Prof Clarence De Silva of University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada

The talk will present a multi-agent mechatronic viewpoint for realizing favorable characteristics in a human community. Specifically, analogies exist between equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in a community, and the corresponding optimal or unique, unified, and integrated characters, respectively, in a multi-agent mechatronic system. Ways to realize the desired EDI in a community, through inspiration from a properly developed model of a multi-agent mechatronic system, in an “intelligent” manner, which possesses the analogous optimal or unique, unified, and integrated characteristics, respectively, will be indicated. The reverse process of realizing a proper multi-agent mechatronic system through inspiration from a well-developed human community is another benefit of the indicated methodology. The end message of the talk is twofold:

1. The realization of a desirable multi-agent mechatronic system can be inspired by the way of achieving equity, diversity, and inclusion in a human community,

2. The realization of equity, diversity, and inclusion in a human community can be modeled through the analogous characteristics of optimal/unique outcome, unified methodology, and integrated treatment in a multi-agent mechatronic system. 

Biography:

Clarence W. de Silva is a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada. He served as a Full Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UBC from 1988 to August 2024. Prior to that, he served as Assistant and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (1978-87), Pittsburgh, USA. He graduated from the University of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) obtaining a B.Sc. Engineering degree with First Class Honors and also receiving the Dr. C. H. Hewavitarana Prize, in the entire class of engineering. After working in the Sri Lankan industry for several years, he went overseas, obtained an MASc degree from University of Toronto, PhD degrees from MIT (in USA) and University of Cambridge, and in 2020, the ScD degree, the so-called “Higher Doctorate,” from University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of: IEEE, ASME, Canadian Academy of Engineering, and Royal Society of Canada. Also, he has been a Senior Canada Research Chair Professor in Mechatronics and Industrial Automation, NSERC-BC Packers Chair Professor in Industrial Automation, Mobil Endowed Chair Professor, Lilly Fellow (USA), Senior Fulbright Fellow (UK), Killam Fellow (UBC), Erskine Fellow (New Zealand), Professorial Fellow (Australia), Faculty Fellow (UBC), Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, and a Peter Wall Scholar (UBC).  He has authored 26 books and over 600 technical papers, with more than half of which being in archival journals. 

Address:University of British Columbia (UBC), , Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada