News

A ceremonial meeting of the Scientific Council of the Czech Technical University in Prague will be held at the Bethlehem Chapel on 29 January at 10.00 am, where prof. Nejat Olgac will receive the honorary title Doktor honoris causa.

The honorary title Doctor Honoris Causa of the Czech Technical University in Prague is awarded to Professor Nejat Olgac in recognition of his substantial contribution to the development of automatic control of mechanical systems, production machines and robots (especially with time delay), in cooperation with CTU. This title also recognizes his support for the development of quality engineering education and academic research at CTU and for strengthening the mutual relationships between universities in the USA and CTU.

Nejat Olgac is a worldrenowned  scientist  in  the field of dynamic systems with time delay. He is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Connecticut, USA.

Nejat Olgac studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Istanbul and graduated in 1972. He went on to earn a Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York, USA under a scholarship from the Ford Foundation. He defended a  dissertation  linking  optimal control and a practical environmental application to the topic „Stochastic Optimal Control Problems Related to Artificial River Aeration Systems“. He then returned to Turkey and held a number of leading positions in the machinery industry. In 1978, he left for the USA and began his academic career at the University of Connecticut, USA. His focus was on robotics and machine tools. At the University of Connecticut he has established a laboratory of robotics and production machines called ALARM. He has researched optimal robot control associated with the practical application of energy efficiency of underwater robots in rescue operations. This brought him to the IFToMM World Congress, where he met Michael Valášek from CTU FME, who was working with energy optimal control of industrial robots. Because of this common interest Professor Olgac visited Prague and CTU for the first time during his sabbatical stay in France. In his ALARM laboratory he was primarily concerned with improving robot control, for which he improved sliding mode control. Several of his graduates there came from CTU FME and went on to Brooks Automation, a company manufacturing robots for chip production. At the same time, he began to work with dynamic systems with time delay. He came up with the concept of a delay resonator, a delayed vibration absorber. This topic has led him to the control of vibrations of mechanical systems in practical applications and to the problem of unambiguous stability assessment of systems with time delay. During this time, he repeatedly visited CTU and invited CTU staff and students to the USA. In 2002 the breakthrough came with the method and proof of an exact assessment of the stability of dynamic systems with time delay. This was a very difficult problem that had lacked a solution for a long time. He has developed and improved his method of Cluster Treatment of Characteristic Roots several times, and has become a world-renowned expert in dynamic systems with time delay.

Nejat Olgac has 125 papers in impact journals and 151 conference papers with 2107 citations, 4 patents, and Hindex 30 in WOS. He is the editor of many journals and organizer of many IEEE and ASME conferences.

If you are interested in attending the ceremonial meeting of the Scientific Council of the Czech Technical University in Prague, you must register your participation at: Ivana.Kinkalova@cvut.cz