New professor will strengthen engineering research

                                                       10-10-94

NEW PROFESSOR STRENGTHENS OHIO STATE'S ENGINEERING RESEARCH

     COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio State University's leadership in
the emerging field of electromechanics was strengthened this fall
when Vadim I. Utkin joined the faculty of the College of
Engineering.

     Utkin has been recommended for appointment to the Ford Motor
Company Chair in Electromechanical Systems.  He will be the first
holder of this chair, which was funded by a gift from the
automaker.

     Utkin, 56, previously headed the Discontinuous Control
Systems Laboratory of the Institute of Control Sciences in
Moscow, where he received his doctorate in 1971.

     Electromechanics, a blend of the traditional disciplines of
electrical and mechanical engineering, is vital to improvements
in the design, operation and control of machinery and vehicles.

     Utkin was introduced to the university community during a
series of activities Oct. 10, including a lecture and a tour of
Ohio State's Center for Automotive Research.  Officials from Ford
Motor Company joined the welcoming activities.

     John P. McTague, vice president - Technical Affairs for Ford
Motor Company in Dearborn, said that Utkin's appointment to the
Ford Chair "is the culmination of a shared vision between Ford
and Ohio State."

     "A number of years ago, we recognized that the fields of
electrical engineering and mechanical engineering were merging as
the power of microprocessors became available to control many
mechanical processes," McTague said.

     "This merging required that we re-think our approach to
training engineers and administering research projects, so that
the power of both the mechanical and electrical disciplines could
be more sharply focused.

     "The result of this shared vision and the longstanding
association between Ford and Ohio State was the creation of the
Ford Chair in Electromechanical Systems.  We are honored to have
that chair filled by one of the world's foremost authorities on
controls and robotics.  We congratulate Dr. Utkin and look
forward to a close relationship with him as he continues to
pioneer in the field of electromechanical engineering."

     Jose B. Cruz Jr., dean of Ohio State's College of
Engineering, has known Utkin since the mid-1970s when Utkin was
at the University of Illinois as a visiting professor and Cruz
was on the faculty there.  They also have worked together in
activities of the International Federation of Automatic Control.

     "He is truly an outstanding engineer and scientist and a
very warm person," Cruz said.  "I am very excited about his
coming to Ohio State through the assistance of a Ford Motor
Company endowment in electromechanical systems."

     Utkin is a visiting scholar in the College of Engineering
until the university's Board of Trustees approves his appointment
to the Ford Chair.

     A recipient of the Lenin Prize in 1972, Utkin is a pioneer
in the sliding mode control technique.  According to Utkin, it is
better to design a control which has the same properties for
different environmental conditions.  Sliding mode control
provides low sensitivity to variations of environment.

     In addition, he has worked with industry and government on
the practical implementation of modern servo-control techniques,
in which output variables are sensed directly in machines and
compared to the commanded values the machines are supposed to be
doing.  Utkin has worked on these techniques to develop control
applications in manufacturing, process control, and vehicle
control.

     Electromechanics at Ohio State draws its strength from the
university's two highly ranked departments of Mechanical
Engineering and Electrical Engineering and from more than $10
million in endowed funds, the income from which is specifically
dedicated to research on automobiles and related subjects.  This
is the largest university endowment portfolio devoted to
transportation research in the country.  In addition, an honors
program for automotive engineering students has been singled out
as one of the best in the nation.

     The departments of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical
Engineering together educate about 1,500 undergraduate students
and about 400 graduate students.

     Ford Motor Company's gift to create the Ford Chair is part
of a long history of involvement with Ohio State.  Ford
traditionally recruits at the university and now has nearly 500
Ohio State graduates among its management and technical
employees.

     Ohio is known informally as Ford's "second home," with major
manufacturing and assembly facilities in Lorain, Avon Lake, Brook
Park, Walton Hills, Maumee, Lima, Sharonville, Batavia and
Sandusky.  Ford has more than 24,000 employees in Ohio.

                                #

Contact:  Steve Sterrett, director of news services for Ohio
State, at (614) 292-8472, and Jerree Martin, Ford Public Affairs,
at (313) 322-1300.

Please note that Vadim Utkin's name is pronounced as Vah-DEEM
WOODT-kin.


[Submitted by: STERRETT  (sterrett@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Tue, 11 Oct 1994 08:59:08 -0500 (EST)]
All documents are the responsibility of their originator.