Dr. M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, has appointed Dr. Reza Langari head of the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution. Langari has served as interim department head since September 2013.
Langari earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked for Measurex Corp., Integrated Systems Inc. and Insight Development Corp., and has held research positions at NASA Ames Research Center, Rockwell International Science Center, United Technologies Research Center, as well as the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. He also was program coordinator for mechanical engineering and interim associate dean for academic affairs at Texas A&M University at Qatar.
Langari's expertise is in the area of computational intelligence with application to mechatronic systems and industrial automation. He has played a significant role in the development of theoretical foundations of fuzzy logic control and its applications to problems in mechanical engineering. His work on stability of fuzzy control systems is widely recognized as pioneering the use of nonlinear systems analysis techniques to fuzzy logic.
Additionally, Langari and his students have developed methodologies for modeling complex systems using fuzzy logic in addition to applying these methods to the control of magnetic bearing systems, hybrid electric vehicles, heavy vehicles and energy management and control systems.
Langari is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He is co-author of two textbooks and co-editor of two more textbooks. He is a dedicated educator who has served as primary adviser and mentor to more than 55 master's and doctoral students.