
    Stipend and tuition for undergraduate studies in Germany.
  • 2000: All Round Excellence Award
    Awarded by high school in Malaysia.

Academic Background

I attended elementary through high school in Malaysia. In 2004, I moved to Esslingen, Germany where I obtained my Dipl.-Ing.(FH) degree in Automotive Engineering with a specialization in Mechatronics and Control Systems at the Esslingen University of Applied Sciences. I also participated in a Foreign Student Exchange Program at Kettering University in Flint, MI in 2007. In 2008, I moved to Cambridge, MA where I obtained my Master’s degree at MIT with Prof. Ahmed Ghoniem in the Reacting Gas Dynamics Laboratory. Then, in 2011, I joined the Laboratory of Information and Decision Systems at MIT, where I obtained my Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Prof. Emilio Frazzoli.

Education

  • Jan. 2011 – Feb. 2016:  Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (GPA: 5.0/5.0)
    Laboratory of Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
    Dissertation topic: Control and Estimation of Hidden Mode Hybrid Systems with Applications to Autonomous Systems
    Advisor: Emilio Frazzoli
  • Sept. 2008 – Dec. 2010:  S.M. in Mechanical Engineering (GPA: 4.9/5.0)
    Reacting Gas Dynamics Laboratory at MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
    Thesis topic: Multiphase models of slag layer built-up in solid fuel gasification and combustion
    Advisor: Ahmed Ghoniem
  • Mar. 2004 – Jul. 2008: Dipl.-Ing.(FH) in Automotive Engineering  — Mechatronics and Control Systems (Grade: 1,2/1,0)
    Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Esslingen, Germany.
    Thesis topic: Fault-tolerant control of a diesel engine air system (in German:Fehlertolerante Regelung eines Diesel-Luftsystems)
    Advisor: Rainer Nitsche
  • Mar. 2007 – Aug. 2007:  Foreign Student Exchange Program (GPA:4.0/4.0)
    Kettering University in Flint, MI, USA.
  • Mar. 2001 – Jun. 2003:  Advanced Level — London Examinations General Certificate of Education (Grade:99/100)
    MARA University of Technology in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.

Research Experience

  • Aug. 2022 – Present: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
    • Associate Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
  • Jan. 2017 – Aug. 2022: School for Engineering of Matter, Transport & Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
    • Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
    • Graduate Faculty, Electrical Engineering
    • Honors Faculty, Barrett, The Honors College
  • Jul. 2016 – Dec. 2016:  Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
    Postdoctoral research with Prof. Necmiye Ozay
    • Developed discrete state estimation methods for system diagnosis with persistent sensor faults
    • Designed tractable optimization-based passive and active model discrimination algorithms with applications to intention-aware vehicles and fraud detection.
  • Feb. 2011 – Jun. 2016: Laboratory of Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
    Ph.D. work with Prof. Emilio Frazzoli; Collaborated with Prof. Minghui Zhu, Prof. Ricardo Sanfelice, Brian Paden, Erich Mueller and Ming Qing Foo
    • Mode estimation of hidden mode hybrid systems with unknown inputs; applied to resilient state estimation of power systems and intention inference in transportation systems
    • Simultaneous input and state estimation ⇔ strong detectability
    • Hidden mode tracking control with input constraints
    • Optimal control of Dubins vehicle on heterogeneous terrain
    • Flatness based tracking control of LTI discrete-time systems
    • Anytime algorithms for ordered differential games
  • Sep. 2008 – Dec. 2010: Reacting Gas Dynamics Laboratory at MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
    Master’s work with Prof. Ahmed Ghoniem; Collaborated with Lei Chen
    • Flow and heat transfer models of slag layer built-up on coal combustor and gasifier walls
  • Feb. 2008 – Jun. 2008: Control Theory Group at Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart-Schwieberdingen, Germany.
    Bachelor’s work with Dr. Rainer Nitsche
    • Real-time fault detection and diagnosis of EGR valve jam in a diesel air system
    • Fault-tolerant control using redundant actuators
  • Sep. 2006 – Mar. 2007: Group Research & Advanced Engineering Powertrain at Daimler AG, Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, Germany.
    Internship work with Dr. Pedro Macri-Lassus
    • Real-time implementation of a pressure estimator in an engine combustion chamber

Professional Experience

  • Jun. 2007 – Aug. 2007: Intern at the Connecting Rod and Piston R&D Department at MAHLE Powertrain LLC., Farmington Hills, MI, USA.
  • May 2006 – Oct. 2006: Student trainee at the Catalog Parts Design Department at Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart-Feuerbach, Germany.
  • Jun. 2006 – Jul. 2006: Commentary Assistant with Host Broadcasting Services during 2006 FIFA World Cup, Stuttgart, Germany.
  • Mar. 2005 – Sep. 2005: Intern at the Mechanical Design Department at Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart-Feuerbach, Germany.